I kiss your hand, Madame (1929)

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Movie
Original title I kiss your hand, madame
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1929
length 70 minutes
Age rating FSK 0
Rod
Director Robert Land
script Rolf E. Vanloo
production Robert Land
Julius Haimann
music Ralph Erwin
Pasquale Perris
camera Carl Drews
Gotthardt Wolf
occupation

I kiss your hand, Madame is a German feature film , a silent operetta by director Robert Land from 1929. Harry Liedtke and Marlene Dietrich play the leading roles .

action

Count Lerski, a former guard officer of the Tsar, has lived in exile in Paris since the October Revolution . Like many other Russian aristocrats of that time, he had to earn his own living there. He works as a waiter in a restaurant where a certain Percy Talandier is one of his regular customers.

One evening, through a mix-up, Count Lerski accidentally met Laurence Gerard, a distinguished lady of better society who has just divorced her husband Adolphe and who is also making advances to Percy Talandier. Count Lerski and Laurence Gerard fall in love at first sight and go out together. Both Laurence's ex-husband Adolphe and Percy Talandier are suspicious of this. It is also Talandier who outed Count Lerski as a waiter.

Believing that he was a con man, Laurence breaks off the relationship indignantly and tries to publicly humiliate Lerski while visiting a restaurant, even getting his dismissal, but cannot break his pride and dignity. When it finally turns out that "the waiter Jacques" is actually a Count Lerski, Laurence tries to win his favor back. But Lerski's wounded pride forbids him to forgive her. Finally, there is a happy ending .

background

As one of the last silent films, this film from the time of the transition to the sound film already contains a short soundtrack with the musical theme of the film, the tango I kiss your hand, Madame (music: Ralph Erwin , text: Fritz Rotter ), who already in the year its publication in 1928 in the interpretation of Richard Tauber was a big hit .

The film was shot towards the hit, which happened with several of the hits that were popular at the time: “Every popular hit title today suffers the fate of the film adaptation. That is an immutable law. You can name most comedies and comedies with this film title if you give the band the opportunity to play the hit a few times. And the plot would probably have been written without the creation of the hit. [...] As a special attraction, the film was given a few meters of sound recording on its way. Harry Liedtke sings with Taubers Organ the hit of the day of the 'Hand' and the 'Madame' ( I kiss your hand, Madame ). The many theater owners who do not have sound film equipment should be told that the film does not lose any of its effect even without this sound insert. "

Richard Tauber's record was used to synchronize a short 2-minute vocal scene in which the actor Harry Liedtke was seen singing. This short sound recording is considered to be one of the first attempts at early German sound films. It is also noteworthy that the accompanying program to the main film also ran two "real" short sound films with pop music: 1) The Bernard Etté orchestra plays the hit Ramona (Mabel Wayne / Fred Bargy); Duration: four minutes. 2) The short film sketch The Last Song by Frank Clifford. The singer (bassist) Ludwig Hofmann (1895–1963) can be seen in it; Duration: fourteen minutes.

I kiss your hand, Madame was premiered on January 17th, 1929 in the Berlin Tauentzienpalast . The buildings in the film were made by Robert Neppach .

DVD

The film was released on DVD on August 9, 2013 by Dynasty Film (Intergroove). In December 2001 I kissed her hand, Madame at Studio Salzgeber & Co. Medien GmbH, was released on DVD.

criticism

Karlheinz Wendtland commented on the film: "This sound film insert [by Richard Tauber] and the Tobis short sound film RAMONA in the opening act, in which the then very popular dance orchestra Bernhard Etté played, brought real storms of enthusiasm among the audience."

Georg Herzberg wrote in the Film-Kurier on January 18, 1929 that the director Robert Land, developed "the thin and anemic plot" with a "light hand". Parisian flair, where the film takes place, has also been captured. “Not much, but more than in some other film adaptations of the Seine, made in Germany.” Marlene Dietrich's performance was recognized with the words “plays charming and well dressed, the Madame of the much-sung hand”. It went on to say: "For those roles that require the actress to appear good and elegant without containing heavy acting duties, she should be very much in demand after this film." Harry Liedtke's performance also found appreciative words: "Harry Liedtke adds a new one for his countless amateur roles. Smiling, sympathetic, aware of his stardom. It is often as if he were blinking past the director into the stalls and greeting his worshipers with a jovial 'day, little child'. "

Hans Wollenberg looked at the film in the Lichtbild-Bühne on January 18, 1929. For him, the leading actress Marlene Dietrich was “a remarkably lucky move. International type, seductive figure, charming face and a lot of grace in the use of magnificent Parisian toilets ”. The director mixes "a little sentimentality with a little frivolity, a good dose of humor with a dash of social pathetic" [...] the whole thing goes "pleasantly and smoothly" for the viewer, it "entertains and is amusing [ e] ". Wollenberg further noted that the film would “not be the success” “it is if - Karl Huszar-Puffy weren't there. The amusing fat man has risen to become a character comedian of the first order and develops comical effects in the game which - repeatedly used by the director in the right place - have resounding ignition power ”. The night shots in Paris are also “remarkable”.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Georg Herzberg: I kiss your hand, Madame Film-Kurier No. 17, January 18, 1929.
  2. ^ A b Hans Wollenberg: I kiss your hand, Madame ... , Lichtbild-Bühne, No. 15, January 18, 1929
  3. ↑ The director Hans-Heinrich Tillgner hid behind the stage name Frank Clifford ; see. The last song. In: filmportal.de . German Film Institute , accessed October 24, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Marlene Dietrich - I kiss your hand, Madame at filmportal.de
  5. ^ Karlheinz Wendtland: Beloved Kintopp. All German feature films from 1929–1945 with numerous artist biographies born in 1929 and 1930, Medium Film Verlag Karlheinz Wendtland, Berlin, first edition 1988, second revised edition 1990, pp. 7, 8, film N1 / 1929. ISBN 3-926945-10-9