Icarus, the flying man
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Icarus, the flying man |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1918 |
| length | 95 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Carl Froelich |
| script | Mr. Breitner with a prologue by Leo Heller |
| production | KJ Fritzsche for Neutral-Film, Berlin |
| camera | Hermann Boettger |
| occupation | |
| |
Icarus, the flying person is a German silent film world war drama from 1918 by Carl Froelich .
action
Germany in the imperial era. The boy Günther Ellinghaus is the pride of his parents. The technically talented inventor attracted attention early on and won a prize as a schoolboy with his book about the forefather of aviation, "Ikarus". Ten years later, he completed an engineering degree at the university. The engine developed by Günther, which is particularly powerful, makes the experts sit up and take notice. Meanwhile, a young lady, the French Clemence de Montignon, has been looking for his acquaintance and begins to ensnare the German who is interested in her dishonest intentions. It acts on behalf of the slippery French Baron d'Aubigny, who hopes for information about the sensational Ikarus engine from the little affair between his compatriot and the German. This acquaintance increasingly consumed Günther's full attention and led to the young engineer becoming heavily in debt. The bill piles up, and Günther's father, a respected banker, speaks a word of power with his son, which, however, has little effect.
At the Esplanade festival, Clemence meets Günther with the baron, who gets straight to the point and shows interest in acquiring foreign motor patents. However, Ellinghaus refuses the sale. D'Aubigny then asks Clemence, unnoticed, to guide Ellinghaus into the next room where gambling is practiced. You want Günther to be so indebted that he can't help but hand out the patents for the super engine. Ellinghaus actually loses game after game, but only because d'Aubigny, with Clemence's help, plays wrong. One last time Günther asks his father to help him settle the gambling debts, but this time the old man indignantly refuses. Günther sees no more way out than to shoot himself. But his cousin Erika can stop him. Two months later, Ellinghaus stranded in New York, where he made a living as a waiter at the Hotel Astor. In May 1914, D'Aubigny wrote to his co-conspirator, Clemence, about this matter and asked them to get in touch with him again.
Günther has received a letter from Erika. In this, she informs her cousin that Clemence and d'Aubigny are said to have left Berlin because they were enemy agents. D'Aubigny travels to the USA on behalf of his client, a French aircraft manufacturer, to make one last attempt to buy Ellinghaus's Ikarus plans. He is offered $ 10,000, but again Ellinghaus says "no". Because the Austrian heir to the throne has just been assassinated and war with Russia and France is in the air. Günther Ellinghaus now desperately wants to return home to fight against the enemy. During the crossing on a ship in the neutral Netherlands, he hired himself as a stoker. On this crossing, the "Amsterdam" is seized by a British warship and searched for passengers from enemy states. Since d'Aubigny is on board and puts Ellinghaus under increasing pressure, the German overpowers the French and deceives the British with d'Aubigny's French papers. A little later, the British warship is sunk by German airmen. German soldiers now get out of the watered aircraft and in turn enter the "Amsterdam" to check documents. Ellinghaus can be taken home by his Fliegerland people.
In her castle in northern France, Clemence de Montignon shows French officers a secret telephone connection that leads directly to an airfield of a French flight squadron near Amiens. A little later, German soldiers advanced and took the castle grounds. Ellinghaus has meanwhile reported to an aircraft squadron and earned some laurels as a reconnaissance pilot on the Italian front. Eventually he was transferred to a hunting squadron. He soon became one of the most successful pilots on the Western Front. In a newspaper report he reads that d'Aubigny, as chief of the French fighter squadron No. 79, had become his direct opponent. During a flight, Ellenhaus recognizes the distinctive skull emblem of d'Aubignys and then wants to attack. Unfortunately, at that moment his engine cuts out and Ellinghaus has to make an emergency landing on enemy territory near the Montignon Castle. When Günther searches for quarters in the castle to wait for the German fitters with a new carburetor, Clemence de Montignon recognizes him immediately, who was constantly providing information about German troop movements to the French military over the secret telephone line.
The reunion is warm at first, but Flieger Ellinghaus has an uneasy feeling about Clemence, who belongs to the enemy nation France. He keeps his distance and goes to sleep while the fitter repairs his plane. At four o'clock in the morning he was asleep when Clemence d'Aubigny gave a light signal that he could land safely. Then Clemence leads him into the castle. Together with the black servant, d'Aubigny ambushes the German and ties him up. Then she sets a fire in the castle and climbs the ladder from the room on the first floor, where Ellinghaus is helplessly tied up on the floor, down into the open. With great difficulty he escapes the flames and jumps out of the window into the depths, where his comrades receive him. Meanwhile, d'Aubigny has made off with Clemence in the back seat of his plane. Günther immediately gets stuck behind the control stick of his repaired plane so as not to let d'Aubigny escape. In a dogfight, d'Aubigny's plane crashes, Clemence is slightly injured, while d'Aubigny is seriously injured.
A few months later there is an armistice, Günther approaches Erika, and both finally find each other. The wedding will be celebrated and you will go on your honeymoon in Switzerland. When Ellinghaus met his opponents Clemence de Montignon and Baron d'Aubigny again in the hotel in Lucerne, Ellinghaus reached out to him to reconcile. After a moment's hesitation, he accepts.
Production notes
Icarus, the flying man was filmed in the final phase of the First World War under the working title The Eagle of Flanders in the Literaria-Film-Atelier in Berlin-Tempelhofs Oberlandstrasse, but could not be shown before the end of the war. A press performance took place on October 27, 1918 in the Berlin Mozart Hall. This makes the production the last war film (i.e. before the armistice day on November 11, 1918). The general public could see the film for the first time on July 1, 1919 in the marble house during the censorship-free period . He had six acts with an original length of about 2000 meters. The film censorship did not take place until June 1, 1921. Then the aviator drama was under the title Icarus. In soaring passions sold.
Artur Günther created the buildings .
The film, which impresses with numerous aerial shots, still exists today and is kept in the Deutsche Kinemathek - Museum for Film and Television .
Individual evidence
- ↑ some sources name Eugen Illés as co-director
- ↑ cf. Gerhard Lamprecht : German Silent Films 1917-1918, p. 482