My Leopold (1924)

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Movie
Original title My Leopold
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1924
length approx. 88 minutes
Rod
Director Heinrich Bolten-Baeckers
script based on the Berliner Volksstück of the same name (1873) by Adolph L'Arronge
production Heinrich Bolten-Baeckers
camera Hermann Böttger
Albert Schattmann
occupation

Mein Leopold is a German silent film folk play from 1924 by Heinrich Bolten-Baeckers .

action

Master shoemaker Gottlieb Weigelt has come a long way. He has his own large shop and has employed a foreman and twelve journeymen. His one and only son is his son Leopold, a good-for-nothing who tries more badly than right as a court trainee, but above all shines through his absence and laziness. But he is very big in spending his father's money. His financial situation becomes so precarious when he meets a dancer who turns out to be a very expensive pleasure. Soon Leopold found himself obliged to forge his father's signature in order to trigger the change of his moneylender. Old Weigelt does not realize how deeply his beloved son is slipping into a dangerous situation. He even wrote an angry letter to a judge because, in Weigelt's eyes, he did not want to see the true worth of Leopold. Weigelt's foreman, Starke, tries just as unsuccessfully to open the old man's eyes as does Klara Weigelt, who always received less attention and love from her father than Leopold. She joins the efforts of the strong she loves. Weigelt furiously throws Starke out of his business and breaks away from Klara.

Leopold Weigelt's extravaganzas soon drained all of his father's fortune. Finally, the father's company also goes under the hammer. There is hardly anything left to get from the old man when Leopold leaves. For the first time, the father, who has now lost everything, sees the son's behavior as a real blow. He has to rearrange his life and starts all over again: as a little cobbler in a foreign company. The unscrupulous son has also reached the bottom; in Hamburg he joins a tramp and goes on a tour with him. He and his friend, however, luckily find a job in a machine factory. Now a change is taking place in Leopold's character: he is diligent and reliable, works hard and one day even manages to become a partner in the company. Over the years, Weigelt and his daughter, who has since married Starke, have reconciled. Leopold, who knows nothing of his father's decline due to his long absence, has recently tried in vain to find out his whereabouts. With father Weigelt and daughter Klara, Leopold is also considered missing. Only her husband, Starke, finds out about Leopold's whereabouts and can arrange a reconciliation between father and son.

Production notes

My Leopold was created on the UFA site in Neubabelsberg . The film passed the film censorship on September 27, 1924 and, depending on the source, was premiered either on September 30 or October 1, 1924 in the Ufa-Palast am Zoo . The length of the film was 2218 meters on six acts. The film approved for young people received the rating “popular education”.

It was already the third film version of this popular material produced by Bolten-Baeckers (after 1913 and 1919).

The film structures were designed by Erich Czerwonski , the costumes were designed by Aenne Willkomm .

My Leopold would prove to be extremely popular film material over the decades. Later versions were made in the sound film years 1931 and 1955. In 1987 GDR television shot its own version.

criticism

Vienna's Neue Freie Presse wrote on March 3, 1925, in memory of Alexander Girardi's “Leopold” stage interpretation decades earlier: “Baptized with Spreewasser, however, the master shoemaker Gottlieb Weigelt is an original Viennese through Girardi's“ My only passion is my Leopold, my son ” The film-Weigelt Kraussnecks shows more the sedateness of a Berlin Biedermeier and has its climax when he realizes where the shoe pinches. Walter Slezak as "Fruchtl" Leopold is content this time with being a reckless, handsome boy He's seen better in both the film and the operetta. (...) The film as a whole makes you feel at home with its Biedermeier living and soul interiors. "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information according to Gerhard Lamprecht : Deutsche Stummfilme 1923–1926, p. 361. Berlin 1967
  2. ↑ "My Leopold". In:  Neue Freie Presse , March 3, 1925, p. 12 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp

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