The California Emperor (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Emperor of California |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1936 |
| length | 97 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Luis Trenker |
| script | Luis Trenker |
| production | Luis Trenker |
| music | Giuseppe Becce |
| camera |
Albert Benitz Heinz von Jaworsky (b / w) |
| cut |
Willy Zeyn Rudolf Schaad |
| occupation | |
| |
Der Kaiser von California is a romanticizing and dramatic biography of the settler Johann August Sutter , based on the novel Gold by Blaise Cendrars , made in 1935 and 1936 in Germany and at several film locations in the USA ( Arizona , California and Nevada ) , an early western , directed by Luis Trenker . It was shown in German cinemas on July 21, 1936.
action
Johann August Sutter lives as a printer in southern Germany . His political stance aroused the displeasure of the state police, so that he fled to America without his family in May 1836; a mysterious stranger convinced him to make his fortune there. There he turns to the west, where he wants to reclaim untouched, fertile land. After a forced march with only two companions, he reached the banks of the Sacramento , where he founded New Helvetia and achieved success. One of his people, John Marshall, who runs a sawmill, finds gold in 1848; a find that leads to a gold rush . His fields are trampled, his cattle die; his two sons, who have since moved with their mother, die in the battle for gold.
Sutter has legitimately acquired land on which gold was found from the Mexican government; however, its ownership has been questioned by the American authorities now ruling the area. During the birthday party of the city of San Francisco , the verdict is announced for Sutter, who now reclaims all gold finds in the area. The unwillingness to do so creates an uproar that sets Sutter's property up in flames.
Ten years later, Sutter meets the stranger at the Capitol , who shows him modern America in a vision. Sutter dies on the steps of the Capitol.
Reviews
“Despite the German western flood of the 1960s, the Kaiser von California remained one of the best German westerns: the rhythm and realism of the trip to California, the crowd scenes during the construction of Nova Helvetia and the scenes on the gold fields are all comparable German and even most American productions were way ahead of their time. "
“Luis Trenker film that mixes adventure drama with pathos and sentimentality; well photographed. "
Remarks
The film won the Coppa Mussolini for the best foreign film at the Venice Film Festival in 1936 .
The exterior shots were taken in Arizona, Nevada, California and Texas; the crowd scenes in the Livorno area of Italy.
For the actor Friedrich Gnaß , the trip to the filming in America had serious consequences. On the way back to Germany by ship, he is said to have uttered wild threats against Adolf Hitler while he was drunk . The colleagues present at the scandal did not denounce him, but Gnaß's curses were known at home in Berlin and the actor was sentenced to prison in the autumn of 1936. The scenes filmed with Gnaß were removed from the finished film.
In 1961 a novel by the main actor Luis Trenker was published, just like the film.
See also
literature
- Franz A. Birgel: Luis Trenker. A Rebel in the Third Reich? The Rebel, The Prodigal Son, The California Emperor, Condottieri, and The Fire Devil . In: Robert C. Reimer (Ed.): Cultural History through a National Socialist Lens: Essays on the Cinema in the Third Reich . Rochester, NY 2000, pp. 37-64.
- Tobias Hochscherf: "A battle won in the peaceful competition of film nations". Luis Trenker's Der Kaiser von California (1936) and Goebbels' Dream of Hollywood . In: Filmblatt, Volume 17, No. 48, Spring 2012, ISSN 1433-2051 , pp. 17–32.
- Tobias Hochscherf: Nazis on the Ranch? Revisiting the Popolar German Western Der Kaiser von California (1936) and the International Aspirations of Third Reich Cinema . In: Post Script: Essays in Film and the Humanities, No. 2, 2010, pp. 32–51.
Web links
- The Emperor of California in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Emperor of California at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Joe Hembus : Western Lexicon: 1567 films from 1894 to today . Heyne, Munich, 3rd edition, 1995, ISBN 3-453-08121-8 , pp. 349-350
- ↑ The Emperor of California. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ The film at comingsoon
- ↑ according to the film archive Kay Less