The Countess of Monte Christo
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Countess of Monte Christo |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1932 |
| length | 89 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Karl Hartl |
| script | Walter Reisch |
| production | Gregor Rabinowitsch |
| music | Allan Gray |
| camera | Franz Planner |
| cut | Rudolf Schaad |
| occupation | |
| |
The Countess of Monte Christo is a German crime film comedy from 1932 by Karl Hartl with Brigitte Helm , Rudolf Forster , Gustaf Gründgens and Lucie Englisch in the leading roles.
action
Vienna, at the beginning of the 1930s. The two extras Jeanette and Mimi are waiting for their great opportunity as an actress. One day, Jeanette was lucky when the Spitzkopf production manager promised her a small role in a film. She desperately needs the 20 Austrian schillings she receives for this. In the upcoming film, Jeanette is supposed to play a fine, elegant lady who drives up in a car with her maid in front of the entrance of a top hotel. The young woman also has problems in her private life: her friend, the journalist Stephan Riel, threatens to lose his job, as his job is said to be the victim of savings. This problem leads to the fact that the two fiancés quarrel seriously. The film rehearsals have begun and Jeanette's scene with her friend Mimi, who was chosen in front of the camera for the role of the maid, is finally to be shot. But Jeanette, worn down by endless harassment from the director, who keeps her repeating scenes, makes a fateful mistake: instead of stopping in front of the elegant hotel as planned, Jeanette simply drives on with the film car and ends up in front of a luxury hotel in Vienna -Semmering. Here, however, nobody from the film crew can be seen anywhere. To top it all, in the glamorous winter sports hotel Jeanette, who has internalized her grande dame role in the film and is accordingly elegantly dressed, is the long-awaited Countess of Monte Christo. Jeanette and Mimi are not comfortable with it, but they still play their roles in front of the hotel staff.
At the same time as Jeanette and Mimi, two outright crooks and impostors who call themselves Rumowski and the "Baron" check in. Her appearance and appearance are also quite noble, and she is surrounded by a flair of cosmopolitan well-traveled. That is exactly their trick. They target the valuables and valuables of the normally wealthy hotel guests. But when the “baron” breaks into Jeanette's room and only discovers worthless stuff in her broken suitcase (which is by no means unusual as part of a film prop), the fine piss believes that Jeanette is a “professional colleague” of him and Rumowski have to act. The “Baron” reacts just as spontaneously as quickly and reports his own break-in into Jeanette's room to the hotel management, in order to at least get some income through insurance fraud. Since the hotel can do without such publicity, they are prepared in advance to completely replace the supposedly valuable clothes of the “Countess”. Things get complicated when Jeanette and Rumowski get to know each other and fall in love. He, in turn, now has to keep his “brother in spirit”, the “baron”, away from Jeanette in order to protect her from worse. The booted crook then whistled his rival to the police, so that Rumowski was arrested. Jeanette and Mimi, who are afraid of being drawn into the case, pile up with the stolen film car. The two ladies stop in front of a police station and first inform the police, who are already looking for them, and then Stephan. He can finally land a journalistic scoop and will keep his job with the newspaper. Jeanette, in turn, receives a lot of media attention and will soon be able to count on larger film roles.
Production notes
The Countess of Monte Christo was created between December 18, 1931 and January 23, 1932 in the UFA film studios in Neubabelsberg and on the Semmering in Vienna. The premiere took place on April 22, 1932 in Berlin's UFA-Palast am Zoo , the Viennese premiere was on April 19 of the same year in the Apollo cinema.
Eugen Kürschner also took over the production management, producer Gregor Rabinowitsch was also responsible as artistic director. Eduard Kubat took over the production management. Robert Herlth and Walter Röhrig designed the film structures. Viktor von Struve was an assistant director. Artur Guttmann took over the musical direction, the orchestra played under the direction of Barnabás von Géczy . The music texts come from screenwriter Walter Reisch . Walter Rühland was responsible for the sound .
useful information
The same material was filmed three more times:
- 1934 and 1948 in Hollywood under the title “The Countess of Monte Cristo”
- 1957 in the Federal Republic of Germany under the title “ To be a great lady once ”.
Reviews
Herbert Jhering wrote in the Berlin stock exchange courier: Lucie Englisch “is very effective with the public (even as the false maid of the false countess). Their performance is also there where the film threatens to slip into an English farce for minutes, the necessary concession to the wider audience. (...) The Countess of Monte Christo - the best Ufafilm of recent times. The audience was thrilled. Here lies the way. A public film and yet no bad taste. "
The Österreichische Film-Zeitung found: “The author Walter Reisch understood how to intensify the plot in an interesting way up to the punch line that you can't foresee. All performers are excellent. (...) the director Hartl has once again created a highly effective film. "
The Tagesspiegel reads: “The film directed by Karl Hartl changes genre as abruptly as the protagonist changes her lifestyle. You flee with her from reality and end up in the perfect Ufa world. The fact that the statuesque beautiful Brigitte Helm could be removed from the extra was due to an acoustic flaw that was not noticeable in silent films like "Metropolis": her rather ordinary, untrained voice. "
Individual evidence
- ^ Critique of "The Countess of Monte Christo" in Berliner Börsen-Courier of April 23, 1932
- ↑ "The Countess of Monte Christo". In: Österreichische Film-Zeitung , April 23, 1932, p. 9 (online at ANNO ).
- ↑ "Just off the set". Notes on tagesspiegel.de