With heart and hand for the fatherland (film)

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Movie
Original title With heart and hand for the fatherland
Country of production Austria-Hungary
original language German
Publishing year 1915
length approx. 82 minutes
Rod
Director Jakob Fleck
Luise Kolm
script Jakob Fleck
Luise Kolm
production Anton Kolm
Luise Kolm
Jakob Fleck
for the Viennese art film industry
music Franz Lehár
occupation

With heart and hand for the fatherland is a patriotic, Austro-Hungarian silent film drama from 1915 by Jakob Fleck and Luise Kolm with Hubert Marischka , Hermann Benke and Liane Haid in the leading roles.

action

Austria-Hungary in World War I: A reserve cadet of the Tyrolean Kaiserjäger is drafted. He says goodbye to his parents but also to his wife and child. However, his parents do not know that he is already married and has also been a father for a few months. In the Tyrolean border war with Italy, he shows his full commitment, maneuvers through the rocks and is always at the front of every attack. In individual actions, the cadet even performed some “brave heroic deeds” such as dropping a bomb from an airplane on the positions of the Italian enemy. So he is chosen by his superior for the following, particularly difficult assignment.

If he does not return, the young soldier asks his captain to forward a letter he has already written to his parents. In this letter he informs them that he is already married and has a child and that the parents will please take care of the wife and the baby together. In fact, the young soldier does not return; his comrades returning from the mission to the camp report how they saw that he would have been shot if he came into contact with the enemy and as a result fell down a rock. The parents are heartbroken over this alleged loss and comply with the wish expressed in his letter. But the cadet is not dead, just badly wounded. After a while, he returns to his family and there is a heartfelt reunion.

Production notes

With heart and hand for the fatherland was filmed in Vienna and Budapest in 1915 and a school ban (= youth ban). The first performance was in the context of a press screening on December 23, 1915 in Vienna, the mass start on New Year's Eve of the same year.

The propagandistic war drama not only meant the film debut of the then 20-year-old theater artist Liane Haid, but also the first collaboration with her colleague Hermann Benke, who was almost three decades older, with whom she stood several times in front of the camera for the Viennese art film industry during the First World War should, for example in the dramas Die Tragödie auf Schloß Rottersheim , Mit Gott für Kaiser und Reich und Lebenswogen .

Reviews

“This time the Viennese art film industry has actually succeeded in producing a work that is completely flawless in every direction. Yes, we are not saying too much and we can safely justify this assertion that the new film, the Viennese art film, surpasses almost everything that has hitherto been made in the field of so-called war dramas. A shiny material has been filmed here in the most outstanding way. Truly artistic photography, a direction well thought out down to the smallest detail and a downright masterful presentation have created a work here that can look exemplary for contemporary cinematography. "

- Cinematographic review of December 19, 1915. p. 53

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