The Captain von Köpenick (1931)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The captain of Koepenick |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1931 |
| length | 85 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Richard Oswald |
| script |
Carl Zuckmayer Albrecht Joseph |
| production | Richard Oswald Gabriel Pascal |
| camera | Ewald Daub |
| cut | Max Brenner |
| occupation | |
| |
The Captain von Köpenick is a German feature film based on the play of the same name by Carl Zuckmayer . The director was Richard Oswald , the title role was taken on by Max Adalbert . The world premiere took place on December 22, 1931.
action
After 23 years in prison, the shoemaker Wilhelm Voigt is released. In the new freedom he tries to find work and wants to start a bourgeois existence. But without a pass there is no work and without work there is no pass. Pretty soon Voigt finds himself in the hamster wheel of bureaucracy. Nobody in the civil service feels responsible for him, and so Wilhelm Voigt takes his fate into his own hands in a familiar way: He breaks into a police station to get the urgently needed papers. He is caught red-handed and sentenced to another ten years in prison.
In the prison's own library he mainly reads literature on military subjects: Prussian drill regulations and field service regulations . The prison director supports his prisoner in his goings-on, as he is delighted by his prisoner's interest in everything military. Released again, Voigt wants to build his life again with honest work, but he still does not get the required passport. Now it coming his last acquired knowledge of uniforms and ranks benefits. He buys a disused captain's uniform from a second-hand dealer, puts it on at the Silesian railway station and unceremoniously brings a dozen guards and a private under his command. With this small group, Voigt drives to the Berlin suburb of Köpenick . There he takes the town hall, almost in a flick, arrests the mayor and city treasurer, who is perplexed but not worried about the captain's uniform, and confiscates the community treasury.
The wrong captain finally has the prisoners taken to the Neue Wache and immediately disappears. However, he still does not have a passport, as there is no passport department in the town hall in Köpenick. In the coming days the press will be full of reports about this amusing prank, even the emperor is enjoying himself like a king. After a short stay in prison, Schuster Voigt, who has turned himself in, is finally pardoned by the monarch. And he finally gets a passport too.
Production notes
The film is not the first production to deal with the events of Captain von Köpenick in 1906, but it is the first adaptation of the play of the same name by Carl Zuckmayer .
The film was shot in downtown Berlin and in the town hall of Berlin-Köpenick .
Max Adalbert repeated the role of his life with which he had made theater history shortly before.
The film buildings, which allow a credible insight into the service rooms and living spaces of the imperial era, come from Franz Schroedter .
The film received the rating "Artistic".
The film also ran in Denmark , France and the USA by January 1933 .
Reviews
The film was praised by contemporary critics. Hans Feld wrote in 1931:
“Actors in the ensemble and yet outstanding in their unconditional simplicity, that's how Max Adalbert plays the Voigt. This shoemaker is touchingly simple-minded. One who life has ruined; and who has not lost the quiet humor, the kindness in the corner of his eye. [...] We laughed, laughed; all. And afterwards we were doubly glad that, while the cheerfulness was unleashed, one did not have to forget the occasion for laughter. This is a piece for the people, a piece from the people: Zuckmayer's 'Captain von Köpenick'. And Adalbert gives it shape and life. "
Regarding Max Adalbert's interpretation of the shoemaker Voigt, it says in Das Großes Personenlexikon des Films :
"He achieved his greatest and most poignant acting performance on stage in 1931 with the character study of 'Captain von Köpenick', whom he was to play in the film that same year and portrayed as a desperate victim in the machinery of Prussian bureaucratic arbitrariness."
Regarding Richard Oswald's directorial work, in 'In life more is taken from you than given ...':
"His adaptation of Carl Zuckmayer's drama 'Der Hauptmann von Köpenick' with an excellent Max Adalbert in his best (tragic) role was Oswald's last important film."
In the Lexicon of International Films , this version of the film is recognized as follows:
“The biting satirical film adaptation of the play by Carl Zuckmayer shows the sad hero as a deplorable product of the narrow-minded bureaucracy and the militarism of Wilhelmine society. A film of touching humanity and with a strong atmosphere. "
The comparison between the Rühmann and Adalbert versions 25 years earlier was in favor of Richard Oswald's production:
“Carl Zuckmayer's story of the previously convicted shoemaker Wilhelm Voigt, who in the uniform of a captain tries to defy the bureaucratic obstacles to obtaining a passport, in a human-comedic film version tailored entirely to the main actor. But the film adaptation by Richard Oswald, 1931, was better. "
Remake
While in exile in America, Oswald filmed the story of Captain von Köpenick again in English in 1941 with Albert Bassermann in the title role. The artistically high quality, but largely unnoticed remake under the title I Was a Criminal was only premiered in 1945.
In 1956 Helmut Käutner filmed the material again with Heinz Rühmann in the role of the cobbler Wilhelm Voigt.
Rainer Wolffhardt staged a version for ARD in 1960 with Rudolf Platte as Wilhelm Voigt.
In 1997 , Frank Beyer made a television film with Harald Juhnke in the role of the shoemaker Wilhelm Voigt.
Web links
- The Captain of Koepenick in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The captain of Köpenick at filmportal.de
- The captain von Köpenick in deutsche-kinemathek.de
literature
- Carl Zuckmayer : The captain of Koepenick. Plays 1929–1937. In: Collected works in individual volumes. Cassette 2. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-10-096539-6 .
- Fred Gehler The captain of Köpenick . In Günther Dahlke, Günther Karl (Hrsg.): German feature films from the beginnings to 1933. A film guide. Henschel Verlag, 2nd edition, Berlin 1993, p. 288 f. ISBN 3-89487-009-5
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Captain von Koepenick. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 26, 2016 .