The Tigress (1992)
The Tigress is a German love drama by Karin Howard from 1992 . The film, produced by DEFA among others , is based on motifs from a novel by the Dadaist Walter Serner .
action
Berlin in the 1920s: the impostor Andrei comes into town without a penny in his pocket and begs enough money to buy alcohol in the Exil nightclub . Here the beautiful prostitute Pauline, known as the "tigress", dances alone as always, but flirts with him during her provocative dance. That doesn't fit underworld size Harry at all. He demonstratively begins to dance with Pauline, whom he regards as his property. She pulls herself away from him, yells at him, flirts with Andrei in front of his eyes and finally takes him to her room. Harry remains angry and embarrassed in front of everyone present. In the night Pauline seduces Andrei. Harry searches for her in vain for the next few days and finally sends her a ring through a musician from the exile band. She gives the ring to a policeman unseen and says Harry stole it. She hopes that he will be arrested and that he will not be able to bother her anymore. However, the ring is bought and Harry is released. Andrei and Pauline flee Berlin for fear of his revenge.
You travel to Karlovy Vary and stay in one of the city's good hotels. Pauline took the jewelry she received as a prostitute with her. Andrei moves some of the jewelry and dresses them both in new clothes. He now appears as a baron, while he introduces her at his side as the actress Pola Negri traveling under a pseudonym . High society is thrilled, especially since both are not married. Soon Pauline is swarmed by a count from Vienna who is a successful racing driver. The wealthy oil magnate Sid Slaughter would also like to share a bed with Pauline. He bets his friend that he will sleep with Pauline within three days. Andrei also has an interest in Pauline starting an affair with Sid. He made a deal with Pauline: the two of you won't fall in love, but you will pretend. Pauline will start an affair with Sid and Andrei would eventually have a chance to challenge him to a duel. He believes that Sid would rather offer him money than a duel to clear the matter up. Pauline, however, does not want to prostitute herself for Andrei, especially since, contrary to the agreement, she fell in love with Andrei. Nevertheless, Andrei manages to bring Pauline together with Sid. Sid gives the young woman a car and she gives him oral pleasure at a party. The next day Pauline left. Andrei manages to get out of the hotel under a pretext, since he has no money to pay the bill. He escapes to the train station, where Harry is just arriving. He has found out where Pauline is and wants revenge. He chases Andrei, who is escaping over a railway embankment, and shoots him. The station guards noticed the shooting and, in turn, opened fire. Harry is hit in the leg as he is crossing the tracks in front of an arriving train. He collapses and is run over by the train. Andrei, in turn, manages to jump on a moving train.
Pauline has meanwhile followed the Count from Vienna. Both drive in their cars, but Pauline manages to outsmart the count and let him drive to Vienna alone. On her way to Prague, she suddenly sees Andrei jumping out of the moving train on her way. He was robbed by two crooks in a cattle compartment and jumped off the train when they tried to kill him. Pauline stops at the roadside and waits for Andrei. He gives her a cap that he bought for her in Berlin and that she had forgotten in the hotel. She puts them on happily.
production
The tigress was filmed in 1991 in Berlin , Potsdam , Karlsbad , Angermünde , Bad Freienwalde , Tiefensee , Ferch and Neu Künkendorf . The film features the Hotel Dvorak and the Grand Hotel Pupp in Karlsbad as well as the Hotel Residenz in Berlin; the studio recordings were made in the Babelsberg studios. Ingrid Zoré created the costumes and Dieter Adam designed the equipment . The film premiered on October 15, 1992 in the Berlin Filmpalast and was released in German cinemas the following day. The film was released on video on June 8, 1993, ran for the first time on ARD on November 4, 1995 and was released on DVD in 2006.
Leading actress Valentina Vargas sings the theme song Tiger in a Dress . The film was Karin Howard's directorial debut and the last film appearance of George Peppard . The Tigress is one of the last films that DEFA produced.
criticism
The press tore the film and headlined, among other things, "animal amateurish" and "Joan Collins meets Pippi Longstocking"; the tigress is in reality "just a cuddly toy".
The film service called Die Tigin a failed novel adaptation, which also does not convince as an "erotic entertainment cinema". She has "compared to the content exaggeratedly elaborate illustration of well-known clichés about the 'wild twenties', dramaturgically disheveled and half-baked".
Cinema found that Howard “staged the novel as chic but tough. Conclusion: Little Dada, lots of clichés ”.
literature
- The tigress . In: F.-B. Habel: The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 611-612.
Web links
- The tigress in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The tigress at filmportal.de
- The tigress on defa.de
Individual evidence
- ^ Dieter Bertz in Neues Deutschland , October 15, 1992.
- ↑ W. Brenner in: TIP , No. 21, 1992.
- ↑ PW Jansen in: Der Tagesspiegel , October 15, 1992.
- ↑ The tigress. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ See cinema.de