Queen of Spades (1949)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Queen of Spades |
| Original title | The Queen of Spades |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1948 |
| length | 95 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Thorold Dickinson |
| script |
Rodney Ackland Arthur Boys |
| production | Anatole de Grunwald |
| music | Georges Auric |
| camera | Otto Heller |
| cut | Hazel Wilkinson |
| occupation | |
| |
The Queen of Spades is a 1948 British fictional film horror story by Thorold Dickinson with Adolf Wohlbrück (here as Anton Walbrook) in the lead role. Edith Evans and Yvonne Mitchell can be seen in the leading female roles . The film is based on the short story of the same name by Alexander Pushkin published in 1834 .
action
Saint Petersburg, at the beginning of the 19th century. A Russian officer in an engineering force without aristocratic roots, Captain Hermann Suvorin, is poor, but also very ambitious. He is striving to get to the top of Russian society. Like most other officers and gentlemen of the world, he was seized with gambling fever in the tsarist capital, Faro is played everywhere . There the queen of spades counts as a bad luck card. As if under the influence of magic, Suvorin watches Faro players evening after evening without, however, participating. He simply cannot afford to lose a lot of money in an emergency. One day when he enters a bookshop, Suvorin discovers an antiquarian tome about the Comte de St. Germain , which also tells of the scandalous story of Countess Ranewskaya. She owed her fortune to the card game, but had to sell her soul in return. As if spellbound, the captain sucks in all the details and tries from then on to track down the now very old countess. Through the count's maid Lizaveta, whom he tries to make his will with romantic love letters, Hermann Suvorin hopes to finally gain access to the old and tyrannical Countess Ranewskaya.
The closer he believes he is getting to his goal, the more unscrupulous the means Suvorin uses. The fate of the good and sincere Lizaveta, for whom only the young Andrei has honest feelings, does not seem to him at all. Andrej, who suspects that Lizaveta is only a means to an end for Hermann, although he does not yet understand Suvorin's intended purpose, openly threatens his competitor with tangible consequences if the captain plays a bad game with the innocent young woman. Lizaveta's love for Hermann Suvorin grows ever more intense, and she finally reveals to him what he really wants to know: Where exactly in the spacious property is the Countess's room. Hermann lies in wait there. When Countess Ranewskaya returns one evening from a ball with Lizaveta, Hermann jumps out of his hiding place and urges the old woman to reveal the secret of the playing cards to him. When she refuses, he threatens the old woman with a pistol. That is too much for the countess and she dies. Distraught, Suvorin goes to Lizaveta and tells her what happened. The count's ward is horrified. In order not to be seen, the officer escapes through a secret staircase. Lizaveta's feelings for him are gone.
Suvorin goes to the Countess' funeral. When he leans over her open coffin, her eyes open and he is frightened to death. Later, Hermann wakes up from a restless sleep and hears weird noises. When he finally hears Ranewskaya's voice, who reveals the secret of the cards - "Three", "Seven", "Ace" - and promises to forgive him for her death if he marries Lizaveta, it is almost for him happen. The captain feels closer to his desired goal than ever before. Withdrawing all his savings, he rushes to Lizaveta to ask for her hand. But the young woman only has contempt for Suvorin left. The following evening, Hermann finally wants to test his luck as a player, but is visited by Andrej in the player's room, who, as threatened, hits him because of the pain he inflicted on Lizaveta. Hermann then challenges him to the Faro game and uses all of his savings. In fact, the inspirations of the dead Ranewskaya seem to help him to a great profit, but then the luck suddenly disappears: Instead of the whispered ace, the third card is the cursed Queen of Spades, the unlucky card par excellence. Hermann now goes mad and is led out of the playroom by Andrej. On the way out, the fallen man mumbles "Three, seven, ..." as if in delirium. The new morning begins with the ringing of bells. Andrej and Lizaveta go to the bird market and, as a symbolic act, free the birds from their cages.
Production notes
The Queen of Spades was written in the second half of 1948 and was premiered on March 18, 1949 in London. The mass start was on April 11th of the same year. The German premiere took place on December 23, 1949. The film had also shown at the Cannes International Film Festival three months earlier .
Jack Clayton took over the production management. Oliver Messel and William Kellner designed the film structures, Ken Adam worked for them as an unnamed draftsman. Oliver Messel also provided the extensive costumes from the time. Louis Levy took over the musical direction.
Reviews
“For this late, outdated successor to silent horror legends like Der Student von Prag (1926), the Prague cameraman Otto Heller (The Cabinet of Dr. Larifari, 1930), who worked in Berlin from 1928 to 1935, created a surreal atmosphere, Adolf, with the help of crooked shots Wohlbrück allowed "demonic" appearances in the midst of many shadows, mirror images and cobwebs. They reach their climax in an agonizing nightmare, in which the forces of nature develop a life of their own. "
The Lexicon of International Films says: “A sophisticated film adaptation of Pushkin's novella. (...) Atmospherically dense, immersed in suggestive coldness, after a slow beginning skilfully dramatized and played excellently. "
The Movie & Video Guide found the film to be a “well-prepared production”.
"The camera work is adventurous, the editing imaginative and the film construction amazing."
"It is excellent to come across such an outstanding film trade."
“This amazing film is one of the few true classics in supernatural cinema. And it's a uniquely scary movie, too. "
Halliwell's Film Guide said the film was progressing "disappointingly slow", but offered an "atmospherically excellent revival of an old Russian story" and: "The showers, when they come, are pretty scary". Ultimately, as Halliwell summed up, the style was “impressionistic and the art of acting accordingly extravagant”.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Film data sheet on berlinale.de
- ↑ Queen of Spades. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 3, 2020 .
- ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 1055
- ↑ Quote printed in the film data sheet of the Berlinale 2013
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 828
Web links
- The Queen of Spades in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Queen of Spades on screenonline.org
- The Queen of Spades at gabelingeber.wordpress.com