The Schellenberg brothers
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Schellenberg brothers |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1926 |
| length | 113 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Karl Grune |
| script |
Willy Haas Karl Grune |
| production |
Erich Pommer for UFA (Berlin) |
| music | Werner Richard Heymann |
| camera |
Karl Hasselmann Curt Courant |
| occupation | |
| |
The Brothers Schellenberg is a German silent film from 1926 by Karl Grune with Conrad Veidt in a double role. Grune wrote the script together with Willy Haas based on the novel of the same name by Bernhard Kellermann .
action
The twins Michael and Wenzel Schellenberg are two completely different characters, but both have found jobs in the explosives factory of the manufacturer Raucheisen. Wenzel is the absolute opposite of Michael in character and mentality. As a little secretary at the old smoker, he is only concerned about his own advancement, while Michael looks far beyond his own nose and is always concerned about the well-being of others. Nevertheless, both lose their jobs one day: Wenzel because of a small delay that the old man won't let go, Michael, who as an engineer bears some responsibility because he can no longer reconcile it with his moral standards to manufacture weapons of mass destruction. Then there is a huge explosion on the factory premises, and over 200 workers lose their lives.
This event became the central turning point in the life of the Schellenberg brothers. While Wenzel only wants to get a lot of money quickly and therefore starts to speculate on the stock market, Michael wants to live out his charitable streak and dedicate his strength to the poor, desperate and other people in need. As an engineer, he has the knowledge how to build a humane settlement for the unemployed. Wenceslas addiction to pleasure also leads to some aberrations in private life. He gets to know and love the unemployed actress Jenny Florian, whose friend Georg was seriously injured in the factory explosion, and gives the young, pretty woman a theater engagement. But soon he lets go of her and turns to the cold Esther Raucheisen, the somewhat bizarre daughter of his former boss. The porcelain-like appearance Esther is a dark soul and got into trouble through the business of her lover Kaczinsky.
Esther and Wenzel complement each other perfectly, they are both calculating, cold and not really capable of deep emotions. Wenzel promises Esther that he will help her if she marries him in return. The calculating factory owner's daughter agrees ... and marriage becomes a most loveless undertaking. Because the unapproachable Esther refuses her Parvenu husband her marital duties and secretly continues her relationship with the crook Kaczinsky. One day, Wenzel learns of the ongoing deception and a catastrophe ensues: In a rage, the horned Wenzel strangles his faithless wife and goes mad. After the murder he is taken away to a barred asylum truck. Meanwhile, Jenny, who he left, found a cozy place in Michael's settlement colony. Finally, Wenzel walks in a penitential garb through a snow-covered landscape in the direction of the settlement to make atonement there.
Production notes
The Brothers Schellenberg was created from September 1925 to January 1926 on the UFA open-air site in Neubabelsberg . The film passed the censorship on March 11, 1926 and was premiered on March 22, 1926 in Berlin's Ufa-Palast am Zoo . A youth ban has been issued.
The film structures were designed by Karl Görge , while Helmar Lerski used the Schüfftan process to take care of the special shots of the scenes with the factory tape that were created in November 1925. Ernö Rapée conducted Werner Richard Heymann's cinema composition at the premiere. Heymann made his film debut here, for the 18-year-old Werner Fuetterer this was his first employment in German film.
Reviews
“Veidt trumps everything. Note the close-ups. Do the same eyes look ...? A soul-worried human happiness and a tough, brutal connoisseur of life. [...] On the whole, one likes to say yes with joy. This film is also a hit on the world market, an accurate bullet. [...] No American film has shown the German willingness to invent such as just one act in this film. Original in the smallest details. [...] A few more words about the actors. Nobody stands next to Veidt. Lil Dagover disappoints. She approaches like a deity ... gorgeous in the first few scenes. But she is not a cocotte. Her coolness seems chaste - never refined. She is just not a devil. "
“Grune has created a film that has all the qualities of the great German class: serious, exciting and with moving devotion to the mental design. These characters are alive and there was a breath of that inner, spiritual life that passed over to the audience and forced them under the spell of the film. A large picture of the time presented itself, with glaring lights and sharp contrasts, with fates as we have all experienced them and figures that have been pulled out of the pulsating, restless stream of life with the hand of an artist. [...] Grune made his best film. One is excited from the beginning to the end. People live with such vehement freshness that you think you can remember them from life. The structure of the plot (cleverly and artistically provided by Willy Haas) is simplified in Grune's directing. [...] Of the actors, I should first mention Conrad Veidt, who plays the dual role of the two brothers. These different characters have been studied with uncommon delicacy, always giving rise to new nuances. As an elegant adventurer he has all the charm and the enchanting amiability that has such a strong effect on women [...] The cameraman Hasselmann deserves special praise for his technically first-class performance. The recording of a departing airplane, to name just one scene, was an achievement in the arrangement of the moving light effects of the very first order. "
“By making various changes to the text, Grune tried to give the film what the film is. Above all, it was his endeavor to erase the psychological as much as possible and to let the inner connections disappear behind the abundance of individual images. This creates a series of effective images: the big stock market day, excerpts from the Paris hotel, the Schiebercafe. [...] But because of the compulsion of the material, these scenes have turned out so realistic that others who want to present a fantastic resolution of the existing reality corresponding to the film do not really suit them. [...] Only in a few shots that focus on light and shadow effects does Grune prove his mastery this time. [...] The scene is dominated by Conrad Veidt, who often faces himself in the double role of the Schellenberg brothers. He is convincing both as a fanatical do-gooder and as a post-war upstart. In the insane scene after Esther's strangulation, in which the candlelights play a good part, he develops strong suggestive powers. Lil Dagover as Esther gives the blasé city girl the expression of inner disintegration and the perfect artificiality of gestures. "
“The well-known Bernhard Kellermann's novel 'Die Brüder Schellenberg' (1926), published in the 'Berliner Illustrirten Zeitung', juxtaposes two views of life: the world of the unscrupulous, pleasure-addicted person, embodied by Wenzel Schellenberg, and the world of the philanthropic, noble and kind Michael Schellenberg, who sees his aim in life in satisfying the hungry and preparing a home for the homeless. The director of the film, Karl Grune, worked out these psychological contradictions between the two brothers with particular love; He has both roles played by one and the same actor, Conrad Veidt, whose great art manages to convincingly reproduce the opposing characters. "
Web links
- The Schellenberg brothers in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Schellenberg brothers at filmportal.de