The Battle of the Tertia (1928)

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Movie
Original title The battle of the tertia
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1928
length 92 minutes
Rod
Director Max Mack
script Axel Eggebrecht
Max Mack
production Terra film, Berlin
music Giuseppe Becce
camera Emil Schünemann
occupation

The Battle of the Tertia is a German youth film from 1928 by Max Mack . Ilse Stobrawa , Gustl Gstettenbaur and Max Schreck play the leading roles . The story is based on the novel of the same name (1927) by Wilhelm Speyer .

action

The action takes place on a wadden island in the North Sea and in the adjacent, small northern German mainland coastal town of Boestrum. The Tertia on the Hallig with its sports-loving, lively and very lively boys is the focus of the action. The only girl in the class is resolute Daniela, a wiry Amazon who is perfect with a bow and arrow and who has become the spokeswoman for the boys with her firm and boyish manner. She is not involved in any adventure or venture, however wild, and has earned the respect, sometimes even the fear of her classmates. One day Daniela, who is angry because she (as a girl) was not elected "chief" by her classmates despite her full commitment in all matters, overshoots the bow, so that she is rejected by the boys of the Tertia. Visibly affected, Daniela withdraws from the tertia and barricades herself in a barbed wire-fenced sand castle. When the Boestrum city council makes a brutal decision, the indignant Tertians all get together and attack. They take up the fight against the authorities and the Boestrum city boys who support them.

Because the city councilor Benno Biersack intends, for not entirely altruistic motives, to deal with an alleged cat plague. Biersack wants nothing less than to kill all Felidae and process their skins. The fight against rabies is mentioned as the motive put forward. The cat hater offers 20 pfennigs for every velvet paw delivered. The indignant Tertians decide to launch a counter-campaign. At night they sneak into Boestrum and paint on the walls the request “Be good to the animals!” A student is arrested by a constable, but his classmates can soon free him again. In addition, the Tertians began to systematically collect the cats in order to save them from violent death. Finally, the Tertians hijack Biersack's ship and take the city representative prisoner. All of a sudden, rival high school students from the town show up because they don't want to do without the cat catch money. There is a wild brawl between the two school classes, which is only decided when Daniela throws herself into the fray with her two huge mastiffs and her courage and the city schoolchildren then flee. The fight of the Tertia culminates in a protest in front of the town hall, whereby the council decision is withdrawn.

Production notes

The battle of the Tertia originated in autumn 1928 on the North Sea and in the Wadden Sea (Hallig Südpfahl) and in Friedrichstadt on the Eider. The studio recordings were made in Berlin. In the face of severe storms and floods, director Mack could only shoot about an hour or two a day for eight weeks. The film premiered on January 18, 1929 in the Mozart Hall in Berlin. As the LichtBildBühne reported in its edition of February 2, 1929, the film was a great box-office success, the screenings were always sold out at that time and the Terra-Lichtspiele in Berlin had to schedule four screenings a day for the first time.

Rudolf Strobl took over the recording management. Hans Jacoby designed the film buildings. Alexander von Lagorio and Leon Malachowski were responsible for the optical special effects (Lagorio the combination shots, Malachowski the cartoons).

The novel by Wilhelm Speyer was filmed again in 1952 under the direction of Erik Ode ( Der Kampf der Tertia (1952) ).

Reviews

The contemporary criticism, like those after 1945, found predominantly words of praise for Max Mack's late work. Here are a few examples:

“Get out of the routine, that was the first requirement. This break with the past was a complete success. It is all the more to be recognized as Max Mack, pioneer of German film, has apparently finally dared to fully commit to the film of tomorrow. It is difficult to jump over the shadow of one's own past. "

"Axel Eggebrecht ... has learned from the mistakes and errors of the manuscript on the" Republic of Backfish ". No more boarding school hype has broken out here, but rather a truly youthful world is represented by the decided renunciation of any conventional film plot, which he and the director Max Mack have decided: an excellent basis for the simple and clear development of the processes. "

“Not a novel has been filmed here. A very capable director was inspired by the same atmosphere, the same wealth of experience, the same collective as Speyer in his happy book. (...) There was a lot of spontaneous applause. Everyone deserves it, but especially the able boy who stepped in front of the curtain as Borst. He has been a loyal helper to his director and a keen reader of the poet. "

Siegfried Kracauer wrote in his standard work Von Caligari bis Hitler in 1947 that the film showed “a sensitive understanding of prepubescent feelings”.

Decades later, on the occasion of the re-release of this film (1990), one could read the following: “In this more than half a century old school film,… the clever use of propagandistic means to influence public opinion seems almost modern. Not until 1968 or 1991, but as early as the 1920s, which was marked by political extremism, schoolchildren took to the streets, wrote graffiti or used notices and appeals for donations to draw attention to their concerns. For many of today's viewers, the hectic gesticulations of the laypeople and the pathetic play of the professional performers should seem quite exalted. Nevertheless, this early animal rights film is still worth seeing today, not least because of its decisive commitment to the right of animals to exist. Some of the weaknesses in the narrative style, which in the eyes of an audience weaned from silent film sometimes seem cumbersome, are amply compensated for by a few directorial flashes. "

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans Feld in Film-Kurier, Berlin, No. 18 from January 19, 1929
  2. ^ Fritz Walter in Börsen-Courier, No. 33 of January 20, 1929
  3. ^ Walter Benjamin in Literary World, Berlin 5th year, No. 5 of February 1, 1929, p. 8
  4. ↑ The Struggle of Tertia on Children's Youth Film Correspondence

Web links