Unfamiliar city
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Unfamiliar city |
| Original title | Magic Town |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1947 |
| length | 103 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 0 |
| Rod | |
| Director | William A. Wellman |
| script | Robert Riskin |
| production | Robert Riskin, William Wellman |
| music | Roy Webb |
| camera | Joseph F. Biroc |
| cut |
Shermann Todd , Richard G. Wray |
| occupation | |
| |
Stranger City is the title of a Hollywood film from 1947. The film also appeared under the title The Model City . It was one of the first films to deal with the young discipline of opinion research. The script was inspired by the community sociological Middletown studies in Muncie (Indiana) the sociologist pair Robert S. Lynd and Helen Lynd .
content
The unsuccessful pollster Rip Smith accidentally discovers the idyllic US town of Grandview, the population of which is statistically exactly the same as the US average , and thus gives the same result in surveys as a survey of the entire US population.
Smith initially marketed his discovery and organized secret polls disguised as an insurance agent, but then got into conflict with the editor-in-chief of the only local newspaper when she wanted to build new schools and a new civic center in the small town and lobbied the city council for it.
Smith fears that his newly discovered “Magical City” could no longer be representative due to the influx of new residents, and is therefore very committed to the innovations, because his discovery is already helping him to achieve new professional success. In an emotional speech, he flatters the mayor and the city.
When the residents of the small town then discover their role and shared responsibility but proud by a newspaper article, they decide the one hand, to market their town better, on the other hand, they now make up small libraries, and discuss a lot with each other at the polls by more education also to always be sufficiently informed about the respective topic.
Tourists and new residents are now flocking to Grandview. As a result, the city experiences a brief economic boom - which, however, only lasts until the now (too) well-informed residents make joint decisions in surveys that are no longer representative of the entire USA ( e.g. Can a woman be President of the USA? The residents answer: Yes. ).
As a result, the (now no longer average) small town becomes a mockery of the whole country because of these "nonsensical" survey results, it is suddenly considered embarrassing to live in Grandview, and Smith, who turns to alcohol with disappointment, is rid of his new source of income. In the mocked city, the citizens withdraw from civil society and no longer express themselves about politics , the formerly self-confident, open community is sinking into depression. The corrupt mayor, who during the boom times had still full-bodied announced that the required school would now be built ( with your own hands , if necessary), tried to secretly privatize the public land for the school and the community center.
In the end, Smith and the editor find each other in a love affair. The young people of the small town are now successfully demonstrating for the new school and the community center with a march to the town hall. When the city council gathered there learned of the secretly planned privatization of public property through the protest, great outrage broke out among the residents and the project was stopped. One now remembers the former community spirit and instead decides to build the community center together, with everyone contributing what they can. New hope arises.
production
Leading actor James Stewart just had Isn't Life Beautiful? Filmed under the direction of Frank Capra , who was still in the follow-up phase when he got the lead role in Foreign City through the engagement of Lew Wasserman . The independent project was produced by Robert Riskin, who wrote the script for numerous Capra films. According to contemporary rumors, Riskin also directed the film and William Wellman only directed the last week, but Wellman later assumed responsibility for the film:
“I was in it from the start and I wish I had never started this. It was terrible! It's not my type of film. "
The film was a flop at the box office and led to the fact that James Stewart began an image change in his roles and portrayed significantly edgier and harder characters in subsequent films such as Password 777 and numerous westerns. In Germany, Fremde Stadt was shown on television for the first time in 1986.
Reviews
The contemporary critics slating the film extensively, which was partly due to the wrong choice James Stewart as draufgängerischem New York. Stewart himself later found that his role "consisted of individual parts that did not come together to form a whole." This is not least due to the fact that supporting actor Donald Meek died during filming and therefore scenes had to be rewritten in a short time. The basic idea of the film was received ambiguously: The film "is so unusual that it applauds [...] and so unrealistic that it deserves a pitting," wrote Photoplay .
Further criticisms of the film concerned the "confused plot and the sentimental, theatrical demeanor [...]. What was apparently intended as a good-natured satire came out as a tough, sticky piece. "The film has" a lot of comical bits [...], but ultimately [but] gets lost in an unforgivably dreary subplot about the attempts of the citizens to get the money for a new building for the city administration and also suffers from the fact that Stewart's moral conversion is almost imperceptible. "
The film service saw in Stranger City an "amusing comedy about citizenship and community, staged with pretty ideas in the optimistic manner of Frank Capra's films," while other reviewers wrote: "If there was one thing more questionable than Capracorn, it was it Capracorn without Capra . "
Web links
- Foreign city in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Sarah E. Igo: The Averaged American. Surveys, Citizens, and the Making of a Mass Public . Harvard University Press, Cambridge / London 2007, pp. 1–2.
- ↑ a b Jonathan Coe: James Stewart. His films - his life . Heyne, Munich 1994, p. 86.
- ↑ Donald Dewey: James Stewart. A life for the film . Henschel, Berlin 1997, p. 221.
- ↑ Donald Dewey: James Stewart. A life for the film . Henschel, Berlin 1997, pp. 220-221.
- ↑ Hal Erickson: Review Magic Town . nytimes, accessed April 4, 2010
- ↑ Quoted from Donald Dewey: James Stewart. A life for the film . Henschel, Berlin 1997, p. 220.
- ^ Howard Thompson: James Stewart. His films - his life . Heyne, Munich 1991, p. 72.
- ↑ Jonathan Coe: James Stewart. His films - his life . Heyne, Munich 1994, p. 86 u. 89.
- ^ Foreign City in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed on April 14, 2012
- ↑ Donald Dewey: James Stewart. A life for the film . Henschel, Berlin 1997, p. 219.