King for one night

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Movie
Original title King for one night
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1950
length 96 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Paul May
script Werner Eplinius
Ille Schröder-May
production Orbis-Filmproduktion GmbH, Munich
(Paul May)
music Winfried Zillig
camera Franz Koch
Josef Illig
cut Anneliese Schönnenbeck
occupation

and Karl Schöpp , Dieter Suchsland , Erich Fischer

König für ein Nacht is a German fiction film from 1950 by Paul May with Adolf Wohlbrück in the title role and Willy Fritsch as King Ludwig I of Bavaria.

action

Munich in the 19th century. The elegant and attractive Count von Lerchenbach, the adjutant of Bavaria's King Ludwig I, accompanies his friend Wilma to a noble hat shop, where he meets the widowed Franziska Burger, who always wears black. When she gave his first mysterious attempt at flirtation the cold shoulder, Lerchenbach visited the landlady of Rosenau and introduced herself as the king's adjutant. Franziska finds the count's gentleman a bit intrusive and believes that he is presumptuous. Then she shows him the door. Madame Burger requests an audience with the king in order to speak to him about his "wrong" adjutant. Franziska is all the more astonished and embarrassed when suddenly Count Lerchenbach enters the royal rooms. He's actually a royal adjutant! The following conversation between the three takes an amusing course, from which Franziska Burger emerges as the newly ennobled Countess Rosenau. When Franziska has left, King Lerchenbach raves about Franziska and absolutely wants a rendezvous with her, which Lerchenbach should arrange. But he himself has his eye on Franziska and is now trying, with all sorts of flimsy arguments, to talk his supreme master out of the lady again. Since the king insists on seeing the newly appointed countess again, he has Lerchenbach relocate an upcoming military maneuver taking place near Bad Tölz to the Chiemsee, where Gut Rosenau is located nearby.

When Lerchenbach is supposed to arrange a rendezvous for his king, he is still unhappy. Countess Rosenau, on the other hand, acts a little piqued, as this tête-à-tête is supposed to take place after midnight and could endanger her reputation as a decent lady in society. However, she does not want to show any nakedness in front of Count Lerchenbach and pretends to be happy about the appointment with Ludwig I. In the evening Franziska dances with both the king and his adjutant, who is becoming increasingly jealous. At the party, the king drinks too much Tokaj, so that he gets tired and Count Lerchenbach has the idea of ​​having to represent the king at the rendezvous with Countess Rosenau. However, this also corresponds entirely to his emotional state. In the meantime, Franziska takes courage and thinks about how she should keep the king at a distance afterwards, if he should become intrusive. But it has long been lying flat, drunk with wine from the heavy Tokaj indulgence.

Count Lerchenbach, now the “King for one night”, goes to the agreed meeting point, a festively decorated pavilion in a castle park that is illuminated with candles. Count Lerchenbach appears masked and begins to seduce the unsuspecting countess, who believes the king is in front of her, using every trick in the book. When Lerchenbach returns to the king's room, he is furious that he apparently slept through his rendezvous last night. When she meets Franziska again, Ludwig confesses to her that he had to cancel the rendezvous because of allegedly urgent state business. The king is horrified to discover that someone obviously had the cheek to represent him at Countess Rosenau's. Lerchenbach acts horrified, but is secretly amused. Countess Rosenau is acting duped, especially since she suspects that actually only Lerchenbach could have been the masked stranger. But he rejects this suspicion with mock indignation. To be on the safe side, he gets an alibi from his confidante Wilma. While walking through the park, Franziska Lerchenbach confesses that she would love the masked stranger and that she does not want Lerchenbach to follow the royal mandate and find the stranger in order to then severely punish him. He then bombarded them with all kinds of flower arrangements. When Franziska finds a glove with Lerchenbach's monogram on it, she finally knows who made her happy on the night in question. She turns the tables and invites Lerchenbach and the king to a night rendezvous in the pavilion. There the two men meet. Ludwig finally realizes what is being played, smiles mockingly at his adjutant and says "You crook". Then he leaves the place so that the two lovers can finally find each other.

Production notes

König für eine Nacht was made in late summer / autumn 1950 in Munich-Geiselgasteig (studio recordings) as well as on Lake Chiemsee , in Nymphenburg Palace and in the Bernried forest area. The world premiere took place on December 22, 1950 in Berlin.

Max Hüske took over the production management, the film structures were created by Heinrich Beisenherz and Bruno Monden . Walter Tjaden set the tone.

Fritsch and Wohlbrück knew each other from the pre-war period; together both appeared in front of the camera in 1933 in the great success of the Waltz War .

Reviews

For one night, Der Spiegel called König "the peacefully harmless little Biedermeier film despite the abundance of uniforms."

In the film service it says: "Well-played, well-staged costume fun game with the usual pseudo-conflicts."

useful information

For the naturalized Briton Wohlbrück, this was the first film in the German language in 14 years. He received 100,000 DM as a fee, an enormous sum at the time (1950).

Annelies Reinhold , who played the leading female role as the Countess, played her last film here.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Report luck with the accent in Der Spiegel 46/1950
  2. ↑ King for one night. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 31, 2019 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ^ Report from Der Spiegel from November 15, 1950

Web links