The Merry Wives of Windsor (1950)

Movie
Original title	The merry women of Windsor
Country of production	GDR
original language	German
Publishing year	1950
length	96 minutes
Age rating	FSK 6
Rod
Director	Georg Wildhagen
script	Wolff von Gordon , Georg Wildhagen
production	DEFA
music	Otto Nicolai
camera	Eugen Klagemann , Karl Plintzner
cut	Johanna Rosinski
occupation
Sonja Ziemann : Mrs. Fluth Camilla Spira : Mrs. Reich Paul Esser : Sir John Falstaff Claus Holm : Mr. Fluth Alexander Engel : Mr. Reich Ina Halley : Anna Reich Eckart Dux : Fenton Joachim Teege : Mr. Spärlich Gerd Frickhöffer : Dr. Cajus Berta Monnard : Landlady Kurt Mühlhardt : Butcher Charles Hans Vogt : Tailor Fritz Melchior : Carter Erich Gühne : Shoemaker Herbert Richter : Blacksmith Edith Hancke : apprentice at Reich Edgar Pauly : Landlord Elfriede Dugall : Brown Hanne Vladimir Marfiak : 1st servant Nico Turoff : 2nd servant Adolf von Wyhl : Assistant to Reich Gerd Ewert : 2nd assistant at Reich Walter Weinacht : factotum Franziska Klossak : Wrong bride Willy Dugal : Fishmonger Carlo Kluge : Farmer Horst Stoletzki : Delivery boy Dita Hussina : flower woman Mimi Mittell : fish woman Hans Jöckel : Passerby Hans Sanden : Tooth breaker Gisela Arnold : His assistant Heinz Gerlach : patient Wolfgang Grützmann : Bader Renate Fischer : His wife Ludwig Sachs : Quack Fredy Teichmann : Man, rural couple Maria Eggert : woman, rural couple Miriam Barty : bag cutter Kurt-Otto Fritsch : Beloved Liselotte Walter : Beloved Martin Rosen : Fat man
synchronization

The funny women of Windsor is a German opera adaptation by DEFA by Georg Wildhagen from 1950.

action

A theater company comes to a town and puts on their play about Sir John Falstaff and the Wives of Windsor.

Mrs. Fluth and her neighbor Mrs. Reich are appalled because both married women have received an identical written declaration of love from knight John Falstaff . You decide to give the drunkard who is constantly poor cash a lesson to remember. At the same time they want to cure Hern Fluth of his jealousy.

Mrs. Fluth answers Falstaff's letter inviting him to her house. Frau Reich, in turn, slips Herr Fluth a letter telling him about Falstaff's visit to his wife. When Falstaff appears and wants to be intrusive, Frau Reich appears with the hint that Frau Fluth's husband is coming home. Falstaff is hidden in a laundry basket, which is emptied into a pool by the servants of the house. Herr Fluth, on the other hand, looks in vain for Falstaff. He now goes to Falstaff himself, introduces himself under a strange name and tries to arrange a meeting with his wife through Falstaff. He plans to catch Falstaff red-handed at his wife's house if she arranges a meeting for him. In fact, however, Ms. Reich can warn Ms. Fluth in good time and Falstaff hides her in the pigsty . From there he escapes in women's clothes.

Now Ms. Fluth and Ms. Reich clarify all the complications to their husbands. They decide to drive Falstaff out of the village for good. Ms. Fluth and Ms. Reich organize a rendezvous with Falstaff in the forest, where the entire villagers appear in disguise and chase Falstaff away under mockery.

In a subplot, Frau Reich's daughter Anna manages to oppose her father and mother, whom she wants to marry off to a snob and a rich but colorless man, and to marry the penniless Fenton, who loves her and is good at singing.

The performance is over and the performers bow to the audience. The curtain falls.

production

The Merry Wives of Windsor was the second opera adaptation that Georg Wildhagen shot for DEFA after Figaro's wedding (1949). After disputes about the finale of the film, which had to be changed shortly before the premiere, Wildhagen did not shoot another film for DEFA.

The film was made in the Babelsberg studio with outdoor shots in Babelsberg Park and had its premiere on December 22, 1950 in the Leipzig Capitol . In the Federal Republic of Germany the film first appeared on October 17, 1958 in northern Germany.

synchronization

The singing of the actors was synchronized:

role	actor	singing
Mrs. Fluth	Sonja Ziemann	Rita prank
Mrs. Reich	Camilla Spira	Martha Mödl
Sir John Falstaff	Paul Esser	Hans Kramer
Mr. Fluth	Claus Holm	Herbert Brewer
Mr. Reich	Alexander Engel	Willy Heyer
Anna Reich	Ina Halley	Sonja Schöner

criticism

The critics reacted to the film in two ways: while critics of the GDR panned the film, because "the plot [of the opera] is being coarsely drawn into the comic vulgarity through its own ingredients [by the scriptwriters]" and therefore "should be rejected from the standpoint of popular education", The criticism of the FRG praised the film. It was "loosened up so skilfully with optical ingredients [...] that everything conventionally operatic has disappeared. Not an orthodox opera film, but a plump, bubbly film fun game with musical interludes! "

The lexicon of international films called The Funny Wives of Windsor a "musical, lively film adaptation of Nicolai's comical-fantastic opera based on Shakespeare's motifs".

literature

• F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 375-376 .

Web links

• The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Internet Movie Database (English)
• The funny women from Windsor at filmportal.de
• The merry wives of Windsor at the DEFA Foundation

Individual evidence

1. ↑ F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 376 .
2. ^ Alfred Bauer: German feature film Almanach. Volume 2: 1946-1955 , pp. 134 f.
3. ^ Karl Schönewolf in: Weltbühne , No. 1, 1951.
4. ↑ Sabine Tomzig in: Hamburger Abendblatt. January 6, 1962.
5. ↑ The Merry Wives of Windsor. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 7, 2018 .