Phantoms of happiness
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Phantoms of happiness |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1930 |
| length | about 100 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Reinhold Schünzel |
| script | Reinhold Schünzel based on motifs from the novella “Le Vieux” by Alfred Machard |
| production | Reinhold Schünzel |
| music | Artur Guttmann |
| camera | Nikolaus Farkas |
| occupation | |
| |
Phantoms des Glücks is a 1929 German silent film by Reinhold Schünzel , which was dubbed in 1930. Michael Chekhov , Karina Bell and Inge Landgut are cast in the leading roles.
action
Jacques Bramard has made a name for himself as the director of the Paris insurance company “Prudence” (in German: caution). He is a thoroughly conscientious and conscientious superior who is completely absorbed in his work. One day he learns that his accountant Dupont has embezzled money. Bramard does not hesitate a moment and reports Dupont to the police. The thief has to go to jail for his wrongdoing. One day Bramard met the blonde dancer Marisa through his musician and song composer friend René Vallon while attending a ballet. He falls head over heels in love with the young woman, who is so completely different from himself in her light-heartedness and savoir vivre mentality. Both marry. Now Bramard quickly changes his way of life and for the sake of Marisa, whom he showered with presents, mutated from a hyper-correct director to a spendthrift and connoisseur. Soon he can no longer afford this luxury and ends up on the same wrong track that Dupont had previously taken: he is embezzling money. And like Dupont, he will be held accountable for this and, after his entire household has been used to cover the damage, he will be put behind bars. From then on, Vallon takes care of Marisa and the newly born daughter of the now separated couple.
In prison, Bramard meets Dupont again, who has become a prisoner through his actions. He is overjoyed about this situation and immediately comes up with a plan of revenge to get back at his former boss. Dupont insinuates to Bramard that his wife will cheat while he is away. The former insurance director goes mad with jealousy and kills his former employee in the affect. For this act, Bramard is now given an additional prison sentence, which he has to serve in the French penal colony of Guyana . The years in the penal camp did not soften Bramard, his hatred of the supposedly unfaithful Marisa and his desire for revenge grow day by day.
When the time comes for him to return to his family, his daughter Madeleine is long out of baby age. Bramard doesn't know who he is looking at and intends to use Madeleine as an instrument against the currently absent Marisa. But from Madeleine's words, Bramard can infer that her mother, his wife, had remained loyal to him all these years. At the last moment, Bramard calls off his great vengeance campaign, and both spouses find each other again.
Production notes, publication
Phantoms des Glücks , subtitle Der Mann in Fesseln , produced by Terra Film AG, was created from October to December 1929 in the Terra Glass House in Berlin-Marienfelde . The nine-act act with a length of 2512 meters passed the film censorship on December 30, 1929 and was banned from young people. The premiere of the film took place on January 2, 1930 in the Berlin Marble House . After another censorship (March 18, 1930), an audio version of this silent film was released in Vienna on June 13, 1930.
The production line had Julius Stern home , the manager Conny Carstennsen . Jacques Rotmil designed the film structures executed by Heinz Fenchel . The members of the House of Fatherland danced . In the same year Michael Chekhov took part in the German drama Troika and went to Hollywood in 1933, where he could still be seen in various films under the name Michel Chekov.
The following music tracks were played:
- I press you very softly to my heart (Music: Guttmann / Text: Alexander Fleßburg )
- Phantoms of happiness (music: Guttmann / text: Fritz Rotter , Armin Robinson)
- Something like love (Music: Guttmann / Text: Rotter)
Audio documents
Homocord 4-3440 (mx. H-62381) Phantoms of Fortune. Lied and Waltz from the Terra film of the same name (A. Guttmann - R. Rillo - A. Robinson) Fred Bird Rhythmicans with refraing singing: Luigi Bernauer .
Electrola EG1742 / 60-767 (mx. BLR 5963-I) Charming women, Tango (Guttmann) from the Terra sound film "Phantoms of happiness". Marek Weber and his orchestra. Recorded in the Beethovensaal in Berlin.
Gramophone 22 390 / B 51697 (mx. 2539 ½ br-II) Something like love. Foxtrot from the sound film "Phantome des Glücks" (Guttmann - Rotter) Ilja Livschakoff and his dance orchestra, with German refraing singing: L. Monosson .
Reviews
“The plot itself is based entirely on sentimentality. [...] She crawls forward like slow motion and grants u. a. a glimpse into France's penal system (as strange in detail as the German filmmaker sees it). No less a person than Michael Chechoff plays the man who is first imprisoned for embezzlement and then deported for manslaughter. You saw him stronger. But this time too, he has moments that stick. Karina Bell, the blonde Scandinavian, knows how to remain sentimental gracefully and with decorum. Unfortunately, Reinhold Schünzel urges all of his actors to overpoint. Even a film child with the innocence of Inge Landgut acts precociously. "
“… Up to this point it was the usual, skillfully presented American film - but now the harrowing art of Michael Chekhov is unfolding. How he slowly becomes worn down, how he aged and embittered, how he returns to the proletariat and alienated from the world, circling the house, shyly watching the child and wife - that was such a masterpiece that it overcame all spectators, even those who at first seemed dissatisfied the sound film was content with a few vocal interludes and the rattle of machine guns from clapping hands. In the first part, too, there were delightful pictures of the ballet, from the cloakroom (Farkas at the camera). Schünzel, as director, got the far-reaching plot together from start to finish and loaded with tension. "
“A petty bourgeois family novel in a sophisticated way. [...] It is hard to imagine that the poor story would have been filmed at all if it had not been hoped to help it up with sound film stimuli. This hope was deceptive. The synchronized accompanying music sounds tinny and its volume is invariable. The rendition of the song interludes suffer from the old evil that sound and image do not go together. […] Reinhold Schünzel's direction falls into inflationary habits. Bourgeois living rooms have the dimensions and pompous furnishings of castle rooms. A servant serves at the insurance director's. Michael Chekhoff's delicate, noble, chamber-play acting is very isolated in the midst of all the grossness. "
Karlheinz Wendtland found that the text of the plot "reads like a backstairs novel", but was "staged by the expert Reinhold Schünzel with a lot of artistic understanding and instinct" and shows "even tendencies to see the subject socially critical".
Web links
- Phantoms of happiness at filmportal.de
- Phantoms of happiness in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Phantoms of happiness at murnau-stiftung.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Karlheinz Wendtland: Beloved Kintopp. All German feature films from 1929–1945 with numerous artist biographies born in 1929 and 1930, Medium Film Verlag Karlheinz Wendtland, Berlin, first edition 1988, second revised edition 1990, pp. 21, 22, film N1 / 1930. ISBN 3-926945-10-9