A great idea
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | A great idea |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1932 |
| length | 87 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK unchecked |
| Rod | |
| Director | Kurt Gerron |
| script | Philipp Lothar Mayring , Fritz Zeckendorf , based on the play "A great idea" (1881) by Carl Laufs |
| production | Universum Film AG ( Bruno Duday ) |
| music | Bronislaw Kaper , Walter Jurmann |
| camera | Konstantin Irmen-Tschet , Werner Bohne |
| cut | Constantine Mick |
| occupation | |
| |
A great idea is a musical comedy from 1932. The director led Kurt Gerron , for the screenplay recorded Philipp Lothar Mayring and Fritz Zeckendorf responsible. The film is primarily tailored to Willy Fritsch in the leading role , in addition to numerous well-known actors such as Jakob Tiedtke , Max Adalbert , Dorothea Wieck , Ellen Schwanneke or Rosy Barsony in larger supporting roles as well as Paul Hörbiger , Theo Lingen , Adele Sandrock or Oskar Sima in scene appearances you can see.
action
The film begins with a dream sequence by the art dealer Michael Lüders, who drives up in his limousine to the mighty-looking Munich tax office and enters it together with other gentlemen in a fine thread. After a while the men and Lüders leave the office again, but literally in their last shirt: in underwear. The limousines have disappeared, everyone is driving away on scooters instead. When Lüders wakes up from the dream, a tax officer really stands in front of him to collect numerous taxes, which Lüders cannot pay. Although he lives in the million dollar Birkenfels Castle in the Swiss Alps, he no longer has any liquid funds. He even has to spend the wages of his staff in material assets, so that, for example, his servant Emil receives wine instead of cash and is therefore constantly drunk. Lüders therefore decides to travel to England to sell his castle to his wealthy friend Mr. Miller.
Shortly before his departure, his nephew Paul visits him, a painter who wants to sell him a picture and pump him up for money. He, too, has no more funds and therefore had to leave his Munich apartment, but at least he has the small assignment to design an advertising poster for a winter sports hotel. He asks his uncle to be allowed to look after Birkenfels Castle while he is away, so that he can finish his job there in the seclusion of the mountains without the distraction of the temptations of the big city. The uncle agrees, leaves, and Paul begins to paint the poster in front of the motif of the surrounding mountains.
When he left the unfinished poster on the easel for a moment in front of the castle door, Mr. Müller, manager of the famous Miller Girls, passed the house and misunderstood the poster as an advertisement for a supposed castle hotel. He rents eleven rooms for his dance group, which the penniless art dealer Birnstiel, who is friends with Paul Lüders and who also lives in the castle, also makes them available to him due to another misunderstanding in communication with Paul Lüders. When another guest arrives, Wendolin, the chairman of the commission, Birnstiel and Paul Lüders have already decided to run the castle spontaneously, but now officially as a hotel. Little by little, new guests arrive, which leads to numerous mix-ups. Paul Lüders, who is swarmed by all the female guests, falls in love with Evelyn Müller, who, due to the similarity of names, does not consider the manager's daughter, but rather the daughter of the Englishman Miller inspecting the castle, while the real Miss Miller has also stayed. Paul's ex-girlfriend, the dancer Anita, surprisingly arrives from Munich, and while sports are being played, singing and dancing during the day, the guests swap rooms and beds at night for a variety of reasons, which in turn leads to new misunderstandings. When Paul's uncle finally arrives with the English Mr. Miller, the latter does not have enough funds to buy the castle, but this is in view of the fact that it has now become a flourishing hotel what the lovers Paul and Evelyn see as future Married couple want to continue, no longer necessary.
Production notes
Filmed at the height of the economic depression in the final phase of the Weimar Republic , the content of the film also focuses on the unemployment and lack of means of its main characters. However, this with contemporary humor and interpretable as an appeal to the later cinema audience to make the best of a difficult situation. This is expressed, among other things, by the hit song Heut I am in a good mood, composed especially for the film, with the text “ Today everything does not matter to me, whether I am poor or rich, today my world is in the sunshine. I imagine that I am doing wonderfully and that it is not true either, because my worries have time until tomorrow «.
A great idea was shot mainly in St. Moritz in March and April 1932 . The opening scenes of the film take place in Munich on Max-Joseph-Platz , with the National Theater serving as a backdrop for a tax office and on Odeonsplatz . The interior photos were taken in the Ufa studios in Neubabelsberg. The film passed the censorship on May 12, 1932 under youth ban and was premiered one day later, on Friday, May 13, 1932 immediately before the weekend of Pentecost in Berlin's Ufa-Palast am Zoo .
Trivia
The winners of various German beauty pageants were hired to cast a female dance group, and the girls not only knew how to dance, but also had to be able to skate.
Ellen Schwanneke was the daughter of the actor Viktor Schwanneke , who, in addition to his film work, also ran the Schwanneke artist's bar on Berlin's Rankestrasse .
music
- I'm in a good mood today .
Composed by Walter Jurmann (music) and Fritz Rotter (text), the song accompanies the film in several versions and instrumentally also represents the musical leitmotif. As a text version, it is initially in the opening scene by Leo Slezak , who is accompanied by two accordion players as well as in the following scene by Ellen Schwanneke with piano accompaniment. As the third interpreter, Willy Fritsch takes on the lead vocals in a bar scene in the film, who later also recorded the piece on record with the Ufa Jazz Orchestra and the Melody Gents, whose version is also featured as accompanying music in the film (78 / Parlophone B-48188 -I).
- I'm looking for one that's mine alone
Also composed by Walter Jurmann and Fritz Rotter and sung by Willy Fritsch, the piece of music is the central hit of the film and is used in a modified instrumental version as accompanying music. On the record it formed the B-side of Today I'm in a good mood (78 / Parlophone B-48188-II).
Reviews
"A little operetta, a little parody, a little love and a little jealousy, and a huge array of artists!"
“Kurt Gerron, who has worked fabulously, continues the chain of his directing successes. His films sparkle with life, they are made by a person who sees the world with alert senses, who apparently enjoys filming as hell, and who has the important property that what he likes is also appealing to the audience. "
“A great idea - shown as a new Willy Fritsch film in the Ufa-Palast am Zoo, increases the willing amusement of the audience to a loud and lasting final success that doesn't want to stop. And everyone deserves this applause: the director Gerron, who knew how to turn an accumulation of details into a coherent atmosphere, as well as the actors, who keep their own face, although the to and fro of the improvised environment could easily have led to a unit of expression can."
“A sympathetic, undemanding, entertaining musical comedy about confusion of love and mix-ups, the main role of which was made for Willy Fritsch, then a woman's favorite. In terms of film history it is significant as one of the comparatively few directorial works by Kurt Gerron, who was a multi-talent with extraordinary entertainer qualities until he was expelled from Germany in 1933. "
Web links
- A great idea in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- A great idea at filmportal.de
- A great idea at murnau-stiftung.de
Individual evidence
- ^ Lyrics by Fritz Rotter. Lyrics Translate, accessed December 27, 2019 .
- ↑ A great idea. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 27, 2019 .