People without a soul

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title People without a soul
Original title Union Station
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1950
length 81 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Rudolph Maté
script Sydney Boehm
production Jules Schermer
for Paramount Pictures
music David Buttolph
Heinz Roemheld
camera Daniel L. Fapp
cut Ellsworth Hoagland
occupation

People without a soul (OT: Union Station , reference title: The Labyrinth ) is an American film adaptation from 1950 directed by Rudolph Maté based on Thomas Walsh's novel Nightmare in Manhattan . When the blind daughter of a millionaire is kidnapped, Lieutenant Calhoun ( William Holden ) and Inspector Donnelly ( Barry Fitzgerald ) are challenged. Joyce Willecombe ( Nancy Olson ), a friend of the abductees, gives valuable advice.

action

Joyce Willecombe is taken to Westhampton train station by the Murchison family chauffeur. In the car is also Lorna, the Murchison's daughter, who is blind. Joyce works for the family and has become friends with Lorna. From the window of the train, Joyce notices a car that seems to be following the train. At the next stop, the men Joyce noticed in the car get on separately, as if they didn't know each other. They take a seat in their immediate vicinity, and the young woman notices a gun on one of them. Joyce then speaks to the conductor and describes her observations. However, he rejects her with the terse remark that he has never taken care of the private interests of the travelers. Since Joyce perseveres, he promises to notify the railway police, whose boss is William Calhoun, to whom she can then tell "her novel".

After speaking to Joyce, Calhoun observes the men depositing a suitcase in a locker and throwing the key stowed in an envelope into a mailbox. When Calhoun examines the suitcase, there is no weapon in it, but to Joyce's astonishment, items of clothing that belong to the blind Lorna. Inspector Donnelly is called in and Joyce's father Henry is notified. Donnelly assumes a kidnapping and advises the worried father not to accept the kidnappers' demands. The risk that they would kill his daughter as soon as they had the money was too great. Murchison is insecure, his only concern is to get his daughter back unharmed. In order to identify Lorna, the officers watch old films with the young woman. You can tell from the hobbies she pursues in these films that she used to be a person with normal eyesight. They are then instructed in their tasks by Calhoun. One of the men Joyce named watches Henry Murchison take the suitcase out of the locker. Of course, the extensively deployed officers also observe what is happening. After prolonged surveillance and a shooting in the cattle warehouse, one of the suspicious men there is trampled to death by the panicked cattle. As it turns out, the man's name was Gus Hadder. Again, all that remains is to wait until the second man answers. However, Murchison receives a telegram. From this, Calhoun concludes that the second man must be on the station premises. In fact, he appears very close to Joyce, who then takes up his pursuit alone. The man gets into a waiting car, the number of which Joyce remembers. Another man gets out. Back in the railway building, Joyce Calhoun shows the man who has meanwhile taken a seat on a bench there. Calhoun and his men overwhelm the suspect. Donnelly learns from Murchison that the worried father should pay $ 100,000 by twelve o'clock the next day. If the messenger with the money is monitored by the police, he will not see his daughter again. Murchison wants to follow the kidnappers' instructions, he sincerely hopes that Lorna is still alive. Calhoun and Donnelly try to get Vince "Charlie" Marley, the name of the arrested person, to speak. They threaten to push him onto the tracks in front of an arriving train if he doesn't tell where Lorna is being kept. At the last moment he reveals that the young woman is alive and is hidden in Mulberry St. with Joe Beacom and his girlfriend Marge. And when asked, yes, Joe has a criminal record. When Marge asks her boyfriend if he will let Lorna go when her father has paid, he makes it clear to her that that is not his intention. When the officers storm the apartment, they no longer find Beacom, Marge and Lorna. Calhoun visits Joyce at home to tell her that Lorna is alive. At around the same time, a police officer suspects a car, in which he then finds the bound and gagged Lorna Murchison under a blanket. When Beacom arrives, he shoots immediately and meets the officer who wants to draw his gun. He shoots a second time and hits Marge, whom he carelessly leaves on the street. At the hospital, Calhoun and Donnelly learn from the seriously injured woman that Joe will kill Lorna as soon as he has the money.

Beacom maneuvers Lorna into the baggage tunnel at Union Station and leads her to the rear, where entry is expressly prohibited due to the risk of high voltage. There he puts her in a baggage cart, which he sets in motion. With the threat that the high voltage wires would make her hell hot, he leaves the totally scared girl behind. The next morning the money handover approaches. The officers deployed are on high alert. Beacom manages to confuse the suitcase and, when Calhoun, with the help of Joyce, on his way, injures it with a shot in the shoulder. Calhoun takes up his pursuit anyway. Beacom is running in the direction of the high voltage tunnel. Calhoun can shoot him. He threatens to get "his Guardian Angel" now. Donnelly, who, thanks to Calhoun's presence of mind, can overhear the conversation, has the lights and high-voltage lines in the tunnel switched off. The tunnel is dramatic as Lorna tries desperately to orientate herself and Beacom gets closer and closer to her. In dire straits, Calhoun shoots the kidnapper just before he can reach Lorna. While a happy father hugs his daughter, Joyce worries about Calhoun, who beams at her and the first "you" are exchanged.

Production and Background

Thomas Walsh's novel was originally published in the Saturday Evening Post under the title Manhattan Madness . The film had the working titles Manhattan Madness and Nightmare in Manhattan . John Lund was originally intended to play the lead role, with Alan Ladd and Wanda Hendrix to play other roles . For character actor Robert Cornthwaite , it was his debut in a feature film. The film's technical advisor, EW Smith, was a lieutenant in the Los Angeles Police Department . The film was shot from January 18 to March 7, 1950. Many film scenes were shot on location in and around Los Angeles, especially those in Union Station , the Union Depot and the cattle warehouse. Griffith Park in Los Angeles and Saugus, a train station in Pasadena, served as other locations .

In 1950, Holden was a box-office magnet, in the same year he was in the cinema in the classic films Die ist nicht von Yesterday und Boulevard der Twilight , so that this film almost went under. Holden himself was not so fond of the role and found that it was a routine melodrama, as his biographer Bob Thomas pointed out.

The impressive images were created by Daniel L. Fapp, who was nominated for an Oscar seven times in his career and received it in 1961 for the film adaptation of the musical West Side Story .

The film premiered on October 4, 1950 in New York . In the Federal Republic of Germany had people without a soul on October 12th, 1951 premiere; in Austria the film ran on November 23, 1951 under the title Kidnapper am Werk .

criticism

For the lexicon of international films , it was "an altogether exciting thriller for which Jules Dassin's city ​​without a mask [was]".

Cinema's conclusion was: "Small, realistic noir thriller with a grand finale."

Cinefacts spoke of a "precisely staged kidnapping thriller with a big showdown in a dark tunnel." Conclusion: "A small rarity."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Union Station (1950) script info at TCM - Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved March 27, 2019.
  2. ↑ Union Station (1950) Notes at TCM - Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved March 27, 2019.
  3. ↑ a b Union Station (1950) article at TCM - Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved March 27, 2019.
  4. ↑ People without a soul. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 27, 2019 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  5. ↑ People without a soul (1950) at Cinema.de. Retrieved August 10, 2014.
  6. ↑ People without a soul at cinefacts.de. Retrieved August 10, 2014.