The Muzzle (1938)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The muzzle |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1938 |
| length | 100 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Erich Engel |
| script | Heinrich Spoerl |
| production |
Karl Julius Fritzsche for Tobis Magna |
| music | Peter Kreuder |
| camera | Reimar Kuntze |
| cut | Alice Ludwig |
| occupation | |
| |
The Muzzle is a comedy by Erich Engel from 1938. It is the first of five film adaptations to date of the novel The Muzzle by Heinrich Spoerl , which had appeared two years earlier.
action
In a small Rhenish town during the imperial era, the residents are outraged by their sovereign. He gave a speech that will be printed in the local leaflet. Among other things, the sovereign went harshly to court with his critics: “I like to listen to my advisers. But for better knowledge and stinkers I only have the big Goethe word ", so it is printed in the newspaper and especially the" big Goethe word "causes displeasure at the regulars 'table in Mrs. Tigges' pub. The public prosecutor von Traskow, who gets drunk during the evening and is the last to leave the pub with his dog, is also sitting there. The next morning, the sovereign's monument wears a muzzle .
This criminal case is transferred to the hungover public prosecutor von Traskow, investigations are underway for libel of majesty , tips are rewarded with 300 marks. Soon an involuntary witness is found in the young painter Rabanus who observed the crime. To an officer he gives an exact description of the perpetrator, which he however reverses to von Traskow after an outburst of cheerfulness. Because none other than the public prosecutor personally had been busy with the memorial that night while drunk. The public prosecutor's family has long since understood this fact and has covered the tracks - and Rabanus falls in love with von Traskow's daughter Trude. The prosecutor has no idea of this. After an anonymous call from Rabanus at the guard, the reward is increased from 300 to 3000 marks. Rabanus, who is now ready to do anything to save the honor of Traskows, persuades a friend at a carnival party to pretend to be the perpetrator. In front of the summoned police, however, he denies any guilt, so that in the end Rabanus is arrested for inciting false testimony, especially since his statements to the contrary make him appear suspicious at the first interrogation.
When a lady appears at the station and claims to have seen that the perpetrator was the last woman to leave Tigges' room, von Traskow believes he has reached the target. When the landlady is questioned, however, it becomes clear to him that he was the last guest and consequently must be the culprit. Desperate, he goes home and confesses the crime to his wife. However, when he wants to explain the facts to the chief public prosecutor, the two day laborers Bätes and Wimm appear at the guard. Bätes be the perpetrator and Wimm the witness for it - but both are only after the reward they want to share. It comes to the court hearing, in which the defendant Bätes in particular becomes entangled in contradictions and denies the crime for fear of a long prison sentence. When Rabanus is questioned again at the beginning about his strange testimony, he constructs a possible case: What if the perpetrator in a drunkenness had not been aware that he was denigrating the monument to the father of the country? Bätes takes up this hint and thinks that he thought the monument was a statue of Goethe . For gross mischief, he is therefore only sentenced to a small fine , which he has already served with his pre- trial detention . Rabanus can now finally openly confess his love for Trude. The chief public prosecutor, who seems to have been privy to the actual situation, informed von Traskow at the end that he would have him transferred to Allenstein in East Prussia as chief public prosecutor .
Differences to the novel
The film adaptation sticks very closely to the novel and partly takes over dialogues word for word. Nevertheless, the film version shows small differences. While the sovereign's speech in the novel is exclusively a rumor and its content becomes more and more tangible insults through further telling, gossip and exaggeration, the sovereign actually delivered the speech in the film. Shortly before von Traskow leaves the bar, he reads the sovereign's words again in a very drunk state, which is why his subsequent actions seem more spontaneous.
The chief public prosecutor is called "von Treskow" in the novel, but "von Traskow" in the film adaptation.
The ends are also slightly different from each other. The prosecutor confesses to the chief prosecutor in the novel that the investigations have exhausted him so much that in the end he thought he was the perpetrator himself. Because although he is sure in the novel that he committed the crime, he does not confess to anyone. In the film adaptation, however, the prosecutor is not initially sure that he was the culprit. Later he realizes that he was the perpetrator, tells his family that too and goes to the chief public prosecutor to confess the crime, which the appearance of Wimm and Bätes prevents him from doing. He believes the admission of the unskilled laborer Bätes. In the end he was promoted, but also transferred to East Prussia.
criticism
The lexicon of the international film rates the muzzle as a “remarkable ... comedy of Rhenish subversiveness.” The Reclam film lexicon sees, despite the fact that the plot is backdated to the Wilhelmine era, a “clear… direction of the Nazi present” and states that “this Satire about the spirit of the subservient, creeping and lack of freedom of expression [mocked]. " Ralph Arthur Roberts '" grotesquely accentuated comedy, the amiable, devious role interpretation of Paul Henckels "and Will Quadflieg in his first film role are emphasized. The acting performances of all three actors would set "the highlights of this 1938 downright subversive attack on the authoritarian state". Supporting actor Will Quadflieg, who made his film debut in The Muzzle , wrote in his memoir about the film: “There was nothing to be said against the story. Thematically it was a distant loan to Kleist . ' The Broken Jug ' celebrated a happy birth as the Lower Rhine Krawinkeliade . "
See also
Web links
- The muzzle the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The muzzle at filmportal.de