Today is the best day of my life
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Today is the best day of my life |
| Country of production | Austria |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1936 |
| length | 84 or 92 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Richard Oswald |
| script |
Heinz Goldberg Siegfried Geyer |
| production | Heinrich Haas for Globe-Film (di Styria-Film), Vienna |
| music | Hans May |
| camera | Hans Theyer |
| cut | Ladislaus Vidor |
| occupation | |
| |
Today is the most beautiful day of my life is an Austrian film from 1936. Directed by Richard Oswald , the tenor Joseph Schmidt plays a double leading role .
action
Beppo and Tonio Forti are twin brothers and grew up as orphans. Each of them has a different uncle as guardian, Beppo Uncle Max and Tonio Uncle Paul. At the age of 16 you realize that both boys have very nice singing voices. Uncle Paul, the more resolute of the two uncles, then tried to protect his protégé and enable him a career as a singer at the vaudeville theater. Uncle Max, the gentleness in person, doesn’t take hold of such courage by a long way, and so it only makes his Beppo a clown in the show booth, which is run badly by both uncles. To make matters worse, the twins also fall in love with one and the same girl. So it inevitably comes to a crash, and you split up.
When Tonio is rehearsing a new piece, his mentor Paul falls out with the theater director. In order to put him under pressure and because he knows that the director will not find a replacement for Tonio anytime soon, he explains that Tonio does not intend to appear. But Uncle Paul with the big mouth made a big mistake. Despite the two of them leaving the theater, the director firmly expects Tonio to return the next day and is therefore not very worried.
Meanwhile, Max and his protégé Beppo read about Tonio's upcoming premiere in the newspaper. You then visit the theater and meet the unsuspecting director. He is in great excitement because the house is sold out and Tonio has not shown up. So far! Seeing Beppo, the director immediately pulls him onto the stage, believing that it is Tonio. Beppos singing skills save the performance. Meanwhile, Uncle Paul rubs his hands together as he has to assume that the performance has failed. In any case, he has expressly forbidden his protégé Tonio to visit the theater.
When he switches on his radio, Uncle Paul is amazed that the performance is being broadcast live. Paul is furious that Beppo screwed up his beautiful plan through this mission. And so Paul grabs Tonio and hurries to the theater before the performance is over. Finally, there is a great reconciliation of the twin brothers on stage, and both sing together in front of the audience.
Production notes
This exile production was shot in Vienna in 1935. The film premiered on May 22, 1936, also in the Austrian capital. Due to the large number of Jewish people involved in this film, the performance of Today is the most beautiful day of my life in the National Socialist German Reich was prohibited.
Some prominent personalities who worked on this film had to flee from Hitler's Germany, including the Jewish comedians Felix Bressart and Otto Wallburg , who were extremely popular until 1933 .
The film structures are by Artur Berger , the music texts by Ernst Neubach . Herbert Janeczka provided the sound . Oswald's 16-year-old son Gerd assisted his father.
The music titles "In life more is taken from you than given" and "Today is the most beautiful day of my life" were played.
For Schmidt as well as for Oswald was Heut 'the best day of my life is the last German-language film.
Reviews
The following can be read in the Neue Freie Presse in the issue of May 28, 1936: "Richard Oswald's director, who mostly relies on the inspiration of the moment, indulges in broadly spun out Prater descriptions and otherwise pays homage to a comfortable" playout ". the resulting, could still be avoided by a few dramaturgically well thought-out cuts. However, Oswald's generally extremely experienced manual dexterity surprisingly avoids even gross mistakes for some. [...] Felix Bressart means a surprise from the actors of this film Comedian calibrated actors know how to shake in the serious role of a touching, kind and helpless figure, to a certain extent crumpled by life. "
Kay Less called the film a "melancholy and cheerful Viennese emigrant production"
In the exhibition catalog of the Film Archive Austria 'Kino vor dem KZ. Film artist as a victim of National Socialism 'it says: “Oswald's idea of using Joseph Schmidt in a double role is ingenious from the idea of the singer film, as he can double his star's singing. [...] Schmidt's films live primarily from the vocal performances of their main actor, in this film he sings one of his most beautiful and best-known songs: "In life, more is taken from you than given" (composer: Hans May , lyricist: Ernst Neubach) . On the positive side, Otto Wallburg and Felix Bressart, who are responsible for the comedic note of the film. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ at that time still under his real name Karl Hödl
- ↑ "Today is the best day of my life". In: Neue Freie Presse , May 28, 1936, p. 12 (online at ANNO ).
- ↑ Kay Less : "In life, more is taken from you than given ...". Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. ACABUS Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8 , p. 445.
- ^ Film Archive Austria (ed.): Cinema in front of the concentration camp. Film artists as victims of National Socialism (catalog). S. 81. Vienna 2003.