A girl and three clowns

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Movie
Original title A girl and three clowns
Country of production Germany , United Kingdom
original language German , English
Publishing year 1928
Age rating FSK b. E. Youth ban
Rod
Director Hans Steinhoff
script Curt J. Braun
(German version)
Henry Edwards
(English version)
production British & Foreign, London
Orplid-Film GmbH, Berlin
music Hansheinrich Dransmann
(cinema music)
camera Nikolaus Farkas
occupation

One girl and three clowns - Subtitle: Die Drei Zirkuskönige (English title: The Three Kings , UT: A Story of Three Clowns and a Girl ) is a German-British silent film from 1928 directed by Hans Steinhoff . The leading roles are cast with Evelyn Holt , Henry Edwards , Warwick Ward and John Hamilton.

action

The three brothers Edgar, Frank and Charly King appear as clowns in Blackpool's Tower Circus. One day when they are on their way to their pension, they see a young woman taking refuge in a taxi and collapsing there. As it quickly turns out, the woman is Maria, the stepdaughter of the trainer Fredo. The irascible man also puts pressure on Maria's mother, which repeatedly leads to arguments. On that day, Maria had fled into a taxi, fearful of his brutality. Edgar, the eldest of the brothers, took Maria home with him, although his brothers objected.

However, her resistance to the young, rather attractive woman quickly collapsed. It is Charly who then falls head over heels in love with Maria, who is also made advances by Frank, who is decried as a womanizer. Since Charly can count on the support of his older brother Edgar, Frank, who absolutely wants to emerge victorious from this fraternal struggle, comes up with the unfortunate idea of ​​allying himself with Fredo. When Edgar is drawn into the brothers' jealousy, their collaboration as clowns is put to the test.

Production notes and background

As the trade press reported at the end of January 1928, Orplid-Messtro had acquired a material from Europäische Film-Produktion GmbH that went back to Curt J. Braun and was temporarily entitled The Three Circus Kings . After Londer British & Foreign Films took over both companies in May, Henry Edwards appears in England as the sole author and in Germany as a co-author. In addition to the Orplid owner Georg M. Jacoby as a German producer, the English director and actor Sidney Morgan was named as the English producer. The shooting of the film began on August 1st in the Grunewald Studios and continued at the end of the month from August 27th to September 5th, 1928 in the northern English seaside resort of Blackpool . The circus recordings were made during the traditional “August Bank Holiday” weekend in the Tower Circus there . The shooting was finished in mid-September.

The film was produced in cooperation between the film companies British & Foreign, London and Orplid-Film GmbH, Berlin. It was distributed by Messtro-Film-Verleih GmbH, Berlin, while British & Foreign provided the distribution for the English version. The original film version had a length of 6 acts equal to 2,141 meters, in England 6,824 ft. Equal to 2,080 meters. The restored version is 2,057 meters long. The buildings and the equipment for the film were the responsibility of Franz Schroedter .

Since an original copy of the German version could not be found, the version restored by the film archive of the Federal Archives in 2008/2009 is based on the German censorship card as well as three nitro copies originally from privately owned with French and English subtitles, which were kindly made available. The two English copies contained red viraged circus fire sequences in the final part of the film. The French version largely followed the version recorded on the German censorship card, while the English version proceeded differently. At the beginning of the film, for example, she renounced the comparison of artists and migratory birds and immediately began with the dramatic confrontation between the lion tamer Fredo and his stepdaughter Maria, a scene that appears in a flashback much later in both the French and German copies . Several slightly shifted German titles, some of which have not been adopted, indicate that Henry Edward's formulations were not simply translated in the English version. The circus numbers in the versions also differ.

On November 16, 1928, the film was subject to a "youth ban" under the number B20830. It was premiered on November 20, 1928 in the Titania Palace in Berlin. Sometimes the spelling 1 girl and 3 clowns was chosen. The working title of the film was The Three Circus Kings . The London premiere took place during a trade show on January 8, 1929 at the Palace Theater. The first showing of the restored version took place on October 9, 2009 during the Le Giornate del Cinema Muto silent film days at the Verdi Theater in Pordenone . Günter A. Buchwald accompanied the piano.

criticism

Under the abbreviation "-isch" a critic of the Berlin Börsen-Courier sighed on November 25, 1928: "Circus and no end," in view of the fact that a wave of circus films bypassed in 1927/1928. To portray the lion tamer played by McLaglen, he said: "Vital lion tamer fades in impressively", and then spoke of a "dull infusion of better predecessors" and a "stirring game with joking side dishes".

The majority of the critics, however, disagreed, as did the premiere audience, who enthusiastically followed the director and actors in the Titania Palace in Steglitz , which held 1,900 spectators. Hans Feld wrote in the Film-Kurier on November 22, 1928 that Steinhoff approached his film "with love for the matter and thought", staged it in "exemplary elegant form" and was able to win "attractive settings from the familiar milieu" , "By inconspicuously enlivening the background of the event". It also said: “Something is always going on. The main law of this film seems to be ease. Love is only taken tragically as far as it is absolutely necessary. In addition, enough lights have been put on to protect the more serious scenes from any patheticism. - This is how a comedy came about; carefree, without any coarsening, and yet effective for the public. (Think it, o factory soul!). ”In contrast to the critic of the Berliner Börsen-Courier, Feld was bothered by McLaglen alone and spoke of the“ wild west-miming, unbearable McLaglen, who raced through the area as an untamed lion tamer ”. Otherwise he enjoyed the film as a whole, the actors, the "film-appropriate working through of the script", the "cinematography by Nikolaus Farkas", the "inconspicuous buildings by Schroedter", the "happy title". He proved himself to be an advocate of the film by saying: "Films of this kind should give food for thought to German manufacturers who are producing with a view to film Europe."

(hc) remarked on the website of the Deutsches Historisches Museum : “The circus film 'A Girl and Three Clowns' is the prime example of a solid medium-sized film made for the international market with German-English cast. [...] In England the film was marketed as an English production, in Germany as a German production. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f A girl and three clowns Films for Hitler - The career of the Nazi star director Hans Steinhoff , Vienna: Verlag Filmarchiv Austria, 2012, pp. 163–171. In: Bundesarchiv, Filmblatt 10 at bundesarchiv.de
  2. ↑ hc: A girl and three clowns at dhm.de