The man who sells

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Movie
Original title The man who sells
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1925
length 68 minutes
Age rating FSK youth ban
Rod
Director Hans Steinhoff
script Max Glass
Hans Steinhoff
music Alexander Schirmann
(at the world premiere)
camera Alfred Hansen
occupation

The Man Who Sells is a German silent film from 1925 directed by Hans Steinhoff . The main roles are occupied by Olaf Fjord , Nora Gregor , Hans Mierendorff and Vivian Gibson .

The film is based on the novel of the same name by Hans Schulze, which was published in the Berliner Morgenpost at the time .

action

The actress Marion de L'Orme visits the racecourse at the side of the industrialist Jan Bracca, where the crowd looks forward to the main race with the favorite Maximum in feverish anticipation. The precious animal belongs to Achim von Wehrstädt, who was once in a relationship with Marion. For von Wehrstädt it is a disaster when his horse loses the race because he had bet all his money on victory. When Achim meets Marion, she makes him a strange proposal. Since she would like to be a wife instead of a lover for a change, but Bracca is married, Achim is supposed to provide him with a reason for divorce, since Jan's wife Daisy would not voluntarily agree to a separation. Achim is supposed to seduce her, for which he will be rewarded accordingly. In view of his financial situation, von Wehrstädt accepts this. When he meets Daisy, he is captivated by her charm and her loving care. He is also enthusiastic about how she treats her daughter. His adoration for this real lady becomes love, which Daisy reciprocates.

So he asks Bracca to let him get out of the contract, even though he has already received a deposit of 100,000 marks. However, the banker refuses to give his consent and, on the contrary, offers him an even higher check. One separates in impotent anger. Von Wehrstädt then wanders aimlessly through the city and ends up in a casino in his seemingly hopeless location. There he wins a sum that corresponds exactly to what Bracca had offered him with his check.

When the banker was found shot the next morning, von Wehrstädt was arrested as the main suspect. In order not to expose Daisy, Achim remains silent, although he has an alibi by which he could prove his innocence. Luckily for him, Count Harden, who is in love with Daisy's girlfriend Eva and is certain that Achim has nothing to do with the matter, carries out further investigations on his own. The responsible police inspector, on the other hand, sees the case with Achim as the perpetrator as already resolved, which he wants to prove based on a chain of circumstantial evidence. However, Count Harden finds and presents the real killer. Achim's chauffeur, who was fired by him after his financial fiasco, wanted to accuse his former boss of a murder that he himself committed for very low motives.

Production notes

The shooting of the film took place in June / July 1925. The studio recordings were shot in the Terra studios, the exterior recordings were made on the Hoppegarten horse racing track in Berlin . The production company was Terra Film AG (Berlin), which also operated the first distribution. The recording manager was Hans Hofmann. The buildings were created and supervised by Robert Neppach .

The film originally had a length of 6 acts of 2,202 m (81 minutes) and was subject to a "youth ban" in an examination on September 21, 1925, B.11321. The reconstructed version, created by the Federal Archives in Berlin, has a length of 1,865 m, running time 68 minutes at 24 frames per second. The reconstructed version of the film was created as part of a research project supported by the British Arts and Humanities Research Board, which looked at the work of Hans Steinhoff. The version for the English market, acquired by the Stoll Film Company in 1926, is around 400 meters shorter than the German censored version. Even if the copy that has survived shows signs of wear and tear, especially with regard to the racetrack sequence, it has obviously been shortened in order to simulate more action. The German subtitles have also not been completely adopted in the English version. The scene that shows Achim von Wehrstädt's arrest and a longer shot of him walking through the streets of the city after an argument with Bracca up to his visit to the casino has also been omitted. There are also many scenes missing that document Count Harden and Eva's love affair.

The first performance was The Man Who Sells himself on October 23, 1925 in the Ufa -Theater Friedrichstrasse in Berlin. In Vienna the film was shown for the first time on February 5, 1926 in the Carinthian cinema and two other cinemas.

criticism

Horst Claus explains in his critical reception in Filmblatt No. 5 of the Federal Archives: “The melodrama with a criminal act played in upper middle class and aristocratic circles is a prime example of solidly made, popular, financially successful entertainment goods of German origin in the twenties. As such, depending on the attitude of the individual reviewer towards this form of cinema distraction, the film is either appreciated or criticized. "

In the Berliner Herold of November 8, 1925, one could read at the time: “Recently, 'The man who sells himself' has also been given to the audience who loved the novel in film images. Yes, and here it may have gained even more effectiveness. The favorable reception in the auditorium once again proved the successful filming. Kastner and Fjord, as well as the fascinating Vivien Gibson, do mimic perfection. ”The critic of the trade journal Der Film of October 25, 1925 shared this opinion:“ An excellent ensemble under the tight and careful direction of Hans Steinhoff is at work to make the film , which evades all the trivialities of the films of this genre, to help achieve great success. ” The cinematographer of November 1, 1925 also came across this horn:“ Hans Steinhoff translated this grateful material into an exciting and always interesting pictorial plot and all of that nice ideas and above all speed, so that there was no dead point in the whole scene management. "

However, there were also disqualifying reviews: For example, in the Berlin Börsen-Courier of October 25, 1925, it was read that Steinhoff did not penetrate the subject matter and that the “rigid images” had not been developed into cinematic scenes. The performances of the actors Olaf Fjord, Hans Mierendorff and Bruno Kastner were described with the term stiff play . The Berliner Tageblatt was of the opinion that instead of a film drama, only a "criminal mystery" had been shot. The Film-Kurier of October 24, 1925 was torn and found: “Steinhoff's work shows the work of the experienced veteran, who visibly strives to raise the film above the average through clever directing ideas. On the whole, that succeeded, even if it seems somewhat slow and stereotyped. " Vorwärts , the SPD party newspaper of October 25, 1925, focused on the" careful photography "of the cameraman Alfred Hansen and wrote:" In the gaming table scene, where he only lets his hands become visible on an illuminated plate, and in the scenes where he illustrates the murder through the newspaper content, he even comes out with new ideas. "

The Terra Film was certified as having a clever marketing strategy that contributed to the film's success. The Lichtbild-Bühne reported on the premiere in Frankfurt am Main, where the film had premiered parallel to the publication of the novel in the Frankfurter General-Anzeiger : “The hundreds of people who had to turn back at the box office on the premiere day proved that the film was used at the right time. I should like to say about the film itself that once you have read the novel, you are not disappointed with it. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The man who sells himself at the Murnau Foundation
  2. ↑ a b c d e Horst Claus: The man who sells himself Das Bundesarchiv, Filmblatt 5 at bundesarchiv.de