Perjury (1929)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | perjury |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1929 |
| length | 91 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Georg Jacoby |
| script |
Georg C. Klaren Herbert Juttke |
| production | Seymour minor number |
| music |
Walter Ulfig Bernard Homola |
| camera | Willy Goldberger |
| occupation | |
| |
Perjury is a German silent film drama from 1929 directed by Georg Jacoby .
action
Adolf Sperber runs a not very profitable variety company. He is married to the good-natured Inge Sperber, with whom he has a child, and is cheating on her at the same time with the dancer Daisy Storm. Sparhawk wants to make a star in his establishment out of his young daughter Else, called Elschen, who only has a tolerable talent for dancing. He hopes to make a lot of money with her one day. Inge sees this mixture of ambition and unscrupulousness of Adolf, committed on a child who is not yet capable of making decisions, as a serious abuse and tries to protect Elschen from it. Inge doesn't want the daughter to be deprived of her carefree childhood. Since her husband is completely unreasonable, however, she resorts to what she sees as the last possible means: she convinces the young, devoted painter Karl Fenn to fake the kidnapping of Else in order to prevent her father from further access. When Adolf Sperber found out about the plan, he reported both of them, and Inge Sperber and her acquaintance had to answer to court for their previously unproven act.
During the trial, Inge Sperber claims under oath that she does not know where her child is. Fenn, on the other hand, who is much less nervous, soon gives way to the judge and confesses that the child is with him and that he is in league with Inge. The court then sentenced the mother to one year in prison for perjury . As if that weren't enough, Inge is divorced guilty and Else is awarded her father. Adolf Sperber can now realize all of his plans. He marries his love affair Daisy and forces Elschen to undergo a tough training program under the dancer, only to later increase his wealth. Then his daughter has to show her skills on dance tours and exhausts herself to the point of total exhaustion. Karl Fenn now recognizes how much this legal system has driven him with his truthful statement to encourage a terrible undesirable development and then decides to make up for his "mistake" and to murder the unscrupulous Adolf Sperber. Only now does little Else's ordeal come to an end, and she is allowed to return to her mother, who has meanwhile been released from prison. Fenn, on the other hand, has to be behind bars for a long time.
Production notes
Perjury , often with the polemical subtitle A Paragraph that Kills People , was written in February / March 1929 in the film studio in Staaken, was censored on April 19, 1929 and was banned from young people. The six-stroke act with a length of 2286 meters (after cuts: 2156 meters) was premiered on April 26, 1929 in the Atrium and Primus Palace.
Georg C. Horsetzky and Leo Meyer were in charge of production, and Andrej Andrejew created the film structures . Walter Zeiske was one of two production managers.
Reviews
“So it's a trend film. The assumptions are a little crooked, a little imprecise, not very typical. But a film that you say 'yes' to with all your heart. Because he points to one of the most sore and difficult points in legal life with courageous seriousness and unpathetic sharpness. Because he is clear and clean in his disposition; because he almost always overcomes the risk of slipping into kitschy sentimentality. He does not drive theatrical accusation, he is precisely at the decisive points, especially at the end, of an exemplary, objective simplicity ... Georg Jacoby directs very carefully and with great tact. Franz Lederer should be mentioned first of all; here he gives the most disciplined, liveliest, strongest performance. Alice Roberte [sic!] Is pleasantly economical in her means this time, while the interesting Miles Manders [sic!] Characterizes a villain a little too sharply. "
“One wishes to protest against the perjury paragraph with the strong voice of this silent film and thus construct a case that proves the most conceivable inhumanity of this paragraph. The case is blatant, but possible, and it is not weakened by a cinematic sham happy ending when the friend kills the raven father and gives the child back to the mother. The case may be blatant, it seems quite believable and not tendentious in the bad sense. Georg Jacoby, the director, is truly reserved for the first time. Not kitsch, even though a child's heart has to touch. This child is called Inge Landgut, his talent is undeniable ... The mother is Alice Roberte [sic!], Blond, pale, with an eminent gift of expression, without any acting prowess, very excellent. (...) Good game, good direction, a German work well worth seeing. "
“The film has tended to sell out. Instead of taking a stand against the abuse of paternal power, instead of calling for increased protection of the laws, one indulges in a polemic against perjury as such, consciously ignoring the legal provisions serving the protection of mother and child. One should not surround perjury with a halo today in the age of the wholly sworn false vows and thus not shake even more lax moral views. "
Web links
- Perjury at filmportal.de
- Perjury in the Internet Movie Database (English)