A blonde dream
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | A blonde dream |
 | |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1932 |
| length | 100 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Paul Martin |
| script |
Walter Reisch Billie Wilder |
| production | Erich Pommer |
| music | Werner Richard Heymann |
| camera |
Günther Rittau Otto Baecker Konstantin Irmen-Tschet |
| cut | Willy Zeyn junior |
| occupation | |
| |
A blond dream is a musical comedy filmed in 1932 with the dream couple from the German film of the 1930s, Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch , and Willi Forst from Vienna in the three main roles. The Hungarian-born Paul Martin directed the film . The film, which was initially banned from young people on September 23, 1932 , premiered on the same day in Berlin . On October 27, 1932, the youth ban was lifted and the film was also released for young people. A blonde dream was one of the biggest box office hits in the late phase of the Weimar Republic .
action
Berlin at the height of the Depression at the beginning of the 1930s. The two window cleaners from Blitz-Blank, Willy I and Willy II, cycle with a ladder and washing utensils back and forth through the big city from order to order, from house to house. They get along brilliantly and at best clash when both are interested in one and the same girl. One day the blonde Jou-Jou comes into her life. You can see her through the window of the American Consulate General. When Jou-Jou is about to be thrown out of the house by the gruff doorman, the two of them stand knightly by her side.
Jou-Jou, who earns a living as a projectile in a traveling circus, dreams of a film career in America. A certain Mr. Merryman, allegedly an important Hollywood mogul, once promised her a film career in Hollywood - for a fee of $ 25. The two Willys decide to help the girl. They take her home first so that she and her shaggy promenade mix, known as Buffalo, get a roof over their heads. Both window cleaners live poor but happy far outside the city gates in the middle of the meadow - in two poor, but wildly romantic railway wagons that are guarded by a strange guy called the 'scarecrow'.
Jou-Jou is given a discarded express train car as their own accommodation. But it soon becomes unmistakable that both Willy I and Willy II have their eyes on the blonde dream. “Scarecrow” warns Jou-Jou that their presence here threatens to put the friendship of the two window cleaners to a severe test. When the girl reads in the newspaper that Mr. Merryman is currently in Berlin, the decision seems easy and she returns to Berlin. But the disillusionment follows on the foot, her 'Merryman' was a swindler! But now she is suddenly facing the real Mr. Merryman. And he hires Jou-Jou - and only to finally have some peace from her.
Since this cursed hype about Jou-Jou and their dream of the film business almost destroyed Willy's friendship, Willy II bravely steps in front of the real Mr. Merryman and gives him a lecture who has washed himself. Merryman is thrilled. He desperately needs a guy who reads the riot act and thus keeps annoying visitors away. From now on, Willy II is to give this speech every day as his employee - in three languages! For this he even releases Jou-Jou, who eventually sinks into Willy I's arms.
Production notes
The film was the first sole directorial work by Paul Martin. His partner Lilian Harvey had campaigned for the still quite inexperienced young director at UFA . The actor, director, writer and musician Robert Forster-Larrinaga, who was also employed as a dialogue director, fell seriously ill during production and died on July 2, 1932, at the age of 52, of pneumonia.
The shooting took place between May and August 1932 in Berlin and in the UFA film studios in Neubabelsberg , today's Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam .
Composer Werner Richard Heymann contributed the songs We don't pay rent anymore, we are at home in the country and somewhere in the world there is a little bit of luck with two veritable evergreens . The lyrics are by Robert Gilbert and screenplay co-writer Walter Reisch , who in turn wrote the screenplay with the young Billy Wilder . Gérard Jacobson took care of the piano arrangements for Heymann's compositions .
Erich Kettelhut was responsible for the film construction, Eberhard Klagemann worked as production manager and Fritz Thiery was the chief sound engineer. The choreography of the dances was done by Franz Roth.
In an amusing daydream sequence by Lilian Harvey, you see Jou-Jou and her two galans take a train under the Atlantic on the ocean floor to America and even wave the Statue of Liberty to them on arrival in New York City . When she arrives in Hollywood , however, she is just made fun of. Then Jou-Jou wakes up again with the words "Now I have dreamed of." Six months later, in January 1933, Lilian Harvey had actually arrived in Hollywood.
A French and an English version of the film were produced at the same time . Harvey repeated her part in both versions. The French version was called Un Rêve blond and had Henri Garat in the Fritsch and Pierre Brasseur in the Forst role. The British version ran under the title Happy Ever After , the two Willys (here: Willie) were played by Jack Hulbert and Sonnie Hale .
The first performance in the post-war period took place on January 24, 1971, when ZDF broadcast Ein blonder Traum .
Reviews
All in all, contemporary as well as post-war criticism found words of praise for this film, which is certainly a prime example of the escapist UFA cinema in the late Weimar Republic with its armies of unemployed and its extremist fraying on the political (right and left) fringes.
In the Berliner Tageblatt it says: “A 'folk piece with music' by Walter Reisch, Billie Wilder, Werner R. Heymann and a very strong success, which at the end is expressed in applause lasting several minutes. In fact, the director Paul Martin has tackled the now ad nauseam of collective love from two to x boys to one girl with freshness and imagination. "
In the forward one could read:
“A folk piece was created from this material in the usual way. A good dose of humor, a little seriousness and a lot of beautifying life were added to the mix. Three photographers did the neatest and most graceful work to tell this story in memorable images. Director Paul Martin has really sophisticated taste. He is equally good in the crowd scenes as in the purely personal idyll, and he creates a dream as the finest filigree work. Some scenes are reminiscent of the very best achievements in silent film. This film is also acoustically satisfactory. The game is top notch. Lilian Harvey has a threefold effect: through excellent facial expressions, artistic talent as a dancer and a unique figure. Willy Fritsch is amiable, and Willi Forst is bold as always. Paul Hörbiger deserves special praise as a scarecrow. "
In the film's large personal dictionary you can read: “'A blonder Traum' lived from its convincing actors - Lilian Harvey ... and her two window-cleaning admirers Willy Fritsch and Willi Forst - a lively script, perky dialogues and lively melodies by hit guarantor Werner Richard Hey man."
The lexicon of the international film recalled: “The optimistic musical comedy from 1932, which very consciously excludes the social hardship of the time, could be seen by the million unemployed at the reduced admission price of 30 pfennigs. One of Ufa's great successes. "
Web links
- A blond dream in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- A blonde dream at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ kinofenster: "The Three Lives of Babelsberg" www.kinofenster.de from February 7, 2012, accessed February 3, 2016
- ↑ Berliner Tageblatt, evening edition of September 24, 1932
- ^ Critic eb (Erna Büsing) in Vorwärts, evening edition of September 24, 1932
- ↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 5: L - N. Rudolf Lettinger - Lloyd Nolan. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 302.
- ↑ Klaus Brüne (Red.): Lexikon des Internationale Films Volume 1, p. 373. Reinbek near Hamburg 1987. See also: A blond dream. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed June 9, 2018 .