Orient Express (1944)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Orient express |
| Country of production | German Empire |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1944 |
| length | 80 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Viktor Tourjansky |
| script |
Emil Burry Viktor Tourjansky |
| production | Georg Witt |
| music | Lothar Bruhne |
| camera | Franz Koch |
| cut | Werner Jacobs |
| occupation | |
| |
Orient-Express is a German crime film from 1944 directed by Viktor Tourjansky . The main roles are played by Rudolf Prack , Gusti Wolf , Siegfried Breuer and Paul Dahlke .
action
While the legendary Orient Express is just passing through the Balkans, a bloodcurdling scream can be heard and someone pulls the emergency brake while crossing a tunnel. The train comes to a stop and the train attendant looks into each compartment to find out who pulled the brakes. In the process, he discovers a dead man who was obviously murdered. It's a lawyer named Branko. Immediately the criminal police of the country on whose territory one is currently located is switched on. Detective Inspector Ivanovich and criminal investigator Costa Balaban from the nearest small town of Tarna start the investigation after reaching the local train station. Each of the passengers questioned seems suspicious, and some travelers actually have something on the kerbstone or at least keep something secret.
First of all it is clear that the servant of the noble Baron Huebner, Franz Schulz, pulled the emergency brake. The reason for this was extremely banal: Franz wanted to impress the pretty young fellow traveler Sonja Tonschek. But he is out of the question as a murderer. Franz's employer, the slick-looking and cosmopolitan baron, appears to be a lot more suspicious. He has a head injury that he claims he sustained when the train suddenly stopped. Or was it possible that the murdered person defended himself firmly against the culprit shortly before he passed away? Ivanovich's suspicions about the nobleman seem to harden at first, as it soon turns out that the baron's divorced wife, Dr. Inge Geldern, who was the dead man's new fiancée. So is it an act of bloodshed out of jealousy?
His Excellency, a high-ranking politician, also on board as a passenger, is already staying far too long, and so the elderly man is offering an amount of 10,000 Reichsmarks if the perpetrator should be caught in the next two hours. Then the two police officers step up a gear. Documents found at Branko show that the deceased was still married to the actress Vera Panaid, despite his engagement to Inge. Ivanovich and Balaban speculate that this could be the key to solving the case. There also seems to be a connection between the hastily fetched lady and the detective Holzer on the train - even if he claims that he accompanied the lawyer inconspicuously at Branko's request.
Passenger Kruckenhauser, a butcher, recognizes Vera as a woman who had been involved in an inheritance fraud. Your partner at the time was that Mr. Holzer. Soon the picture is rounded off: Holzer and Vera are a fraud couple. While the self-proclaimed detective was always on the lookout for terminally ill gentlemen who could soon die and leave an inheritance, the two of them then forged the Moribund papers and presented Vera as the respective wife (and thus also heiress). But in the case of Branko something went wrong: the terminally ill man had struggled and got well again. When Branko finally wanted to marry his Inge, he was certified at the registry office that he was already married, to the very same Vera Panaid. Thereupon Branko began to investigate on his own, which obviously made Holzer sweat on his forehead.
Eventually Holzer and his accomplice Vera, who accused Holzer of having committed the murders, are arrested. The baron can get closer to his ex again, and servant Franz can devote himself entirely to his lady of the heart Sonja. And the bloodcurdling scream at the beginning of the story? Several violinists caused it out of anger when they drove into the dark tunnel while playing. Ivanovich generously hands over the reward of 10,000 marks to Balaban, who was the first to have the right nose for Holzer. He can use the money very well, as a few hours earlier he had become the father of three children.
Production notes
Orient-Express was filmed in the Bavaria Ateliers in Geiselgasteig from December 4, 1943 , and the filming was completed in mid-February 1944. The premiere took place on December 1, 1944 in Nuremberg, the Berlin premiere in the Tauentzienpalast was only on March 8, 1945.
Ludwig Reiber and Rudolf Pfenninger designed the film structures, Ursula Maes designed the costumes. The Hungarian Tibor von Halmay played his last German film role here.
The film received the state film rating of "artistically valuable".
reception
Chief censor Arnold Bacmeister raved about the film in a letter to his boss Joseph Goebbels on March 23, 1945 and said: "The audience is very impressed by this lively crime film, which is not lacking in speed, tension and humor." Nevertheless, discussions were held of the film in the press publications 1944/45 in view of the seriousness of the war situation. By Bacmeister himself, the head of the censorship authority, Orient Express was considered "the most successful crime film of recent times".
"Cheerfully relaxed, honest crime entertainment for the German distraction cinema of the war time."
See also
Web links
- Orient-Express in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Orient-Express at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Spelling according to the film leader and film courier
- ^ Ulrich J. Klaus: German sound films 13th year 1944/45. P. 92 (049.44), Berlin 2002
- ↑ cit. n. Boguslaw Drewniak: The German Film 1938-1945 . A complete overview. Düsseldorf 1987, p. 430
- ^ Orient Express in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed on April 1, 2019