The night is ours (1929)

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Movie
Original title The night is ours
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1929
length 110 minutes
Rod
Director Carl Froelich
script Walter Reisch ,
Walter Supper
production Carl Froelich
music Hansom Milde-Meissner
camera Reimar Kuntze
Charles Métain
cut Jean Oser
Wolfgang Loé Bagier
occupation

The night belongs to us is an early German sound film from the racing milieu of 1929. Directed by Carl Froelich play Hans Albers and Charlotte Ander the leading roles.

action

The young racing driver Bettina Bang had an accident with her car while training in Sicily , but was fortunately rescued by an unknown person. This handsome man is the globetrotter and adventurer Harry Bredow, who takes care of the unconscious. When Bettina wakes up from her faint, Harry has already disappeared. From now on, Bettina's thoughts revolve only around her unknown savior, whom she absolutely wants to see and get to know again. Her fixation on Harry is so great that she even rejects the advances of the almighty boss Marten of the Diavolo car factory. When she officially gets to know Harry one day, she also lets him off at first - not knowing that it is her mysterious savior. But after Bettina has found out the truth about him, she absolutely wants to marry him.

Bredow agrees, and the two become a couple. But dashing Harry, himself a racing driver, has a secret: he is already married. Bettina found out about this at the very moment when her father was about to organize their engagement party. An encounter with Harry's wife confuses Bettina. Little does she suspect that this meeting only came about because Harry's wife, like her husband, is seeking a divorce and wanted to discuss the modalities. Completely desperate, Bettina climbs into her bolide and wants to race to death in the bend in which she had an accident before. Harry follows her at a breathtaking pace, can catch up with her after a wild chase and hold Bettina back from her fatal intent. Both become a couple.

background

The night is ours is based on the play of the same name (1925) by Henry Kistemaeckers. The shooting of this early German sound film began in September 1929 in the Ufa Studios in Tempelhof. At the same time, a French version of The Night Belongs to Us was filmed under the title La nuit est à nous with Jean Murat and Marie Bell in the leading roles.

In Germany, The Night Belongs to Us ran on December 23, 1929 in Berlin's Capitol . The French version had its world premiere on January 10, 1930 in Paris. In 1953 a French remake of his own version was made under the same title.

The exterior shots of The Night Belongs to Us were made in Sicily and on the Avus in Berlin .

Friedrich Pflughaupt and Walter Supper shared the management of the film production, while sound specialist Guido Bagier was responsible for the sound production management. Director Froelich's brother Hugo served as production manager. Carl Froelich also financed part of the production costs of the film himself with 130,000 marks. The film structures were made by Franz Schroedter .

Several songs were played: The night is ours: Have you been loyal to me? , the Faust waltz from the opera “ Margarethe ” (by Charles Gounod ), One must not play with the heart (by Franz Grothe / Luigi Bernauer ), the folk tune 'O sole mio (by Eduardo Di Capua / Giovanni Capurro ) and Wenn die violin plays (by Grothe / Fritz Rotter ). The orchestration was done by Werner Schmidt-Boelcke .

"One month after production, the film was sold four times overseas in fourteen European countries."

criticism

“It seems as if the experimental stage of the German sound films has finally been overcome. As was already emphasized here under ' Melodie des Herzens ', the German sound film style was found in principle, which is mainly characterized by the fact that today it is no longer a mechanical musical background, but a clever distribution of noise, language and music that support, complement and accompany the action. The new Froelich film is in itself a definite cinematic piece, just as the theater owner needs it and as the audience expects. [...] The photography, see above, is consistently successful. The racing shots, especially the long shot, with the serpentines are well above average. In general, everything is in exemplary order in terms of sound quality. You can see that you have come very close to the goal of complete perfection, so you are doubly happy about this success, which Carl Froelich is particularly grateful for because he is not only one of the oldest directors, but also one of those who has been since the beginning of the Cinematography seriously went with the times and with the development, and are therefore entitled to remain at the top in the new sound film period. "

- The Kinematograph , No. 300 of December 24, 1929

Heinz Pol from the Vossische Zeitung couldn't get anything out of the film and wrote: “But the ear is mistreated: the content of the dialogues is almost always at a level that would not even be possible on the smallest provincial theater in Germany today. And the worst: there is far too much talk. The most unimportant things for the plot are babbled to us. "

Walter Kaul from the Berlin Börsen-Courier said: “A 100% German speech and sound film. [...] Another step forward! We hear a whole 'sound studio'. The main actors chat over a Caruso record. You almost hear more than you see. ”Regarding the role of the actors, Kaul commented:“ The speaking film stands or falls with the actors. [...] Two personal stage actors like Hans Albers and Otto Wallburg immediately prevail: they don't try to speak clearly and distinctly, but: their original and expressive speech comes out clearly and distinctly. ”[...] And to Charlotte Ander that it remains "an asset for German speaking films".

“With Carl Froelich, the German sound film has taken a big step forward. This speech film, performed with the greatest and well-deserved premiere success, clearly shows how decisive German work is for international sound film. One of the most beautiful film successes of the year, which we will bury in a few days - buried too gladly - is this work, which went completely new ways, shows completely new ways. One can again hope with great - and here perhaps with the greatest justification - that the young German sound film has surpassed the American sound film in a very short time. For here with the Germans, with the Europeans par excellence, the deeper culture proves to be the greater power, the unswerving steadfastness of new attempts as the greater artistic seriousness. [...] This latest German sound film, undoubtedly by far the best of the German speech films seen so far, and undoubtedly the guide for future work, has fundamentally cleared up a conceptual confusion according to which 'sound film was associated with' orchestra replacement 'and 'Sound definitely'. Its manufacturers have had the extraordinary courage to break quite categorically with a form of the singing band that has almost become a template and to see a fertilizing element in the artistic stubbornness of the stage designer. How this sound film will be able to promote international work on this cinematic form "

- Betz in Der Film, No. 52 from December 28, 1929

“Carl Froelich [...] had himself written a sound film script based on Henry Kistemaecker's play 'The night belongs to us' in order to intersperse the most perfect dialog between the sound effects of the crackling and whirring of the cars, the roar of the machines and the noise of the factory. Hans Albers speaks and improvises in a non-pathetic and funny way, Ida Wüst, Falkenstein, Wallburg, Janssen, Lucie Englisch and Charlotte Ander speak freely and naturally. It was Hans Albers who was successful, not the tone in the film. Froelich brought the stage actor Albers to talk about film, and in 'The Night Belongs to Us' Albers is now conquering the sound film screen because he gives himself and speaks as he can and because he does not show any pronounced comedy. "

- Oskar Kalbus: On the development of German film art. Part 2: The sound film. Berlin 1935, page 12

Karlheinz Wendtland was also of the opinion that Hans Albers had "played a major role in the great success of this sound film". He would be "more natural in behavior and language than anyone in German talkies about". Wendtland also wrote that Froelich had "brought a lot of freshness to the film with his cast of actors". “Everyone made people from everyday life believable, no trace of stage and silent film pathos”!

Award

The Bildstelle Berlin awarded the film under K 852/29 on January 8, 1930 the title “Recognition as artistic”.

Web links

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  1. ↑ The sound control was done by Joseph Massolle
  2. ↑ a b c 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. 17, film 5/1929. ISBN 3-926945-10-9
  3. ^ Ulrich J. Klaus: German sound films, 1st year 1929/30. S. 130. Berlin-Berchtesgaden 1988. ISBN 3-927352-00-4
  4. ↑ Heinz Pol : The night belongs to us In: Vossische Zeitung , Berlin, No. 607 of December 25, 1929.
  5. ↑ a b c Gero Gandert: The film of the Weimar Republic 1929 A manual of contemporary criticism. On behalf of the Deutsche Kinemathek Foundation, edited by Gero Gandert, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York, 1993, Film 28, p. 114 - ISBN 3-11-011183-7
  6. ↑ Walter Kaul : The night is ours . In: Berliner Börsen-Courier , No. 601 of December 25, 1929.