Halka's pledge

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Movie
Original title Halka's pledge
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1918
length approx. 63 minutes
Rod
Director H. Fredall
script Alfred Halm
production Friedrich Zelnik
occupation

Halka's Vow is a German silent film melodrama filmed in 1917 with Lya Mara in the lead role.

action

Sometime and somewhere in Poland. Count Symon Barinowsky returns to his hometown after a long absence. There he also meets his foster sister Halka, who has matured from a little girl to a grown woman. The count's mother gives a big feast in honor of her son who has returned home. With clear disapproval, she has to realize that feelings seem to develop between Count Symon and the foundling Halka, which the class-conscious woman does not consider appropriate. Symon doesn't care about any of that, he asks Halka to promise him in the face of an image of Mary that she will soon belong entirely to him and that he can make her his wife.

A little later a diplomatic mission takes him far from home, to Java. As soon as he left, Halka met the doctor Dr. Piorkowsky know who is courting her. Faithful to the given word, Halka rejects the attractive young man when he asks for her hand. The old countess would be all too happy with this connection if it meant that her son, who in her eyes should marry a more befitting woman, would be out of the game. And so the cunning noblewoman announces the engagement of her ward to the doctor on a social occasion. Halka's reaction is also befitting: she faints.

When Halka wakes up again, the countess stands next to her and asks her to marry the doctor out of gratitude to the count's family for the educational services she has provided over the past decades. Halka gives in and writes Symon in a letter that she would follow his mother's instructions. Nevertheless, she adds, she will not break the vow of eternal loyalty she has given him. After six months, the wedding between Halka and Dr. Piorkowsky takes place, but the final act of the wedding night together does not take place because Halka makes it clear to her new husband that she feels bound by the promise of loyalty given to Symon.

That same night, Symon has returned home and immediately rushes to Piorkowsky to snatch Halka from him. There is a fight between the two men, until the old house servant Jan intervenes. He tells them a secret that no one knew about before. Halka is actually Symon's half-sister, the fruit of an affair between the (apparently) deceased old count and Jan's wife. While Jan is chatting, Halka enters the room and hears the (for her) cruel truth that Symon has been lost forever as a life partner. Appropriately, she throws all this excitement on the hospital bed. Her husband takes care of her during this time. Halka's vow to her half-brother Symon has now turned into a new promise: eternal friendship and solidarity.

Production notes

Halka's vow was written in the second half of 1917. The four-act act with a length of 1309 meters passed the censorship in December 1917 and was premiered in January 1918.

Hans Albers played one of his first film roles here, Lya Mara one of her first German film roles. The producer of the film was her future husband Friedrich Zelnik .

Alfred Halm directed this film under the pseudonym “H. Fredall ”.

criticism

“[The film] is particularly captivating because of the effective plot, the excellent play of the actors and the excellent staging. The dramatic events are followed with keen interest. (...) Lya Mara ... knows how to bring her excellent means in every respect to the best advantage. Her dance skills also aroused great admiration ... The other actors, above all Erich Kaiser-Titz, play excellently. All in all - an excellent film. "

- Neue Kino-Rundschau of June 22, 1918. p. 87

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