The defense attorney has the floor
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The defense attorney has the floor |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1944 |
| length | 89 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Werner Klingler |
| script |
Harald G. Petersson based on an idea by Edgar Kahn |
| production | Heinrich George (production group) |
| music | Willy Mattes |
| camera | Georg Bruckbauer |
| cut | Ella Ensink |
| occupation | |
| |
The Defender has the floor is a 1943 German crime and justice film by Werner Klingler with Heinrich George in the title role and Rudolf Fernau as his client accused of murder.
action
The Judiciary Jordan is a highly respected lawyer. If he accepts a case as a criminal defense attorney, then only under the premise that he firmly believes in the innocence of his client. But then he really bites into the mandate and fights ceaselessly for the defendant's innocence. Jordan thinks he has a nice evening ahead of him because the upcoming wedding of his only daughter Gisela to the jeweler Günther Fabian is to be celebrated. The private meeting is suddenly disrupted when two detectives appear and try to arrest Fabian on suspicion of murdering his former wife Maria, called "Ria" Nora, a dancer. While Gisela naturally believes in the innocence of her future husband, the defender's father initially doubts. Jordan and Fabian went to the bar "Excelsior" for the bachelorette party the previous evening, where Ria performed. Günther hadn't told his future father-in-law that the dancer was his ex. The fact that he saw Ria in Günther's jewelry store this morning also does not inspire confidence. And to top it all off, there are also witnesses who, shortly before the bandmaster Jack Gillmore discovered Ria's body, saw in their cloakroom how Günther entered her room and quickly left again a little later.
For the sake of his daughter, the judiciary agrees to talk to the murder suspect. Fabian explains to him that he has offered Ria 3,000 marks if she should disappear from his life and no longer bother him and his future wife. Ria agreed. When her lifeless body was discovered, however, the 3,000 marks had disappeared without a trace. After this interview, lawyer Jordan is convinced of Fabian's innocence. Relief material is not available, so Jordan sets out to investigate on his own. After painstaking detailed work, he is convinced how the crime must have occurred and puts the evidence together in court. In the reconstruction of the murder, the events are as follows: The perpetrator climbed over the cloakroom window, with a truck parked underneath providing assistance. The perpetrator murdered Ria and climbed back down through the window. However, since the cloakroom window was found locked when the cloakroom was opened, it could only have been slammed by the draft caused by Gillmore's opening of the door. The only one who comes into question as a perpetrator is the stage manager Hans-Joachim Schmidt. He had big betting debts and from a window opposite he saw Fabian handing the bundle of money to his ex-wife. When the killer went into the cloakroom, he was surprised by Ria. To get rid of her as a witness, Schmidt killed Ria. Now that the case has been cleared up, nothing stands in the way of Gisela's future marital happiness with Günther.
Production notes
Filming of The Defender of the Floor began on February 15, 1943 and ended on April 19 of the same year. The film premiered in two Berlin cinemas on April 6, 1944.
The production cost was about 1,074,000 RM. The film received the state rating “artistically valuable”.
Producer and lead actor George also took on the artistic direction of the film. Conrad Flockner was production manager. Fritz Maurischat and Fritz Lück designed the film buildings. Oskar Haarbrandt was responsible for the sound.
Reception and reviews
Boguslaw Drewniak pointed out that the German crime and justice films of this time should be made in prior consultation with the Ministry of Justice. As a result, the scripts had to be submitted to the ministry's press officer for review before filming began. It was not just a matter of eliminating any errors in the presentation of legal practices and processes. “It was also about promoting topics in which the Nazi judiciary should be more prominent than before. As far as the crime films are concerned, that only happened in "The Defender Has the Word". "
The lexicon of international films says: "Crime film constructed according to a conventional recipe, psychologically implausible in places, but captivating thanks to the excellent portrayal of Heinrich George in the title role."
Individual evidence
- ^ Ulrich J. Klaus: German sound films 13th year 1944/45. S. 118. (065.44), Berlin 2002
- ^ Boguslaw Drewniak: The German Film 1938-1945 . A complete overview. Düsseldorf 1987, p. 429
- ↑ The defense attorney has the floor. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed May 1, 2020 .
Web links
- The defender has the word in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The defender has the floor at filmportal.de