The cardsharp

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Movie
German title The cardsharp
Original title The Lady Eve
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1941
length 97 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Preston Sturges
script Preston Sturges
production Paul Jones for
Paramount Pictures
music Sigmund Krumgold ,
John Leipold ,
Leo Shuken
camera Victor Milner
cut Stuart Gilmore
occupation
synchronization

The cardsharp (Original title: The Lady Eve ) is an American comedy film by director Preston Sturges in the style of screwball comedy from 1941. The screenplay is based on a story by Monckton Hoffe . The premiere in Germany took place on September 6, 1949.

action

Jean Harrington is an attractive scammer. Together with her father, Colonel Harrington, and his partner Gerald, she wants to gutt the rich naive Charles Pike on board a passenger steamer. Charles is the heir to a multi-million dollar brewing empire. Shy, interested in snakes, and just got back from a year-long expedition to the Amazon . From the first moment Charles is in love with Jean, unsuspecting that she is a cheater. Charles' personal servant Muggsy soon becomes suspicious of Jean and makes his own investigations into her origins.

The fraudsters' plans seem to work at first, but then Jean feels stupidly drawn to Charles. She tries to shield him from her deceitful father, a professional cardsharp. Jean also decides to reveal to Charles that she is actually a cardsharp. Charles is already making plans for a wedding, but then Muggsy discovers the secret of Jean and her father. Charles turns away from her disappointed, although she assures him of her love. Jean is annoyed by Charles's reaction and now wants to take revenge on the brewery heir after the steamer arrives in New York City . With the help of a disguise she meets Charles again during a party, this time as "Lady Eve Sidwich", the niece of Sir Alfred McGlennan Keith. Sir Alfred is really just another scammer targeting the rich. Charles gets the adventurous story from Sir Alfred that Eve and Jean are half-sisters who know nothing about each other.

In revenge, Jean wants to torment Charles. Charles' father Horace is impressed by the charm of British nobility and is ready to host his son's wedding with the lady. While Muggsy is also suspicious of Lady Eve, Charles feels everything is just chaos and doesn't know what to do. On her honeymoon with Charles, “Lady Eve” turns out to be a horror when she confesses to her husband with relish all of her countless premarital affairs. The shocked Charles breaks off his honeymoon, wants to divorce and sadly embarks on a steamer for another Amazon expedition. But Jean gives up her revenge and also enters the steamer, this time not as Eve, but again as Jean. A repentant Charles - who still hasn't understood that Eve and Jean are the same person - happily embraces her.

background

Director Preston Sturges was better known as a screenwriter. He was involved in the script for more than 40 films while sitting on the director's chair 13 times. The cardsharp was his third directorial work and also his fifth collaboration with supporting actor William Demarest, who was one of his permanent staff. In total, both made ten films together. Oscar-winning employees on the set were the composers Leo Shuken and John Leipold (honored together in 1940) and the cameraman Victor Milner (1935). Henry Fonda (1982), Charles Coburn (1944), art director Hans Dreier (1946, twice in 1951), art director Ernst Fegté (1946), costume designer Edith Head (1950, twice 1951, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1961, 1974).

Paramount Pictures produced a remake of the film in 1956 entitled The Wrong Eva ( The Birds and the Bees ), directed by Norman Taurog . Preston Sturges was named as co-writer of the script.

The philosopher Stanley Cavell analyzes the film in the first chapter of his book Pursuits of Happiness. The Hollywood Remarriage Comedy (Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard UP 1981) as an outstanding example of the "Remarriage Comedy".

Reviews

"Elegant, fast-paced screwball comedy full of satirical allusions, in which Barbara Stanwyck in particular is convincing in her emancipatory activities," was the verdict of the international film's dictionary . Cinema noted that Preston Sturges was "responsible for some of the best screwball comedies of the 1940s," "of which The Cardsharp is described by many as the most brilliant." As always, the focus would be on the "eternal battle of the sexes, which is played extremely funny and pointed by the two stars". The main actors Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda, who until then had not been able to “shine with comic material”, “expanded their repertoire considerably”. Rajko Burchardt wrote on filmzentrale.de: " The Lady Eve is a courageous, because it is completely unconventional, 'Comedy of Remarriage'." The TV magazine Prisma was also full of praise:

“Old master Preston Sturges staged one of the most brilliant and sharpest screwball satires, full of comical ideas and hair-raising slapstick interludes. The work is characterized by the narrative experiment of dividing the story in the middle and starting from the beginning a second time with the opposite sign. In addition to this virtuoso dramaturgy, the film lives above all from the skills of its actors: Barbara Stanwyck as Jean Jean, Henry Fonda in the role of the stupid 'Hopfies' and Charles Coburn as Colonel Harrington explore the ambiguities of their roles. "

Awards

At the Academy Awards in 1942 , the film was nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Original Story (Monckton Hoffe) . In 1994 it was accepted into the National Film Registry .

synchronization

A first German dubbed version was created in 1949 for the German cinema premiere under the direction of Bruno Hartwich at the Motion Picture Export Association. In 1979 a second synchronization for television was realized in Bavaria Atelier GmbH Munich.

role actor Voice actor 1949 Voice actor 1979
Jean Harrington / Lady Eve Sandwich Barbara Stanwyck Elisabeth Ried Karin Kernke
Charles Pike Henry Fonda OE Hasse Joachim Ansorge
"Colonel" Harry Harrington Charles Coburn Walther Suessenguth Curt Ackermann
Mr. Horace Pike Eugene Pallette Günther Sauer
"Muggsy" Murgatroyd William Demarest Wolfgang Hess
Sir Arthur McGlennan Keith Eric Blore Horst Sachtleben
Gerald, Harrington's accomplice Melville Cooper Horst Naumann
Burrows, butler of the Pikes Robert Greig Benno Hoffmann
Professor on expedition Reginald Sheffield Erich Ebert
Barman on ship Pat West Walter Reichelt

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The cardsharp. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed September 1, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ↑ See cinema.de
  3. ↑ See filmzentrale.de
  4. ↑ See prisma.de
  5. ↑ The cardsharp. In: Synchrondatenbank.de. Accessed May 31, 2020 .
  6. ↑ The cardsharp. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous index , accessed on September 1, 2017 .