Your Highness commands
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Your Highness commands |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1931 |
| length | 91 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Hanns Schwarz |
| script | Paul Frank , Billy Wilder , Robert Liebmann |
| production | Universum Film AG ( Max Pfeiffer ) |
| music | Werner Richard Heymann |
| camera | Günther Rittau , Konstantin Irmen-Tschet |
| cut | Willy Zeyn junior |
| occupation | |
| |
Her Highness Orders is a film comedy and so-called sound film operetta from 1931 based on a script by Paul Frank , Billy Wilder and Robert Liebmann . Directed by Hanns Schwarz , Käthe von Nagy and Willy Fritsch played the leading roles . The leading supporting roles embodied Reinhold Schünzel and Paul Hörbiger .
action
Princess Marie-Christine, who was called to court to soon marry the Prince of Leuchtenstein at the king's request, has little love for courtly etiquette . She secretly visits a servants' ball and gets to know Lieutenant Karl von Conradi there. To disguise her true identity, she poses as a mizzi, a manicure. But the lieutenant doesn't want to give up his profession either and introduces himself as a delicatessen dealer. A violent flirtation develops . Little does the princess suspect that her goings-on is being watched by court detective Pipac, who was ordered to monitor her by State Minister Count Herlitz, and she is having a great time .
The next morning the princess and the Minister of State observed the deployment of a regiment that had just been given to her by the king . Suddenly Lieutenant Conradi appears, who is puffed up by the superior Rittmeister for his delay and thus attracts the princess' attention. She happily recognizes him as the alleged delicatessen dealer of the previous night and spontaneously lets him be promoted to the captain's position, but does not notice anything else. Nevertheless, Conradi received room arrest for being late. Nevertheless, the couple go ice skating together in the evening and are again observed by Pipac, who has received an order from the Minister of State to take a photo of the alleged delicatessen, but he does not succeed. Meanwhile, Conradi, who was supposed to be under arrest, meets the major in charge of him at the ice rink . As a result, the princess, who is still pretending to be Mizzi, officially learns about his officer status and rebukes him for deliberately lying to her, presumably on the assumption that a lieutenant would not be appropriate for a manicure. However, the incident does not detract from their mutual sympathy.
When the guard marched up the following morning , the scene from the previous day was repeated, because Captain Conradi was yelled at by the major for evading his room arrest. The princess then has him promoted to major so that the major has to congratulate him on the promotion instead of dismissing him. "If this continues, then the man will be general the day after tomorrow," says the Minister of State sarcastically, what the princess with a "Hopefully!" acknowledged. The Minister of State then devises a plan. Believing that the young man, who had now been promoted to major, could dissuade the princess from thinking about her delicatessen dealer, he ordered him to go to court for a rendezvous with the princess and promoted him to lieutenant colonel for his troubles . With the order to make the princess "as pleasant as possible" , Conradi goes to the palace, first meets Mizzi and believes that she has been secretly following him because of her disappointment with his previously given assignment. When the Minister of State officially introduced her as a princess shortly afterwards, he couldn't believe his eyes and was very angry. Nevertheless, he follows her instructions and does not object when she informs the Minister of State that she wants to make him her personal aide . The Minister of State believes that his plan will work and lets court detective Pipac come to show him his supposed diplomatic skills. However, Pipac immediately recognizes that Conradi is the delicatessen dealer. Terrified, the Minister of State now gives Conradi the order to make the princess "as uncomfortable as possible" , which Conradi is happy to obey due to his annoyance. The princess, who is still unsuspecting about the new order, lets herself be carried away to a provocation . Hoping that Conradi would read her lines secretly, she noted on a piece of paper that she was ready to marry Prince von Leuchtenstein and asked the officer to take the message to the Minister of State. To her horror, the latter complies with her request without looking at the slip of paper. The Minister of State, on the other hand, is delighted and promotes Conradi to general for having made himself "uncomfortable" .
The engagement of the princess to the prince should take place at the court ball in the evening. The latter, however, is extremely disinterested and clearly prefers his hobby, the Egyptian excavations. So it happens that the princess dances the opening waltz with Conradi. Contrary to etiquette, she then leaves the court ball, followed by Conradi, while the king orders the state minister to come to him. The semolina is burnt. His majesty is a child.
Production notes
The film Your Highness Orders was shot within four weeks from January 20, 1931 on the Ufa site in Neubabelsberg , where a huge winter landscape with an ice rink and various streets were built according to the designs of the film architect Erich Kettelhut .
The screenplay penned by Billy Wilder , among others, is his fourth work and was created immediately after the film successes of Menschen am Sonntag (1930) and The Man Who Is Looking For His Murderer (1930), for which he also wrote the script. It targets the military order as well as Prussian command and is also characterized by numerous slapstick incursions, as we know them from the Charlie Chaplin films . The film also has some animated shots through dissolves.
The Comedian Harmonists are represented as musical guests in the film.
The film passed the censorship on March 2, 1931 and was premiered on March 4, 1931 in Berlin's Gloria-Palast in the presence of the main and supporting actors . A preliminary premiere took place in Mannheim the day before .
French version
Parallel to the German version also was a French- version of the film under the title Princesse! À vos ordres! turned. The main role of the princess took on Lilian Harvey , for the male part of Carl de Berck Henri Garat was hired. The remaining roles were also given to French actors, with director Hanns Schwarz also having a French colleague at his side in Max de Vaucorbeil. Jean Boyer translated the dialogues in the script .
music
- Do not ask how, do not ask where .
The melody represents the musical leitmotif of the film and comes in both an instrumental and a vocal version. The music was composed by Werner Richard Heymann , the text is by Ernst Neubach .
- You secretly brought love into my house
In the film, sung by Käthe von Nagy and Willy Fritsch, the title was released as a record recording in a duet version by Fritsch with Lilian Harvey. The music was composed by Werner Richard Heymann, the text by Robert Gilbert .
- A little this and a little that
This piece is also represented in the film several times and in different tempos . The music is also by Werner Richard Heymann, the text by Robert Gilbert. As an instrumental, it forms the intro of the film and is played by the orchestra on the servants' ball. In another scene, the Comedian Harmonists sing the chorus while they cook the king's food. It is an otherwise unpublished title by the ensemble that sang this piece of music exclusively in the film and did not record it on vinyl. Finally, in a third scene, the actor Reinhold Schünzel half-sings and half-speaks the song with orchestral accompaniment in verse and chorus, supported by Paul Hörbiger. This version did not go on sale as a record either and can only be heard in the film.
Reviews
“The most sympathetic thing about the whole manuscript is its parodic tone; above all the milieu is made fun of, everything is mocked, courtiers, diplomats, the military; everyone gets something; and yet the whole thing is harmless fun that doesn't hurt anyone and cheers everyone up. "
"Gag-rich, lively operetta fairy tale, which has motifs that co-author Billy Wilder later varied frequently: role play, disguise, change of identity."
Web links
- Her Highness commands in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Her Highness commands at filmportal.de
- Her Highness orders at murnau-stiftung.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Script quote, spoken in the film by Reinhold Schünzel in his role as Minister of State
- ↑ Comedian Harmonists website, accessed July 31, 2019
- ↑ Your Highness commands. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed July 31, 2019 .