Bat 1955

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Movie
German title Bat 1955
Original title Oh, Rosalinda !!
Country of production United Kingdom , Germany
original language English
Publishing year 1955
length 105 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Michael Powell
Emeric Pressburger
script Michael Powell
Emeric Pressburger
production Michael Powell
Emeric Pressburger
music Johann Strauss (son)
Frederick Lewis
camera Christopher Challis
cut Reginald Mills
occupation

and Barbara Archer , Hildy Christian , Caryln Gunn , Jill Ireland , John Schlesinger, Frederick Schiller , Frederick Schrecker

Fledermaus 1955 (in the original: Oh, Rosalinda !! ) is a British-German operetta adaptation in a modern guise by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger from 1955. The leading roles are played by Adolf Wohlbrück , Ludmilla Tchérina , Mel Ferrer and Michael Redgrave . The story is based on the operetta Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss (son) .

action

The plot of the Strauss Sohn operetta has been relocated to early post-war Vienna in 1955, immediately before the state treaty concluded in the same year that restored Austria's independence.

The elegant black market dealer Dr. Falke moves freely back and forth within the zones of occupation of the Americans, Soviets, British and French. His coveted Schieber products are the finest caviar and fine champagne , which the "high animals" among the crew officers are fighting for. After a costume ball, the French Colonel Gabriel Eisenstein allowed himself a little joke, with the drunk falcon suffering. He lets the black marketeer, who is no longer capable of his five senses and who is almost asleep, simply put it on the lap of a Soviet victory statue, dressed in a bat costume. Promptly, he was discovered there the next morning by some Soviet soldiers who were furious at this "provocation". Dr. Falke is arrested for the time being, but intervenes in his favor, Soviet General Orlowsky, who is also on the noble academic's delivery list.

Dr. Falke finds out that Colonel Eisenstein was behind this joke and then also works out a plan with which he wants to repay the Frenchman. Part of the plan are the British Major Frank, Eisenstein's wife Rosalinde and their domestic servant Adele. The charade is to take place at a masked ball given by General Orlowsky. The American captain Alfred Westerman appears in the plot, he was once an admirer of Rosalinde. And now he really wants to use the opportunity to end up with the beautiful young woman again, as long as her husband is not present. Since the occupiers joke about Colonel Eisenstein out of a champagne mood against Dr. Falke were not necessarily happy, he is said to be kept in a room for a week. However, one meets with his wife Rosalinde Captain Westerman, whom the unsuspecting guards mistake for Eisenstein and take him away instead of Eisenstein.

At the masked ball, Dr. Falke, in turn, met Colonel Eisenstein with a masked lady, who the French did not suspect was his wife. The French colonel, who found out about his Rosalinde's tête-à-tête with the American, accused his loved one of marital infidelity on the following day, to which the latter reacted by saying that he himself was at the ball with a masked stranger, in Reality she herself, pousséed. Dr. Falke rubs his hands together, his little “revenge” worked perfectly. In the end everything dissolves in favor.

Production notes

Fledermaus 1955 was made in mid-1955 in the Elstree Studios (London) and in Vienna (exterior shots). The world premiere took place on November 18, 1955 in London. The German premiere was on December 19, 1955, the Austrian premiere in Vienna that same month. Here the strip was also sold under the title 4 Powers in ¾-time .

Günther Stapenhorst's Munich Carlton film was involved in this film from the German side. Hein Heckroth designed the extensive film structures. Alfred Rodriguez took over the choreography of Alois Melichar and the musical arrangement of the German version.

Sing it:

Michael Redgrave, Anthony Quayle and Anneliese Rothenberger sang their parts themselves.

Reviews

The Cinemascope film, with which Powell & Pressburger resumed their cooperation after a four-year break, was unsuccessful, and the reviews were modest to devastating.

The Movie & Video Guide said: "Not overly successful, but still quite stylish, funny and colorful as you would expect from the team that Die Rote Schuh and Hoffmann's stories brought about."

Halliwell's Film Guide characterized the film as follows: “A cumbersome attempt to modernize“ Die Fledermaus ”, an unsuitable widescreen format and a total lack of the Lubitsch touch required here. A monumental step towards the decline of its producers and a sad failure of a brilliant cast. "

The film service says: “Music film based on motifs from the Strauss operetta, which is set in Vienna, which is divided into four parts, after the Second World War. (...) Powell and Pressburger must have been abandoned by all the good spirits of film entertainment when they shot this updated operetta smack, which despite the international cast seems uninspired and pointless. "

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 953
  2. ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 748
  3. ↑ Fledermaus 1955. In: Lexicon of international films . Film service , accessed December 1, 2019 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 

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