Cavalcade (film)

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Movie
German title cavalcade
Original title Cavalcade
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1933
length 110 minutes
Age rating FSK not known
Rod
Director Frank Lloyd
script Reginald Berkeley
production Frank Lloyd ,
Winfield R. Sheehan
music Peter Brunelli ,
Louis De Francesco ,
Arthur Lange ,
John Stepan Zamecnik
camera Ernest Palmer
cut Margaret Clancey
occupation

Cavalcade ( English Cavalcade ) is a feature film by the British - US director Frank Lloyd from 1933 with Diana Wynyard , Clive Brook , Una O'Connor and Herbert Mundin . The drama is based on the play of the same name by Noël Coward and was produced by Fox Film Corporation . The film wonthree Academy Awardsat the Academy Awards in 1934 , including in the categories of “Best Film” and “Best Director”.

Kavalkade illuminates the life of a wealthy London family between New Years Eve 1899 and New Years Eve 1933. Key dates of the early 20th century play important roles in it: the Second Boer War in South Africa 1899–1902, the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912 and the First World War 1914–1918.

action

London in 1899: On New Year's Eve, the well-to-do couple Jane and Robert Marryot make the usual toast with their families. Husband Robert leaves home the next day to volunteer in the Boer War in South Africa . This regrets his wife, who tried unsuccessfully to convince him otherwise. Jane, whose brother fights as an officer in Mafikeng against the troops of besieging Boers , hates all kinds of violence. She can't even bear it when her two young sons Edward and Joe fiddle around with toy cannons and soldier figures in childish zeal. She finds it difficult to listen to martial war music like the popular Soldiers of the Queen . However, Robert sees it as his duty to serve his country. He is encouraged in his plan by his sons Edward and Joe. Both are proud of their father's war effort and try to elicit heroic war stories from him.

The Marryot servants celebrate the new century one floor down in the kitchen. Among them is Alfred Bridges, the family's butler, who will also be leaving England as a soldier on the same troop transport as his employer. Alfred's wife Ellen has the same feelings as Mrs. Marryot. She also worries that her husband will not come back alive from the Boer War. She and their daughter Fanny then have to earn a living on their own.

Each of the loved ones who stayed behind in England is relieved when the two fathers return home unscathed from the short-lived war. Robert is even knighted for his heroic service to the fatherland. A short time later, unlucky news arrives - Queen Victoria dies in 1901 at the age of 82. The Marryots follow the funeral procession that passes by their house.

The years go by and Alfred plans to open his own shop. The Bridges borrow money from Robert Marryot and give up their work as servants in his house. Newer inventions are making life easier, the old-fashioned horse-drawn carriages on the streets are being replaced by modern automobiles. The Bridges family opens a pub , but it is not very profitable. Alfred Bridges helps himself to the alcohol supply, is too generous to the guests and no longer manages to settle the bills at the brewery on time. When Jane Marryot and young Edward visit the Bridges, drunk Alfred puts his wife and daughter to shame. In 1908 a horse-drawn carriage ran over the innkeeper.

Jane and Robert Marryot's son, Edward, is studying at Oxford and befriends Edith Harris, the daughter of a friend of his mother's. Both pretend to be attending a concert when in reality they are having fun on the beach dreaming of a wedding and an ocean cruise together. Edward and Edith get married in 1912, but their honeymoon ends in disaster. The newlywed couple board the Titanic on the way to New York and are killed in the sinking of the luxury liner. The death of the beloved son is swept under the table with the Marryots.

Jane and Robert concentrate on their remaining son Joe, who has renounced women. He volunteered for military service in 1914 with the beginning of World War I and the bombing of London by zeppelins . The war is estimated at three months at most, his father estimates, but it will actually last four years. As the only surviving officer of his battalion, Joe meets Fanny Bridges, who has matured into a true beauty, on home leave in a jazz club. She has embarked on a career as a successful night club singer and dancer. The relationship with Fanny is short-lived. She loves Joe, but refuses to marry him during the war. Joe dies on the battlefield. Shortly before, Ellen Bridges had visited her former employer Jane Marryot and had spoken out in favor of a marriage between her daughter Fanny and the Marryots' remaining son.

Jane and Robert don't let these strokes of fate get them down. With dignity aged and with the same optimism as 1,899 they drink on New Years Eve 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression , her health, her two dead sons and wish England again dignity, greatness and peace. Then they welcome the New Year with the traditional song Auld Lang Syne .

History of origin

The film is based on the play Cavalcade by British author Noel Coward, which premiered in 1931 at the Theater Royal Drury Lane and became one of the most successful theater productions of the year in London's West End . The huge staging, which required an enormous selection of motifs, a large number of actors and costumes, as well as special hydraulic stage technology, also included a large selection of periodic songs and old folk songs as well as a song by Coward himself, 20th Century Blues . Cavalcade premiered just before the nationwide elections in Great Britain and the heavily patriotic pieces of music in the stage production were credited to the Conservative Party , which was to help secure a high number of votes from London's middle class. Although Coward himself belonged to the conservative camp, the author vehemently denied that he wanted to influence the elections with his play, let alone know anything about an upcoming election. Despite this fact, Coward, who had previously made a name for himself by writing comedies, became a successful author of serious material with Cavalcade . Two years before filming began, the play also premiered on New York's Broadway , but was unable to build on the success in London there. Due to the high production costs, the drama was never staged in its original form after 405 performances, but many revivals made use of some of Coward's more spectacular scenes, especially the final sequences.

For the film rights to the play and Coward's right to use copyrighted songs, the stage writer received compensation of US $ 100,000 from the Fox film studio. According to the American Film Institute's catalog, this sum is one of the highest paid for the acquisition of literary property at the time. The US-American Frank Borzage was originally intended to direct, but he gave up the project and his contract with Fox Film Corporation when he was offered to direct the film Secrets with Mary Pickford in the lead role. As a result, Frank Lloyd was hired, who won the Oscar for best director in 1930 for the silent film The Uncrowned Queen . With Diana Wynyard , Clive Brook , Una O'Connor and Herbert Mundin , the leading roles were exclusively cast with British actors. British actors were also hired in the supporting roles.

reception

Kavalkalde premiered on January 5, 1933 in New York and opened two days later, on January 7, nationwide in US cinemas. The drama was successfully accepted by US audiences and grossed $ 3.5 million at the US box office at an estimated cost of $ 1.25 million (other sources say $ 1.18 million) to produce - gigantic sums of money for the time that made Kavalkade in the USA the most commercially successful film of the year. The opulent and true-to-the-original production by Lloyd and the acting performance of the cast, in particular that of lead actress Diana Wynyard, were praised. In connection with this film, Wynyard was honored with a footprint ceremony at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles. By January 1935 , Kavalkade was able to make a profit of 8 million US dollars worldwide, and the US studio production was also successful in England. In Denmark , Frank Lloyd's 115th directorial work celebrated its re-release on June 4, 1952, more than two decades after its regular theatrical release .

Nowadays, Kavalkade is one of the forgotten films of the 1930s. Negative voices indicate that the production is now getting on in years, which is attributed to the bombastic dialogues, the patriotic undertone and the theatrical style of the actors. Lloyd's work is often compared to Robert Altman's 2001 ensemble film Gosford Park , which depicts the life between servants and their aristocratic employers in the early 1930s. While Altman relied on contemporary witnesses in the production of his film in order to create a true to the original portrayal of morals, Coward is often accused of either not caring about it or of not having precise knowledge of the life of the servants at the time. Its non-aristocratic characters, including the Bridges family, are referred to as caricatures by some negative voices.

Reviews

  • “It's a very poignant and impressive film that Fox Studios produced based on Noël Coward's stage panorama […] Miss Wynyard is excellent as Jane Marryot. She describes her role with such sympathy and feeling that one hardly thinks of her as an actress. Mr. Brook is at his best as Robert Marryot. Mr. Lawton is great as Joe Marryot. In fact, all of the big actors portray themselves well. ” (New York Times)
  • “The first soap opera to win an Oscar for best motion picture, 'Cavalcade,' based on Noel Coward's ongoing play, tells the 30-year-old saga of an upper-class British family who lost two sons, the older in the Titanic tragedy, the younger in the First World War. " (emanuellevy.com)
  • "A crunchy tearful scrap filled with shrill messages about patriotism and anti-war feelings [...]." (Ozus' World Movie Reviews)
  • "This is a significant study of solid acting, original camera work, gorgeous costumes, and historical value." (Zap2it.com)
  • “Lloyd had an excellent knack for crowd scenes - the film certainly has the sense of a historical passage through time, from the Boer War to the decimation in World War I, which the film belittles. On the other hand, it can't be denied that the film is getting on in years - the stiff, upscale lip service is ridiculous at times, and the actors' theatrical style, all the grand gestures and declamation, is out of date. All these shortcomings make 'Cavalde' boring to yawn. ” (Cinescene.com)
  • "A pompous adaptation of Coward's not-too-astute stage performance anyway ... Manipulating the audience in the best pompous tradition, this elaborate production feels and looks good, but if you can manage to survive the psychological warfare to the bitter end, you will feel empty and missed out . " (channel4.com)

Remarks

  • The subtitles for the film were “A love that suffered and rose triumphant above the crushing events of this modern age! The march of time measured by a mother's heart! " (German: "A love that suffered and triumphantly defied the devastating events of this modern age! The course of things, measured by the heart of a mother!") and "Picture of the Generation" (German: "Film of the Generation “) Used.
  • The World War I footage was created by William Cameron Menzies , production designer for Gone With the Wind (1939).
  • In the film, the home port of the Titanic is given as Southampton . In fact, this is a film error , because the actual home port of the British passenger ship was Liverpool .
  • At the award of the Oscars for best director, it is said to have come to a misunderstanding that was caused by the announcement of the host Will Rogers . As he opened the envelope, Rogers announced: “Good, good, good, what do you think? I have been watching this young man for a long time. I saw him working his way up from below, and I mean from below ... Come up Frank! ”(Original sound:“ Well, well, well, what do you know. I've watched this young man for a long time. Saw him come up from the bottom, and I mean the bottom ... Come on up Frank! ”). As a result, the nominated director Frank Capra got up from his seat, mistakenly assuming that he had won the award for his film Lady for One Day . Capra won the trophy a year later for the screwball comedy It Happened in One Night .
  • The British actor Lawrence Grant can be seen in a small supporting role as a man with a microphone.
  • Ernst Jünger wrote to Carl Schmitt in 1933 : “I swear you to visit the film Cavalcade with your wife […] This description of the Victorian Age made a ghostly impression on me; I rarely had a clearer idea of ​​the ephemeral. "

Awards

At the Oscar ceremony in 1934 (official count 1932-1933) Frank Lloyd Drama counted with four nominations together with Frank Capra's comedy Lady for a Day and Frank Borzage popular Hemingway -Adaption A Farewell to favorites the Oscars, that of the evening March 16 in the Fiesta Room of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles . In fact, Kavalkade was able to prevail against the competition of nine other films as best film of the year and won a total of three Oscars with four nominations. Among the winners were Frank Lloyd, who received his second Oscar for best director after 1931 (for: The uncrowned Queen ) and the set designer William S. Darling . Leading actress Diana Wynyard had to admit defeat to Katharine Hepburn , who won the first of four Academy Awards for Lowell Sherman's drama Dawn of Fame .

literature

  • Coward, Noel: Cavalcade - a play . London, W. Heinemann, 1932.
  • Berkeley, Reginald; Coward, Noel: "Cavalcade" . [Los Angeles, Calif., Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation], 1932. (Final shooting script)
  • Berkeley, Reginald; Coward, Noel: Cavalcade - Dialogue taken from the screen . [New York?] - Fox Film Corporation, 1933.
  • Thomas, Henry: Stories of the great dramas and their authors . New York, Garden City Pub. Co., 1939.
  • Cerf, Bennett; Cartmell, Van Henry: Sixteen famous British plays . New York, The Modern library, 1943.
  • Voaden, Herman Arthur: Four good plays to read and act . Toronto [u. a.] - Longmans, Green, 1945.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ernst Jünger / Carl Schmitt, letters 1930–1983. Stuttgart 2012. p. 898.