Kitty and the world conference

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Movie
Original title Kitty and the world conference
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1939
length 97 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Helmut Käutner
script Helmut Käutner based on a play by Stefan Donat
production Walter Tost
for Terra Filmkunst
music Michael Jary
camera Willy Winterstein
cut Fritz Stapenhorst
occupation

Kitty und die Weltkonferenz is a German comedy film from 1939. The feature film is Helmut Käutner's first directorial work and is based on the play Weltkonferenz by Stefan Donat. In addition to Hannelore Schroth , who plays the title role, Paul Hörbiger , Fritz Odemar and Christian Gollong are cast in the leading roles.

The film premiered on August 25, 1939 in Stuttgart , and on October 3, 1939, it premiered at the Gloria-Palast in Berlin .

action

A world economic conference will be held in Lugano . At the conference location, the “Grand Hotel Eden”, the final preparations are in full swing. Journalists and business people are looking for lucrative information. Kitty, a manicure from the hotel, meets the journalist Piet Enthousen, with whom she secretly falls in love and who thinks she is the private secretary of the British Minister of Economics, Sir Horace Ashlin. When, on the eve of the conference, she enters into an appointment with him without knowing it, she introduces herself to him as his own secretary during dinner. The dizziness finally becomes apparent to both of them when Sir Horace orders a manicure the next morning and Kitty appears in his room.

After Sir Horace realizes her connection with the journalist Enthousen, he asks her to spread a hoax to Enthousen regarding an oil deal with the state of Coprador to prevent Irene Sorel and Viscount Tristan de Gavard from speculating on the loan . The plan works, the two speculators' business fails. Kitty and Piet fell apart over the consequences of this broken business for Piet Enthousen. Only Sir Horace's personal intervention at the end of the conference can ultimately bring the two back together.

prehistory

The play Weltkonferenz , which was performed on Berlin stages in 1938 and which glosses over international conference operations, was streamlined by Helmut Käutner and rewritten into a script for the film. The fact that Käutner, who had previously only drawn attention to himself as an author, was also given the direction, was more or less a coincidence. Käutner had long been hoping for such an opportunity.

Production, background

The shooting took place from 23 May to 15 July 1939 at Millstätter See , in Millstatt ( Carinthia ) and in the Ufast town of Babelsberg . Originally, Helmut Käutner planned to shoot the exterior shots of the film on Lake Lugano . Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels rejected Käutner's request and did not provide any foreign currency for the filming in Switzerland.

The film was banned shortly after its premiere . Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop was bothered by the character of Sir Horace Ashlin, which was too positively drawn for him. She was too sympathetic to him.

Käutner's assistant directors on his directorial debut were the later directors Boleslaw Barlog and Rudolf Jugert . Helmut Käutner said in an interview about the film that he wanted to create a nice, cheerful, lively comedy in a well-kept entertainment style. If he succeeded in doing that, he would be very satisfied with his first job.

The melodies sound in the film Every little girl needs a friend in spring ... and that's the best moment ... as well as I'm badly shaved today ... (still without text).

criticism

Käutner's first work was received favorably by contemporary critics:

"Just a game, but it gave a young director the opportunity to play with a funny idea, a charming young actress, Hannelore Schroth, to fill a bombshell role with funny eyes, to make a well-groomed actor (Fritz Odemar) believable a fairy tale minister."

- Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger, October 4, 1939

The later criticism is also satisfied:

“Helmut Käutner's first film; a fresh and hearty comedy with music that was banned in the Third Reich because of its pacifist and England-friendly attitude. "

- Lexicon of international film

The critic and author Karlheinz Wendtland said: “With hearty impartiality and astonishing authenticity, Hannelore Schroth conquers the hearts of the audience in her third film. Beside her Fritz Odemar as a minister with fine nuance in one of his best film roles ever. In addition, a number of accurately designed characters, of which Paul Hörbiger must be named as porter Huber. ”Wendtland went on to say that it was an“ extraordinarily successful directing debut by Helmut Käutner ”whose film was“ banned after the outbreak of war ” because Goebbels had disturbed the "Anglophile tendencies" anyway, and above all Reich Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop found "the portrayal of the English minister too sympathetic", whereas after the war the Allies found "the minister too unsympathetic".

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Karlheinz Wendtland: Beloved Kintopp. All German feature films from 1929–1945 with numerous artist biographies born in 1939 and 1940, Medium Film Verlag Karlheinz Wendtland, Berlin, 1st edition 1987, 2nd edition 1989, Film 66/1939, pp. 61, 62, ISBN 3-926945-03 -6
  2. ↑ a b Kitty and the world conference at film.at accessed on August 15, 2011
  3. ↑ See Käutner! Rudolf Worschech in Epd-Film 3/2008 on epd-film.de accessed on December 3, 2011
  4. ↑ a b Helmut Käutner in the Zeughaus Kino of the German Historical Museum on dhm.de, accessed on August 16, 2011
  5. ↑ Kitty and the World Conference. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used