Music in the Blood (1955)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Music in the blood |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1955 |
| length | 107 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Erik Ode |
| script |
Werner Eplinius Janne Furch |
| production | Waldemar Frank |
| music | Werner Müller |
| camera | Karl Löb |
| cut | Klaus Dudenhöfer |
| occupation | |
| |
Musik im Blut is a German biography of the band leader , trumpeter and jazz musician Kurt “Kutte” Widmann from 1955 by Erik Ode with Viktor de Kowa in the leading role. Nadja Gray and Waltraud Haas can be seen at his side .
action
Kurt, known as “Kutte”, Widmann is an aspiring jazz musician (conductor and trumpeter) in Berlin in the 1930s, who with his band is very popular with open-minded music lovers. Only the Nazi cultural policy, which generally despises and vilifies jazz as “degenerate”, causes problems for his artistic development. Nevertheless, his career ascent seems unstoppable, especially since Kutte won the competition for the “Golden Trumpet” in Berlin in 1936. His heart belongs to the popular pop singer Gina Martelli, who accompanies him on an international tour. He also gives her the “Golden Trumpet” and is all the more disappointed when, for political reasons - the Gestapo is on her neck - Gina decides not to return to the Third Reich with him after the tour is over.
Back at home, Widmann marries the good Angelika Jäger, but now, in the last few years before the outbreak of war in 1939 and even more afterwards, has to deal with disappointments and hostility of a cultural and political nature. Although he was still active as a musician until the last days of the war, and despite all the drivel about jazz as “cultural Bolshevism”, he did not let himself be dissuaded from his love for this music, Cutte's strength gradually waned and he often fell ill. With iron energy he put together his own combo again immediately after 1945 and can now, freed from political constraints, indulge his great love, jazz music. Widmann succeeds briefly in building on his pre-war successes. Even an accident during an artistic performance cannot slow down the thoroughbred jazz enthusiast. After recovering, Kurt Widmann immediately returns to the stage. But he has his physical strength and dies a little later, after his big comeback.
Production notes
Music in the blood was created as a direct reaction to Widmann's death (late November 1954) in mid-1955 in Hamburg-Wandsbek (studio recordings) as well as in Amsterdam and Berlin (outdoor recordings) and was premiered on December 20, 1955 in Hanover and Stuttgart. The Berlin premiere was one day later. On September 26, 1965, the film was broadcast for the first time on German television ( ARD ).
Central-Europa-Film boss Waldemar Frank also took over the production management, Horst Wendlandt the production management. Herbert Kirchhoff designed the film structures implemented by Albrecht Becker .
Reviews
Der Spiegel wrote: “A musician's biography pressed to the core with some funny bonuses. (...) The film shows the jazz conductor at the peak of his career and also in amorous conflicts. (...) Victor de Kowa, without any external resemblance to Widmann and also without his acrobatic merits, tries to reach the portrayed at least in hearty Berlinisch. "
In the lexicon of international films it says: "The tracing of the life story is overlaid by sentimental and silly effects, especially towards the end of the film."
Individual evidence
- ↑ criticism in Der Spiegel 2/1956 of 11 January 1956
- ↑ Music in the blood. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed June 1, 2020 .
Web links
- Music in the blood in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Music in the blood at filmportal.de