The mute guest
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The mute guest |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1945 |
| length | 106 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Harald Braun |
| script | Harald Braun Kurt Heynicke based on Theodor Fontane's novella Unterm Birnbaum (1885) |
| production | Fritz Thiery (production group) for UFA , Berlin |
| music | Werner Eisbrenner |
| camera | Robert Baberske |
| cut | Milo Harbich |
| occupation | |
| |
The silent guest is a German crime film made in 1944, based on a model by Theodor Fontane . Directed by Harald Braun played René Deltgen and Gisela Uhlen the leading roles.
action
Mathias Radschek, host of the “Birnbaum” inn, loves his young wife idolatrously and cannot refuse her any wish. Since Lisa's wish list is extremely extensive, Mathias has to earn something. Because of this emergency, he earned a sideline as a fur smuggler. Wine merchant Oskar Kampmann is Radschek's greatest believer, shows more interest in Mathias' wife than it seems appropriate and, to make matters worse, has also rented the inn. In order to get rid of the debt to Kampmann in one fell swoop, Mathias embarks on a dangerous card game. His mission: the inn. Radschek promptly loses his last legal source of income.
In desperation, Lisa asks the Kampmann wine cellar to hand over the promissory note. In fact, the old lecher is ready for it, but only if Lisa sleeps with him in return. Lisa, who brusquely rejects his request, is able to fight off this immoral offer with difficulty and Kampmann, with a torn dress and the promissory note in hand, barely escapes into the restaurant. A little later, Kampmann is found murdered. Mathias Radschek is suspected. He, in turn, believes that Lisa killed Kampmann after they both went into the cellar together and discovered his body.
People are feverishly looking for a way out of the malaise. Lisa leaves the inn, in her coat and with her cap pulled low over her face, as Kampmann in the field of vision of witnesses who do not recognize her disguised in this way. When Kampmann is no longer seen after this departure, one day Kampmann's fiancée Marianne appears in the “Birnbaum”. The new local gendarme Geelhaar is with them. Both want to trace Kampmann's whereabouts. The investigation leads to the fact that the local gravedigger begins to dig under the inn's namesake pear tree in the hope of finding Kampman's body. Instead, they track down Radschek's skins and Mathias is accused of smuggling.
Lisa suffers from the fact that Mathias does not believe in her innocence, although she assures him that she did not kill Kampmann. Thereupon she leaves her husband and her hometown. As a result, Mathias Radschek begins to mess up. His inn is decaying, and to make matters worse, when checking the structure of the inn, Kampmann's corpse, buried in the cellar, is discovered. Mathias is suspected of murder and charged, Lisa questioned as a witness at the trial. Lisa finally wants to tell the whole truth, Mathias again takes all the blame on herself. Dieter von Wedelstedt, the son of a landowner, steps forward and confesses that Kampmann died in the argument with him. Dieter, secretly in love with Lisa, had sought a dispute with Kampmann after he noticed how the unscrupulous wine merchant was harassing Lisa. A wine barrel got rolling and buried Kampmann under itself. So his death was an accident.
Production notes
The silent guest was filmed from the beginning of April to the end of August 1944. The film passed the censorship on January 16, 1945 and, with its premiere in March 1945 in southern Germany, was one of the last films to be premiered in the Greater German Reich. The post-war premiere took place on May 5, 1950 in Vienna.
In addition to the production group management, Fritz Thiery also took over the production and production management. Emil Hasler and Carl L. Kirmse designed the film structures that Walter Kutz carried out. The costume designs come from Alfred Bücken and Sophie Sauter, Erich Schmidt was the sound engineer. Alfred Vohrer served Braun as assistant director.
Two songs were played: It drives me into the distance as well as Me and You, You and Me , the latter performed by Gisela Uhlen.
This film, the location of which was moved from a village on the Oder to a small town in Alsace , is the first film adaptation of Fontane's Under the Pear Tree . Two television versions followed in 1963 and 1964, and in 1973 DEFA produced another version for the cinema.
Reviews
"In addition to the larger creations of the poet, this time it was about a second-rate work, but - as a" thriller "- with entertainment value."
“Detective film based on Theodor Fontane; staged average, with good actors. "
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ in the postwar version Mathias Raschek
- ↑ in the post-war version Hilda Raschek
- ↑ in the postwar version of Hans Wedelstedt
- ↑ The mute guest. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
Web links
- The silent guest in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The silent guest at filmportal.de