Lucky children
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Lucky children |
 | |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1936 |
| length | 94 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Paul Martin |
| script | Paul Martin, Robert A. Stemmle , Curt Goetz (dialogues) |
| production | Max Pfeiffer |
| music | Peter Kreuder |
| camera | Konstantin Irmen-Tschet |
| cut | Carl Otto Bartning |
| occupation | |
In smaller roles u. a .: Paul Rehkopf , | |
Glückskinder is a German comedy film, shot in the style of American screwball comedies in 1936 , starring the dream couple from German films of the 1930s , Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch . Directed by Harvey's then partner Paul Martin . The film, which is set in New York City , had its world premiere on August 19, 1936 in the United States of America . On September 19, it celebrated its German premiere at the Gloria Palast in Berlin .
action
Hopkins, the court reporter for the New York Morning Post , is too drunk to make an appointment with the express court. He therefore asks his colleague Stoddard to represent him. But he doesn't feel like doing it and is looking for a stupid man to hand over this unloved appointment. Gil Taylor, the poet among newspaper reporters, comes in handy. His texts have so far been as heavy as lead in the editor-in-chief's filing and will probably wait forever to be printed. Gil takes on the job, initially with a high degree of reluctance, since, in his opinion, only boring everyday cases are dealt with before the fast court.
However, his interest is piqued when the case of blonde Ann Garden is dealt with. She is charged with loitering and vagabonding, has no place to stay, and instincts protective feelings in Taylor. He jumps up from the spectator's bench and calls out to the judge, “I know the lady, Your Grace!”. General astonishment spreads - especially among the defendant. Then Gil adds: "Yes, we are engaged, we would like to get married soon ... preferably today instead of tomorrow ..." The judge smiles cryptically and doesn't seem to trust the matter. He therefore summons a registrar within two minutes and the two strangers are immediately married to each other. The reporter colleagues write down with a grin, the photographers' flashes perpetuate this act of “true love”, and a little later the newly wed couple finds themselves on the street, puzzled.
Over herring with jacket potatoes in the next dinner , the two of them get to know each other first. But Ann Garden is not as innocent, dear and harmless as she seems. Obviously, she's got it all. She mocks Gil and doesn't show the slightest desire to tell him anything about herself. Since Ann has no place to stay and Gil only has a bed at home, the wedding night issue becomes a real problem. This is solved with a long board on which Gil has lined up his cactus collection and which is now being converted into a nightly separating barrier between the pillows.
The next day, quick marriage in front of the quick court is the topic of conversation all over New York. Almost all the newspapers are full of it, and this way the couple gets unwanted prominence. Only the Morning Post , of all people, does not mention the occurrences with a single syllable. Editor-in-chief Manning is furious and immediately fires Gil. When Taylor's ex-colleagues Frank Black and Stoddard want to stand up for him, Manning throws them upright too.
But there is another message currently dominating New York's forest of leaves. The niece of the oil tycoon Jackson is said to have disappeared without a trace. Her distinctive mark: she has a mole on her shoulder. It doesn't take long for the three of them to see a light: Ann must be said niece. And on closer inspection, it is very clear that she has this mole. Gil is foaming with anger; he thinks the spoiled dollar princess was just having fun with him the whole time and was fooling him. He packs Ann in his car and drives straight to the oil magnate's villa. There he unloads them and speeds away again.
Mr. Jackson doesn't understand a word: the girl is not his niece! However, the cheeky young lady makes him an original proposal. How about if she actually played his niece in the near future? If she was actually kidnapped, as suspected, the kidnappers could get quite confused and release the false real niece. The oil tycoon is enthusiastic and agrees. In the evening, uncle and 'niece' Ann appear together in public for the first time when they visit the opera. Meanwhile, Frank and Stoddard have achieved their reinstatement with the "Morning Post", in which they landed a supposed scoop with their report about the happy discovery of the Jackson niece . Gradually, however, it dawns on Gil that the girl who is married to him cannot be the niece after all and the mole on the shoulder is just a trick.
Gil wants to confront Ann with his assumption in the opera and comes across a giant with whom he had already fought. Gil tries to get back at the guy and hit the chin, but accidentally hits the fire alarm. The fire brigade is approaching, the police cordon off the area, and the opera-goers stream outside. The man Gil was about to fight "saves" Ann in the crowd and speeds away with her in his car. Taylor and his reporter friends race after him, as does the fake "uncle" Mr. Jackson. The chase ends in front of a house just outside New York City. They follow the "kidnapper" Anns to his apartment.
There it comes to a wild scuffle between the gentlemen present, until suddenly another woman appears. It's Molly, the real Jackson niece! Then everything clears up. The "kidnapper" is a boxer named Brown and has secretly married Mr. Jackson's niece who ran away with him - as expected against his will. The two of them had been hiding in this apartment the whole time. Everyone is satisfied: Jackson is blessed to get his (now married) niece back, Gil can really hug his Ann now, and editor-in-chief Manning has the absolute hit for his next issue. But who is Ann really ...?
Production notes
Was filmed lucky children from 23 May to July 1936 in the UFA -Atelier Neubabelsberg .
In Germany he received the title artistically valuable in September 1936 .
The main assets of this film are above all the dialogues penned by Curt Goetz , which are characterized by a perkiness, freshness and originality that was completely unusual for the Nazi cinema of those years, as well as the lively music of Peter Kreuders . His hit I want 'I was a chicken' , a foxtrot , developed into a hit . Hans Fritz Beckmann provided the text for this . Another hit was the song Das Fräulein Nobody Loves Mr Anyway , a slow foxtrot.
The costumes were designed by Manon Hahn , the buildings by Erich Kettelhut .
In parallel to the German original version, a French language version was created under the title Les gais lurons . In addition to Harvey, who also took on her French-speaking part, Henri Garat played the role of Fritsch , as in previous years . With this film, the tradition of making French versions of German films, which began at the beginning of the sound film age in 1930, ended.
In 1950 Glückskinder was performed again in the Federal Republic. It was first broadcast on German television on March 4, 1957 on ARD .
New restoration
In 2012, Glückskinder was extensively restored by CinePostproduction GmbH on behalf of the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation . A nitro copy from the Deutsche Kinemathek - Museum für Film und Fernsehen, Berlin served as the main source of material for the restoration. The scan and the processing took place in 2K resolution. A backup copy from the Federal Film Archive Berlin could be used to supplement missing parts in the nitro copy. The same source materials were used for the clay restoration.
The restored version had its world premiere on February 13 at the Berlinale in the retrospective "The Weimar Touch", which presented German and international films that are shaped by Weimar film culture.
criticism
The film's large personal lexicon called Glückskinder a “witty and ironic Harvey-Fritsch comedy” and reminded the audience that the director Martin, who came to film fame with Ein blonder Traum , “with the punchy comedy , thanks to Curt Goetz 'collaboration, was again quick in dialogue an overwhelming success ”.
In Bucher's encyclopedia of the film you can read: “Thanks to the witty book, in which the polished dialogues of Curt Goetz inspire, but to which the dramaturgical skill of RA Stemmle has also contributed significantly, this comedy is one of very few German films that not only copy their role model, the American screwball comedy, but can also compete with its best representatives. "
The lexicon of international films praised: “A spirited comedy in the style of the American 'screwball comedies' of the thirties. Thanks to the tight direction and the acting presence, the quick-witted dialogues by Curt Goetz and Peter Kreuder's comically jazzed songs, an unadulterated pleasure. "
The internet presence of the film magazine Cinema says: "A lucky child in German comedy history."
See also
literature
- Jörg Schöning: Film Europe — Babylon: Multilingual Versions of the 1930s in Europe. text + criticism, Munich 2005.
Web links
- Glückskinder in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Glückskinder at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for lucky children . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , June 2013 (PDF; test number: 80 0V V).
- ↑ 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 3: F - H. Barry Fitzgerald - Ernst Hofbauer. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 296.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Bucher's Encyclopedia of Films, Verlag CJ Bucher, Lucerne and Frankfurt / M. 1977, p. 298.
- ↑ Klaus Brüne (Red.): Lexikon des Internationale Films Volume 3, S. 1353. Reinbek near Hamburg 1987. See also: Glückskinder. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Glückskinder in cinema.de .