The royal box
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The royal box / The Royal Box |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1929 |
| length | 85 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Bryan Foy |
| script |
Murray Roth Edmund Joseph Arthur Hurley based on the play The Royal Box (1928) by Charles Coghlan , based on the play " Kean " by Alexandre Dumas the Elder. Ä. |
| production | Warner Bros. Pict., Hollywood / New York - Berlin |
| music | Harold Levey |
| camera |
Edward B. DuPar Ray Foster |
| occupation | |
| |
The royal box is a German, American movie from 1929. Directed by Bryan Foy play Alexander Moissi and Camilla Horn , the leading roles.
action
England, early 19th century.
Once again, critically acclaimed and fanatical theater actor Edmund Kean has put on a glamorous performance at the Drury Lane Theater . While all the spectators have already got up and left, the young Alice Doren remains reverently in her seat. Tomorrow, according to her uncle's will, she is to marry the respected Lord Melville. But her endeavors go in a completely different direction: she absolutely wants to go to the theater and become an actress. It is the hour in which Alice brings herself to rebel against the family will. Two days later, the scandal in London's high society is perfect: Alice has placed herself under Kean's protection and will soon make her debut as a theater actress as part of a benefit performance.
However, Kean's commitment to the young debutante brings the celebrated mime some problems: his lover, the married Countess Helene Toeroek, is as angry as jealous. In addition, Kean also gets royal competition in matters of Helene, as the heir to the throne, the Prince of Wales, has also had an eye on the beautiful noblewoman. When Countess Toeroek is in Kean's cloakroom again, the arrival of the prince is announced at the same moment, whereupon Helene storms out of the room so as not to be surprised by this one. In doing so, she forgets her fan. The prince, who wants to pay his respects to the celebrated Kean, immediately recognizes Countess Toeroek's fan in his cloakroom and takes it away.
When the prince and countess sit down together in the royal box for the performance, Kean hears "his" Helene turning to the heir to the throne down on the stage. He then verbally attacks the Prince of Wales in a fit of jealousy, which leads to a first-rate scandal. The performance is canceled and Edmund Kean has to leave London immediately at the Prince's behest. Grinning coldly, Countess Helene stands next to her powerful protector and extends her arm to him. For Kean, who has fallen from the darling of the gods to a social pariah, the gradual decline begins. His friends turn away from him and soon he is forgotten. Only after many years of exile is he allowed to return to the English capital, but his fame has long faded.
Production notes
The royal box was filmed in June / July 1929 in the Vitaphone studios in New York City and on Coney Island (exterior shots). It is the German version of a sound film by Warner Bros. The studio wanted to open up a world market for foreign-language films produced in the USA. The result was rather unsatisfactory. The German premiere took place on November 21, 1929 in Berlin's Titania Palast.
The production is of film historical importance as one of the first one hundred percent German-language sound films. For the US market was the biopic The royal box and an English version under the title The Royal Box rotated. It started in the USA on December 24, 1929.
The German sound film patent war was already settled on March 13, 1929, but there were still too few tried and tested sound film devices and experienced technicians for regular sound film production in Germany. German producers therefore specifically sought cooperation with the experienced English and American studios. Atlantic (premiered on October 28, 1929), which was shot in the Elstree Studios (England), is considered the first German “talking film” . The Royal Box is the third or fourth German-language feature film (not counting documentaries and short films).
The Royal Box was Siegfried Rumann's first film . The Hamburg resident who immigrated to the USA on New Year's Day 1923 had only shot one other film completely in German: The Virgin on the Roof by Otto Preminger .
The adaptation of a model by Alexandre Dumas has little to do with the life of the real Edmond Kean.
criticism
The film critics hardly judged the film in terms of content, but essentially in terms of the revolutionary innovation in cinematography: the introduction of the sound film. Here are a few examples.
The Vossische Zeitung wrote: “Moissi is more than just the star in this work. He doesn't just want to downplay the film, pocket his fee and leave, he wants to impose his style and voice on the new art medium. He flatters the recording device, he strokes the microphone, he is concerned with a principle. [...] Moissi has found the happy formula for the spoken text: it must be short and blooming. He most surely keeps the charm of his language in the high tenor register. "
Felix Scherret from Der Abend , No. 548 of November 22, 1929, was of the opinion that director Bryan Foy was looking for “new ways for the sound film in a purely scenic structure. First and foremost, he avoids unmotivated close-ups, which the sound film usually takes from silent film ”. Scherret commented on Moissi: “Alexander Moissi as Kean is dominant in the center. The other speakers look like a template next to it. Moissi, who failed in the silent film because his facial expressions and gestures only gain life and expression through the word, has a bloody comedic effect here, developing a wonderful playful grace. His intense voice loses almost nothing of its captivating sound. "
Herbert Ihering from the Berliner Börsen-Courier , No. 546 of November 22, 1929, took a completely different view. When he speaks quickly and loudly, the device roars and croaks and spits. You don't understand half of Moissi and three quarters of your teammates. Pathetic fiasco, depressing failure! "
Helmut Rosenthal from the BZ am Mittag , Berlin, No. 319 of November 22, 1929, was of a similar opinion and wrote that "Alexander Moissi's game remains arrested in an unmistakable transitional limbo". Thus “a rigid gaze of the pupils suddenly turns into a goby eye; a murmur, groan [e] as a ghostly gasp ... "There is still a lot to" transform; how much more so with partner Camilla Horn ”.
Hanns G. Lustig of the daily newspaper Tempo , Berlin, No. 273 of November 22, 1929, wrote: “Wonderful canvas! When she was still mute she was so gentle that she willingly endured a thousand lies an hour. She doesn't do it anymore. It screams, it rages, it roars when its unnatural is forced upon it. ”And a few lines later:“ We want the sound film. That is why we reject it. Unconditionally."
Karlheinz Wendtland argued: “Despite the good presentation, the bad dialogues are annoying and the sound quality leaves a lot to be desired.” F. v. Zglinicki judged in Weg des Films (Olms Presse, Hildesheim, 1979, p. 637): "Camilla Horn was excellent at it, Moissi was disappointing, because the sound engineering at that time was unable to satisfy Moissi's nuanced speech melodies."
Web links
- The royal box in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Karlheinz Wendtland: Beloved Kintopp. All German feature films from 1929–1945 with numerous artist biographies born in 1929 and 1930, Medium Film Verlag Karlheinz Wendtland, Berlin, first edition 1988, second revised edition 1990, p. 14, film 2/1929. ISBN 3-926945-10-9
- ^ Vossische Zeitung, Berlin, No. 386 of August 17, 1929
- ↑ a b c d Gero Gandert: The film of the Weimar Republic 1929 A manual of contemporary criticism. Published by Gero Gandert, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York, 1993, Film 103, pp. 356–359 - ISBN 3-11-011183-7 on behalf of the Deutsche Kinemathek Foundation