The mistress of the world

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
Original title The mistress of the world
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1919
Rod
Director Joe May : Parts 2, 3 and 8
Josef Klein : Part 1 and 4
Uwe Jens Krafft : Part 4 to 6
Karl Gerhardt : Part 7
script Joe May
Richard Hutter
Ruth Goetz
Wilhelm Roellinghoff
Fritz Lang
production Joe May
music Ferdinand Hummel
camera Werner Brandes
occupation

Die Herrin der Welt is an eight-part German sensational and adventure film series under the direction of producer Joe May from 1919. It is considered to be the first major monumental film production in German film history. The main and title role played May's wife Mia May .

action

Part 1: The Yellow Man's Girlfriend

The young Danish girl Maud Gregaards went to the Chinese canton in response to an advertisement to take up a position as a teacher there. There she ends up in a brothel, from which she gets her travel companion, the Chinese Dr. Kien-Lung, released. However, the doctor is soon kidnapped by his compatriot Hai-Fung, who had already abducted Maud, and brutally tortured in a hiding place. Thanks to the courageous intervention of Maud's compatriot Consul Madsen, both escape the clutches of Hai-Fung. Kien-Lung soon shows interest in the beautiful European, but she rejects him. Maud is surrounded by a great secret that has a lot to do with revenge. Maud wants to let her two companions in on her secret.

Part 2: The story of the Maud Gregaards

The second part of this film cycle takes place before the first part. He is considered the weakest part of the eight-piece. In it, Maud Kien-Lung tells how it came about that she ended up in China. Her father was an archivist in the Foreign Office. There he was blackmailed by someone into handing over a secret Chinese contract. Maud's father eventually committed suicide, faced with the consequences of this desperate act. Maud herself falls in love with a politician for whom she works as a translator. Without knowing what she is doing, Maud also translates that secret treaty. When her lover went abroad with the contract, Maud was arrested and locked up as a spy. She had a child from him in prison, but he soon died. Freed again, Maud obtained information about the rabbi of Kuan-Fu, who is said to know the hiding place of the Queen of Sheba’s treasure . In order to get revenge on the man who plunged her into misery, she absolutely wants to get hold of this treasure.

Part 3: The Rabbi of Kuan-Fu

Maud Gregaards, Kien-Lung and Consul Madsen are on their way to the aged Rabbi of Kuan-Fu, who is said to be in possession of the secret of that legendary treasury, which will be of particular importance in the fifth and sixth parts. The three companions advance to the vicinity of the ruins in which the rabbi lives, watched suspiciously by the natives there. Madsen finds the map of the treasure in an old Astarte jewel that the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. Before he can give Madsen any more tips on how to use the plan, the rabbi dies. Madsen is injured in fighting with the natives, shamefully abandoned by Kien-Lung and robbed of the Astarte jewelry. When Madsen joins the faithless Chinese and Maud, a life-and-death battle breaks out between the two men. Maud's intervention ends the dispute for the time being.

4th part: King Makombe

Maud Gregaards penetrates together with Madsen and Kien-Lung on their global expedition to Central Africa, to the biblical Ophir in the realm of the black king Makombe. It is the center of the Astarte cult. The wizard of the Makombe tribe steals the three treasure hunters their Astarte jewelry and incites the natives against the intruders. Maud, Madsen and Kien-Lung flee. Dr. Kien-Lung hit by a poison arrow and dies. Maud and Madsen find shelter in a grotto and are there for the time being safe from their pursuers. Eventually Maud and Madsen arrive at the gate of Ophir.

Mia May as the reincarnation of the goddess Astarte in the fifth part, Ophir, the city of the past

5th part: Ophir, the city of the past

The two Danes eventually advance to Ophir, where a series of more adventures await them. Maud Gregaards and Consul Madsen are captured as intruders in this treasury of the Queen of Sheba. Maud is to be sacrificed because she would have desecrated the holy ground of this city. Madsen, in turn, is abducted to the slave city of the Sabytes, a native tribe, where he is supposed to do labor until his death. As Maud is lying on the sacrificial altar, the high priest discovers the Astarte jewelry on her neck. Now she is believed to be the goddess whose return was once foretold. With the help of the engineer Allan Stanley, whom he met in the slave city, Madsen succeeds in penetrating the Astart temple to Maud. They find the treasure and notify the outside world via telegraph. A plane arrives to save all three. But the consul is killed on the way there, while Maud and Stanley, who are joined by the local Simba, escape with the treasure. Finally, an earthquake lays the mysterious city of Ophir to rubble and ashes. Critics called this episode the best of the first five parts. Above all, the narrative speed was praised.

Part 6: The woman with the billions

After the dramatic events of the fifth part, the plot now becomes rather absurd. Maud Gregaards, now incredibly rich, begins to rule the world with the help of the Ophir treasure. From now on she calls herself Maud Fergusson. The American newspaper publisher Fletcher, who dispatched the rescue plane to Ophir, extensively exploits Maud's story and that of her rescue in his papers. The competition in the form of 'Harrison's Universe' in turn calls the entire story an outright hoax. Both press empires have a violent exchange of blows. The theater agent Karpeler makes a feature film about Maud's adventure, little more than a piece of smear. Maud and Allan fall in love and set off on a trip to Europe. The criticism found few good words for this sixth part.

7th part: The benefactress of humanity

The billionaire Maud Fergusson, formerly Gregaards, tries to build a new happiness with Allan Stanley. The Ophir treasure enables the "mistress of the world" to live a carefree life in her native Denmark . Both want to get married. But Stanley insists on knowing the name of her seducer of yore, who is responsible for all her misfortunes, otherwise he will not marry her. Maud, on the other hand, has finished with her past and just wants to find her peace. She plans to become a benefactor of humanity and wants to generously sponsor research and technology with her billions. In the meantime, your engineer Allan has developed a remote melting machine that can melt any metal with the help of electrical waves. Since cannons can also be destroyed with this invention, he soon falls into the sights of unscrupulous armourers. When Allan does not want to sell his invention, his powerful opponents strike. On the day of the ceremonial demonstration of this invention, a huge explosion occurs, behind which the villainous Baron Murphy is. This diplomat is none other than the man whose theft of the Chinese secret treaties started Maud's misfortune. Allan is killed in this act of sabotage.

Part 8: The Revenge of Maud Fergusson

After Allan's death shortly before the two of them were married, Maud thirsts for bloody retribution. The private detective Hunt is supposed to convict Murphy of the murder of Allan. Maud starts a newspaper campaign against Murphy and exposes him. She is not squeamish about the choice of means. Murphy loses all of his fortune and has to leave the country. Hunt also finds out that the young Credo Merville is Murphy's and Maud's son, who allegedly passed away shortly after he was born (see Part 2). Credo is one of the most outstanding pupils of the “Athenaeum” founded by Maud. In the end, mother and son hug each other. Murphy, outlawed as a criminal, is cast out of Maud despite all her requests and is ultimately killed in a snowstorm.

Production notes

The film was based on a novel by Karl Figdor .

Since January 4, 1919, the press reported on the plans for The Lady of the World . The film was initially announced as The Countess of Monte Christo , then as The Countess of Monte Christo, Lady of the World . In the Lichtbild-Bühne , issue of October 4, 1919, it further states on page 16: “Not far from Erkner - between Rahnsdorf and Woltersdorfer Schleuse - Joe May has acquired 75 acres of land and May-Film GmbH for film - Leave recordings. Flanked by the full width of the limestone lake, the huge complex has natural hills, hills and valleys, orchards, bushes and areas of forest. An army of craftsmen has erected buildings of enormous dimensions here in a relatively short time. It is important to create the necessary framework for a monumental film work 'The Mistress of the World', which consists of eight independent parts. The plot of the fantastic film takes place in Europe, China, America, Africa and Denmark and the characteristics of each country should be shown everywhere. "

The cast and collaborators of Die Herrin der Welt on November 7, 1919. Birthday boy Joe May is in the center, his wife and leading actress Mia May below him on the right

The film began shooting on June 24, 1919.

Producer and co-writer Joe May directed the first three parts and the eighth and final episode. Parts 4 to 6 were shot by Uwe Jens Krafft , the seventh part was written by Karl Gerhardt . May kept the artistic direction for all episodes

Mia May is the only one of the actors to be seen in all episodes.

The first part of the film was premiered on December 5, 1919, the last part on January 30, 1920. From February 6, 1920, all eight parts could be seen in succession in the Berlin Chamber Light Theater.

Hermann Fellner was production manager for all eight parts.

The extensive film structures were designed by Martin Jacoby-Boy and implemented by Otto Hunte , Karl Vollbrecht and Erich Kettelhut . The studio kos were created in the Greenbaum studios in Berlin-Weißensee , the exterior buildings on the May-Film film grounds in Woltersdorf (near Berlin) . This largest single item burdened the film budget with 1.4 million RM (730,109 euros). In the edition of November 15, 1919, pages 23 and 24 of the Lichtbild-Bühne go into detail about the enormous dimensions of this large-scale production.

All costumes and props came from the Leopold Verch company from Berlin-Charlottenburg .

According to Lichtbild-Bühne, the total cost of Die Herrin der Welt was almost eight million RM (4,172,049 euros). This made it the most expensive feature film to date that was made in Germany.

The camera work by Werner Brandes was particularly praised .

Reviews

The contemporary criticism referred above all to the monumental character of the film, which overshadows everything that has existed before, but also criticized the implementation of the material. In summary, according to all eight parts, at the beginning of February 1920:

“'The mistress of the world' has reached the last station, her ordeal is over: 'The tragic woman of vengeance' has handed the unscrupulous diplomat Baron Murphy a deserved fate. Already suspected are confirmed here: the son, who once thanked Maud Gregaards Murphy and who was described as dead when she was released from prison, is alive. He is - under the beautiful name Credo Merville - one of the most outstanding pupils in the 'Athenaeum' founded by Maud. And he becomes a tool of vengeance. Maud has the man tracked down who destroyed the remote-melting machine and with it the engineer Allan Stanley: she runs into Murphy, discovers that he is Credo's father, she herself is the associated mother, and has Murphy's petitions and incantations, whom she has already killed brought his fortune and his ambassadorial post, just a rigid, inexorable 'no'. Murphy staggered out and found death in the snowstorm ... That would be the end of the adventure, which hardly justifies the overall title, and the last part of which does not rise above the normal feature film, which is soaked with a dose of sentimentality. "

“'The Mistress of the World' is now in its full size before the eyes of the film world: this week you can see the eighth, the last part in the Tauentzien Palace. This ending is good - but contrary to the saying, it doesn't make everything good that has flickered past thousands here for almost a quarter of a year. This whole is - in spite of strong and also new ideas in detail - poor and of a deficient architecture of the plot. Cheap. Using a large example, it shows shamefully clearly how the film masters can be won over for every effort - except for the intellectual, and one understands when the author, Karl Figdor, values ​​the statement that apart from the final part he does not recognize his child have. This part significantly surpasses its predecessors in terms of a closed, dramatic structure - although it takes one hard to the limit of taste and incest. Representation (carried by Mia May, Mierendorf, the young Hofmann and - strangely enough, unnamed - Lettinger) and scenes are again carefully and cultured. Maud Gregaards now has her revenge: her villainous lover of yore dies in loneliness and cold. But when the German film industry pulls itself together again for such a gigantic work, it may cost a little more - than just money. "

“Another example of jammed kitsch: The gigantic, phenomenal, giant film record series 'Mia May, the mistress in the world of boredom', - I saw the 6th part: 'Ophir or how the gymnast Jahn imagines the Queen of Sheba.' Astarte priests swing Prussian in a section column marching to the right, while a lady in her prime steals from her temple treasures. Herds of people poorly moved in bad architectures. Some episodic things are still noteworthy, like the negroes, who are always good just like animals in films, and an American reporter. "

The film criticism after 1945 also repeatedly dealt with The Mistress of the World :

In CineGraph you can read in the biography of Joe May: “The film series tells - in more or less complete episodes - a dramatically entangled adventure and detective story rich in surprising solutions, and relies less on the logic of the plot than on that Exoticism of the venues, the charm of the refined decoration. "

Heinrich Fraenkel's Immortal Film writes: "A very large series film with the theme of a young girl's revenge on a man who has brought misery to her family."

In Oskar Kalbus ' Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst it is said: “This book novel has turned into an exciting film: the plot of the fantastic film takes place in Europe, China, America, Africa and Denmark, and everywhere he wants the characteristics of each country in addition to the plot demonstrate."

Bucher's encyclopedia of the film called Mistress of the World "lavish entertainment spectacle"

Kay Weniger's "In life, more is taken from you than given ..." called the film an "extremely ambitious and expansive eight-part".

Der Spiegel pointed out the commercial success of the eight-part film: “Mia was a benefactress, especially for the box office. It could stay on the walls of world cinemas for months. Even Italy felt surpassed. So wrote Giornale d'Italia : It was a victory across the board, a victory for writers, director and representation, a victory for the German film industry! ' "

literature

  • Hans-Michael Bock , Claudia Lenssen (ed.): Joe May. Director and producer (= A CineGraph book ). edition text + kritik, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-88377-394-8 .
  • Jörg Schöning (ed.): Trivial tropes. Exotic travel and adventure films from Germany 1919-1939 (= A CineGraph book ). edition text + kritik, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-88377-551-7 .
  • Tobias Nagl: The creepy machine. Race and Representation in Weimar Cinema. edition text + kritik, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-88377-910-2 , pp. 41–153: Chapter 1: Kaiser Wilhelm's mines: Colonialism, gender and race in DIE HERRIN DER WELT (1919). (At the same time: Hamburg, University, dissertation, 2005).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lichtbild-Bühne , January 4, 1919, p. 38.
  2. ↑ There it says: “The fate of this woman leads us into the deserts of Africa and into the taverns of Canton, which was built in Woltersdorf under the direction of Jacoby Boys. Entire streets and temples were built here to give a true picture of the life and goings-on in this city. Hundreds of steamers and boats and masked houses from Potsdam provided the foil for the harbor. An inner-African city with a temple mount and a gigantic temple emerged as a splendid backdrop for another part of the film, and negroes lived in a real kraal in May city across large areas. The number of all participants, actors, extras and technical staff is almost 30,000. The manuscript has about 2000 pages. The film itself is made up of around 5000 different scenes. A total of 200 recording days outside the studio were necessary. The recordings in the studio, which have not yet been completely finished, may amount to about 150 days. The recording sites are in Weißensee, Tempelhof, Potsdam, Woltersdorf, Rüdersdorf, Buckow, Hamburg and Helgoland, and when you learn, as mentioned above, that the extra series amounted to almost 30,000 people, it won't be surprising if you do hears that these people were fed from around 100 field kitchens. 10 trucks were constantly on the move to transport the decorations. The main characters are Michael Bohnen, Hans Mierendorff, Henry Sze, a young Chinese, and Paul Hansen. For the African part, Mr. Alex von Hirschfeld was called in as an expert, for the Chinese Erdmann-Jesitzer and Martin Jacoby-Boy. The drafts for the African part and for the legendary city of Ophir come from Uwe Jens Krafft, who is also responsible for the direction of the 4th, 5th and 6th parts. The other parts were staged by Josef Klein and Gerhard. The film's chief recording operator was Brandes. The finished film measures around 20 kilometers, which is roughly equivalent to the distance Berlin - Nauen, and contains around a million small individual images, each of which measures around 1.8x2.4 cm; he weighs nearly 150 kilos. The height of the stacked film rolls, the diameter of which is approximately 40 cm, is 1.50 m. "
  3. ↑ Lichtbild-Bühne , November 15, 1919, p. 23 f.
  4. ^ Berliner Börsen-Courier , December 21, 1919, p. 9, early edition.
  5. ^ Berliner Börsen-Courier , February 1, 1920, p. 8, early edition.
  6. ^ Vossische Zeitung , February 2, 1920, early edition.
  7. ↑ The New Schaubühne. Vol. 4, February 2, 1920, ZDB -ID 221273-0 , p. 56.
  8. ↑ Hans-Michael Bock (Ed.): CineGraph. Lexicon for German-language films. Delivery 7. Edition Text + Criticism, Munich 1986, D 2 (Loseblattausgabe).
  9. ^ Heinrich Fraenkel : Immortal Film. The great chronicle from the Laterna Magica to the sound film. Kindler, Munich 1956, p. 406.
  10. ^ Oskar Kalbus : On the becoming of German film art. 1st part: The silent film. Cigarette picture service, Altona-Bahrenfeld 1935, p. 47 f.
  11. ↑ Liz-Anne Bawden (ed.): Buchers Enzyklopädie des Films. Editor of the German edition by Wolfram Tichy. Bucher, Luzern et al. 1977, ISBN 3-7658-0231-X , p. 836.
  12. ↑ Kay Less : "In life, more is taken from you than given ...". Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. Acabus-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8 , p. 338.
  13. ↑ At UFA it was done like this ... Cinema - the big dream business. (3rd continuation). In: Der Spiegel . No. 39, dated September 27, 1950.

Web links