The Lie (1950)

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Movie
Original title The lie
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1950
length 84 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director Gustav Fröhlich
script Gustav Fröhlich
production Young Film Union Rolf Meyer , Hamburg
music Wolfgang Zeller
camera Hans Schneeberger
cut Martha Dübber
occupation

The Lie is a fiction film by Gustav Fröhlich from 1950. It is based on the novella Murderer without Murder by Martha Maria Gehrke and Hans Schweikart .

content

Radiation researcher Prof. Ernst A. Gruber has two grown daughters: Ellen is engaged to Harry Altenberger, whose father, as a banker, largely finances Gruber's radiation research institute. Gruber's second daughter Susanne is with Gruber's colleague Dr. Thomas Robertsen married. All three men are planning a balloon ascent into the stratosphere . A few days before the trip, there is an argument between Susanne and Thomas, as the latter suspects a relationship between his wife and Harry. After a party with her first husband, Susanne came home that morning and met Harry at the door, who in turn had spent the night with a lover. In order to protect their partners, both stated that they partied together until the early hours of the morning. Harry however had kissed Susanne, with whom he is secretly in love, in front of Thomas' door and Thomas had seen this through the peephole. As the ignorant Harry invents more and more lies to cover up Susanne, Thomas becomes more and more suspicious of both him and Susanne.

During the balloon flight, complications arise, the balloon is driven out to sea and the men face death. You loosen the balloon basket and yet the balloon sinks ever deeper towards the surface of the sea. After Gruber passed out, the conflict between Harry and Thomas gets out of control: Thomas beats Harry, whereupon he falls from the balloon ropes and, after Thomas has cut his last tether, falls into the sea. Thomas and Gruber are rescued, Harry is considered dead and - according to Thomas' statement - the victim of a tragic accident. A little later, however, the unconscious Harry is found and taken to a hospital. Thomas plays with the idea of ​​killing Harry on the sickbed, but his remorse outweighs it. He confesses to Susanne his attempted murder of Harry in the balloon and Ellen also becomes an unnoticed witness to his confession.

Harry has become a different person after his recovery. He used to be a womanizer and was constantly drunk, even though he almost raped his fiancée Ellen once, he is now humble and polite. He has also lost his memory and the brain surgeon Ellen tries unsuccessfully to give him medical help. The rumors that the accident was an attempted murder lead Gruber, who was convinced of Thomas' innocence, to call a press conference. Harry, who has now recovered, also appears, but to Thomas' surprise confirms his false version of the course of the accident. Both men decide to leave the past alone and Harry finally finds his way back to his fiancé Ellen, whom he wanted to leave for Susanne before the accident.

production

The filming of The Lie took place in the Hamburg-Bendestorf studio . The outdoor shots were taken in Westerland , on Sylt and on the North Sea coast. Leading actor Will Quadflieg reported in his autobiography that he almost drowned in the scene in which he had to fall from the balloon in the studio into the "sea".

"I had to plunge into the dirty, cold waters in a flying suit ... [n] ur nobody had thought that my fur-lined flying suit could soak up water immediately and that I might have difficulty getting back to the surface. ... After falling into the water, I stood on the bottom of the three meter deep pool and couldn't get up. I waded through the cloudy, cold broth to the edge of the pool, jumped up and was able to grab an edge and pull myself up. There was just enough air. Upstairs they were very amazed when I came up half passed out ... "

- Will Quadflieg 1976

The lie premiered at the Locarno International Film Festival in July 1950 and was panned by critics . In Germany, the film in its original version met with criticism because the mural “The work is more than you”, which can be seen in the film, would tie in with phrases from the National Socialist era . An implied rape scene would also "pan the audience's imagination into the areas of immoral imagination" as well as the "presumption of an individual who decides on the value of a human life through murder ... the basic concepts of society." The film was therefore made Only released from the age of 18.

The German premiere took place on August 11, 1950.

criticism

The Lexicon of International Films rated The Lie as a "confused, pathetic film with lying morality."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alfred Bauer : German feature film Almanach. Volume 2: 1946-1955 , p. 134
  2. ↑ Will Quadflieg: We always play. Memories . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1976, p. 118.
  3. ↑ You hit yourself . In: Der Spiegel . August 10, 1950, p. 27.
  4. ↑ Klaus Brühne (Ed.): Lexicon of International Films . Volume 5. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1990, p. 2336.