Uncle Tom's Cabin (1965)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Uncle Tom's Cabin |
| Country of production | Germany , Italy , Yugoslavia |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1965 (1964 is mentioned in the credits) |
| length | 170 (147) minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Géza from Radványi |
| script |
Fred Denger Géza from Radványi |
| production |
Aldo von Pinelli Georg M. Reuther for Melodie-Film, Munich; Debora film, Rome |
| music | Peter Thomas |
| camera | Heinz Hölscher |
| cut | Victor Palfi |
| occupation | |
| |
Uncle Tom's Hut is a color film from 1965 about slavery in the US-American southern states based on the novel of the same name by Harriet Beecher Stowe . In addition to John Kitzmiller in the title role, OW Fischer , Gertraud Mittermayr and Herbert Lom also play other leading roles. Directed by Géza von Radványi . The premiere took place on April 14, 1965 in Munich .
action
The film opens with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth during a theater performance. Flashback, Kentucky mid-19th century: The black, kind-hearted slave Tom, affectionately known by everyone as "Uncle Tom", lives with other blacks with the southern family Shelby. One day old Mr. Shelby has to sell some of his wards because of financial difficulties, because a certain Simon Legree demands the payment of a due bill of exchange. This brutal, unscrupulous slave owner, who always only thinks about his business, sees nothing more than commodities in the serfs - dumb "negroes" that he can buy and sell again at will. Legree, disfigured in the face, demands that the heavily indebted Shelby pay the bill a total of ten of his slaves, including Uncle Tom. Legree has also fallen in love with the Shelby's attractive maid, Eliza. She is to become one of the ten new Legree slaves. Since the transfer agreement stipulates that he may only choose male slaves, Legree decides to take her two-year-old son with the other nine, because he knows that Eliza would never let her son go alone. Since Eliza is married to Harris, another slave who works on another plantation, Legree decides to buy this one too.
The young George Shelby is disgusted by Legree's lousy character and lets him clearly feel his rejection. When Legree wants to take his ten slaves with him the following day, Eliza and her son are missing. Emilie Shelby, George's mother, released the two of them to save the black girl the ordeal of becoming Legree's sex slave. Eliza's husband Harris fled to Canada to earn money and eventually buy his wife and child out. Eliza and her son are also able to flee from the slave trader. Harris' owner is deeply angry about the escape of his slave and has his sister Cassy flogged so that she can tell him where her brother is. But she is silent. Legree takes a liking to Cassy and buys her from her owner. She becomes Legree's lover reluctantly and does not have to pick cotton on the plantation.
George Shelby intends to buy back Uncle Tom as soon as he has the funds. The slaves acquired by Legree embark on a long journey across the Mississippi to his plantation. Part of the journey is made on the ship. There Tom meets little Evangeline, known only to Eva by everyone. The seriously ill girl is very open and friendly and quickly makes friends with Tom. Eva persuades her father to buy the southern gentleman St. Clare, Uncle Tom. Mr. St. Clare absolutely loves his daughter and tries everything to grant her every wish. Tom now has a new master who treats him much more decently and humanely than all his masters before. Meanwhile, Cassy has found her sister-in-law and her young son. She offers them refuge in Legree's house in the hope that their hated lover will not look there for the escaped slaves.
Mr. St. Clare's wife, Eva's mother, is also ailing, and so her husband has since started a liaison with his cousin Harriet. When Eva learns of her father's affair, she is so sad that her health is deteriorating massively. Evangeline's last wish before she dies is that her father release all of his slaves to freedom. He promised her and announced the release one day before Independence Day. Legree believes St. Clare's decision is humanitarian sentiment and fears that his example could set a precedent and ruin his business as a slave trader. Legree comes up with a devious plan. From a room on the upper floor of the saloon, he shoots St. Clare, who is driving up in a carriage on Independence Day, in the head. St. Clare dies in the presence of Uncle Tom. Legree succeeds in blaming the cowardly murder of a black boy who saw him leaving the room and could have betrayed him. The innocent man is then publicly lynched by the crowd.
St. Clare's slaves are auctioned off at minimum prices after his violent death. Legree attacks again and buys back his former serfs - including Uncle Tom. Abraham Lincoln has now been elected President of the United States and a civil war is in the air. Harris, who has become a free man in Canada, tries to buy his sister out of Legree. But he says Cassy is not for sale. A little later, Legree sends her to the plantation to harvest cotton because he believes she is cheating on him. When he tries to get Cassy back, she spits in his face and leaves. Legree then sets his horses on them. Tom throws himself between the horses and the girl at the last moment to protect Cassy and is seriously injured. Shortly afterwards, the slaves from Legree's estate flee. The man flipper then tries to recruit men among the white people who help him to recapture his slaves. Cassy, Eliza and their son also intend to flee, but want to get Uncle Tom first. But he asks the two women to let him die in peace. As a "farewell present" for her unloved lover, Cassy Legree set fire to the splendid southern estate.
All slaves who managed to escape meet near a church in order to escape by ship to the slave-free north the following evening. Harris finds his family again. George Shelby also shows up and asks about Tom in order to finally buy him back. When he hears that Tom is lying in the hut on Legree's burning property, he rushes there. In a shootout between Legree with the other slave traders and the slaves on the run, Cassy is hit and dies in her brother's arms. A priest explains to Legree that his harvest has been destroyed by the water from the willfully opened locks. Legree then tries to save what can be saved. He now also sees his house in flames and Uncle Tom lying half dead in the barn. He accuses Tom of inciting the other black slaves to riot and wants to murder him. But then George Shelby shows up and offers Legree to buy Uncle Tom. But Legree only replies: "Dead niggers cost nothing" and disappears. Tom dies in George's arms. In the final scene you see the colored people on their way to freedom. And while the credits are running, a wistful southern tune sounds: Old Old Mississippi , sung by Eartha Kitt .
Production notes
Since the last silent film adaptation in 1927, no US production company has filmed this classic story of American literary history. The international consortium of companies led by Germans first turned Onkel Toms Hütte into a sound film in 1964 .
The comparatively lavishly produced and internationally cast film cost around DM 4.5 million, making it one of the most expensive productions in German film history. Director Géza von Radványi , who three years earlier had great success with three OW Fischer films ( It doesn't always have to be caviar , this time it has to be caviar and The Ferris Wheel ) , was also hired as a director for this Fischer film.
The outdoor recordings took place in Yugoslavia .
By the end of 1965, the film was also shown in Spain , Italy and France . New Year 1969 finally took place in the USA as well .
For the black American John Kitzmiller, who filmed exclusively in Europe and who had taken on the title role, Uncle Tom's Hut was the last film work. He died 50 days before its premiere.
The twelve-year-old Michaela May made her film debut in this production under her maiden name Gertraud Mittermayr.
As in The Treasure in Silbersee , the Briton Herbert Lom played a brutal villain here too.
Eartha Kitt only appears in the credits when she recites a spiritual , Old Old Mississippi (modeled after the film composer) .
Cameraman Heinz Hölscher makes a tiny appearance as a Quaker . For his work on Uncle Tom's Hut , he received the Gold Film Tape in the Best Camera category on June 27, 1965 .
For Herbert Ploberger , who designed the extensive costumes, Uncle Tom's Hut was his last activity in the cinema.
Willi Schatz designed the film buildings with a southern flair.
Musically, there are two authentic Negro Spirituals , namely Go Down, Moses and Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho . The actual film music, however, was composed by Peter Thomas .
The running times of the film, which can be found in dictionaries, are up to 170 minutes. Like Old Shatterhand and Der Kongress amuses, the film is one of the few German-language feature films shot on 65 mm camera negative. 70 mm and 35 mm copies (the latter using anamorphic lenses ) were awarded. The DVD released in 2012 contains the note that the last remaining 35 mm copy (147 minutes at 24fps) was used for scanning.
Reviews
The film's large personal lexicon wrote: "'Onkel Toms Hütte' was an international coproduction, splendid in shape and design, but without the sizzling southern esprit of the Beecher-Stowe original."
Der Spiegel said: “The blacks in the film are not only also, but better people, happy to sing and God-fearing - especially Uncle Tom (John Kitzmiller) himself. Thomas Fritsch, a farmer's son who is knowledgeable about human rights, and OW Fischer, a feudal southerner with a Viennese accent, create the illusion that the Mississippi flows in the Danube valley. "
The lexicon of international films judged Uncle Tom's hut : “Colorful widescreen film adaptation of the old bestseller by Harriet Beecher-Stowe (1852) about the horrors of slavery - told using the example of an endlessly loving and suffering Negro in America. Accurately romantic and sentimental. "
The online version of the Lexikons des Internationale Films writes: "The film takes the romantic-sentimental style of the book as an opportunity to paint out superficial episodes in an idyllic manner, whereby the honorable concern of the original takes a back seat."
The Protestant film observer drew the following conclusion: “Very colorful, very sentimental, in details also of gripping strength. Unfortunately, the manufacturers have not been able to decisively denounce the spirit of racism. What remains is an artless conversation that can be survived from the age of 18 without damage. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ Other international versions have lengths of 118, 125, 151 and 160 minutes
- ↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 6: N - R. Mary Nolan - Meg Ryan. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 386.
- ↑ Der Spiegel, issue 19 of May 5, 1965, p. 133.
- ↑ Klaus Brüne (Red.): Lexikon des Internationale Films, Volume 6. Reinbek bei Hamburg 1987, p. 2842.
- ^ Onkel Tom's Hut in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed on March 24, 2012.
- ↑ Critique No. 147/1965, p. 286.