Max, the king of the circus
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Max, the king of the circus |
| Country of production | Austria |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1924 |
| length | 64 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Max Linder E. E. Violet |
| script | Max Linder |
| production | Vita-Film, Vienna |
| camera |
Eduard Hösch Josef Besci |
| occupation | |
| |
Max, the Circus King , also Clown from Love and The Circus King , is an Austrian feature film from 1924 with Max Linder in his last completed film role. Individual scenes are also used in a modified form in Der Zirkus (1928) by and with Charlie Chaplin as well as The Man Who One Talks About (1939) with Hans Moser , Heinz Rühmann and Theo Lingen .
action
Max Linder plays the nonchalant, aristocratic do-no-good, charmer and bon vivant Count Pompadour. Although he is condemned by his grumpy uncle to finally decide on one of three possible, quite wealthy young women for the purpose of marriage, he rather shows interest in someone completely different. Comte Max has been keeping an eye on Ketty, the pretty daughter of a ringmaster, for some time. However, since her father only accepts a man from the circus trade as his son-in-law, Max has to work hard to acquire artistic equipment. Then the jack of all trades first goes through a quick acrobatics course in six lessons and immediately turns another into a lion tamer. When neither was really successful, he tried his hand at taming a flea circus. As expected, Count Max causes a lot of confusion and laughter with these circus acts.
For example, the young count gradually drives a hotel guest who is constantly suffering from headaches and who lives directly below Max's practice room insane with his rehearsals, and the fleas that Max carelessly packed in a box and then put in his jacket pocket make themselves felt during a circus performance independently and cause a real panic in the audience. Even the dressage with the big cats goes completely wrong. A clown friend, to do Max a favor, wedged himself into a lion's skin and performed practiced tricks in the arena during the performance. Unfortunately, to expose Max, a rival has opened the lion kennel, and now Max and his clown are up against a real king of the savannah. In the end, however, there is a happy ending and Max receives his beloved's hand.
Production notes
Max, the circus king , was filmed in Vienna in the spring of 1924, and the shooting was completed on April 10, 1924. The working title was Clown for Love . The first (special) demonstration took place in Vienna on May 23, 1924. On June 12, 1924, the film (as Circusmania ) first ran in London. The Austrian audience launch was on September 26, 1924 in the Imperial Cinema in Vienna; in Germany, the film had already been shown a week earlier, on September 19, 1924, in the Deulig Palace Alhambra in Berlin. In Linder's native France, Max, the king of the circus since its first performance in Paris on February 19, 1925, was sold under the title Le roi du cirque .
Max, the circus king was the last completed film by Linder, the former comedian from the early days of cinematography.
Alexander Ferenczy and Franz Meschkan created the film structures.
Remakes
- 1937: The man they talk about
- 1941: Il re del circo
- 1957: It works
Reviews
“This Max Linder, who is to a certain extent a historical phenomenon today, is still capable of amusing. To measure him against Charlie Chaplin, with whom he has only a few outward appearances, would be an injustice to both artists. What is always captivating about Linder is the virtuosity with which he is able to turn his body into an instrument for comical effects. Linder is the direct descendant of the French Pierrot actors, a débureau and comrade, whose methods he transferred to the film. His comedy, like any comedy in general, is a criticism of the figure he has to embody, but without ever going so far as to deny the type he portrays. Like Chaplin's, his art of representation is not rooted in a deep human compassion for the pariahs of this earth, nor in a hatred of the figure to be embodied, as is sometimes the case with our Pallenberg, nor in an ironic attitude towards the object to be represented, like Max Adalbert, but he enjoys the ridiculousness of the character, which at most sometimes increases to mild irony. (…) By the way, the whole film is a very neatly crafted picture chat in which Max Linder's jokes are the punch lines. The scenes in which the artists of the flea circus acquired by Maxe set out for the open and cause panic among the audience are seen with the eyes of the caricaturist. Well, and lion scenes in the film have never been without effect. "
Vienna's Neue Freie Presse reported in its October 3, 1924 edition: “The fact that Linder plays the leading role must be described as a false report. Because apart from his role, despite Eugen Burg's participation, there is no role at all. Even a comedy is not there, but a series of colorful grotesque scenes that seem all the more grotesque, the stronger, with calmer objectivity Linder mimes them. In this unshakable, amiable objectivity in all situations of life or film, it seems to me that Linderscher art, which compels the laughing muscles, is resolved. (...) It should also be mentioned that the maneuver episodes can be seen as captivating interludes and technically and scenically everything works down to the smallest detail. "
The Süddeutsche Filmzeitung wrote: “The beautiful and neat presentation of the film is essentially supported by a brisk, never-failing director, good Viennese actors - in the leading roles Max Linder and Vilma Banky - an excellent interior design and high-quality photography. The inexhaustible humor of this comedy will take any audience by storm. "
The American magazine Variety judged the film in London as follows:
“Max Linder makes a great comeback as de Pompadour. He never clowns and much of his business is delightfully original. Moreover he never shows a trace of vulgarity or suggestiveness once he has got over his opening drunken scenes and even into these he manages to get some novel work. No support is named but it is consistently good and his leading lady is not only a beautiful woman but a fine feeder. Feeding is the keynote of this picture but so skilfully is it done nobody not conversant with the art will realize Linder practically plays the thing himself with every other character merely forming part of a perfect frame. "
In France, Max, the circus king, was finally judged as follows:
«Il ya de l'invention dans ce grand film comique où Max Linder nous apparait aussi brillant qu'il l'a toujours été, mais cette invention même s'exerce parfois au détriment du sujet. Il ya trop de scenes qui n'ont also report avec l'action. C'est le défaut de la plupart des films comiques américains, ceux de Charlie Chaplin exceptés. Reconnaissons pourtant que Max Linder est toujours le grand artiste comique qui, le premier, nous fit rire au cinéma. Il excelle dans ces scènes où, personnage impersonnel - si j'ose dire - il est entrainé dans des aventures imprévues. Le sujet se borne à ceci: le comte Max de Pompadour, amoureux d'une écuyère, se fait dompteur pour l'épouser, les gens du cirque ne se mariant que dans leur monde. Max Linder possède un don comique, bien caractérisé, il n'est pas gai, mais il a de l'humour, il est toujours l'être confiant qui se livre aux caprices de la vie, qui accepte les coups malheureux du sort et qui ‹Ne s'en fait pas›, sachant bien que tout s'arrangera pour le mieux. Avec son aspect pessimiste, il nous prouve que l'optimisme ne doit jamais cesser. C'est un peu plus que de faire des acrobaties. Max Linder est toujours au-dessus de ses films. C'est très bien et pourtant c'est dommage. »
Web links
- Max, the king of the circus at maxlinder.de
- Max, the circus king in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Max, the king of the circus at filmportal.de