Prater boys

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Movie
Original title Prater boys
Country of production Austria
original language German
Publishing year 1946
length 79 minutes
Rod
Director Paul Martin
script Hugo Maria Kritz
Edmund Strzygowsky
production Vindobona film, Vienna
music Willy Schmidt-Gentner
camera Oskar Schnirch
occupation

and the Vienna Boys' Choir

Praterbuben is an Austrian feature film from 1946 directed by Paul Martin with Hermann Thimig in the leading role. The Praterboys that give the title are represented by the Vienna Boys' Choir .

action

The elderly Ferdinand has been working as a crier in the Vienna Prater for decades and has therefore become a Viennese original, particularly popular with the youngest. One day, when his temperament was particularly committed to a boy playing in front of the amusement park, his boss fired him. The latter had yelled at the child and caught a slap in the ear from the child-loving Ferdinand. The eponymous Prater boys are outraged that dear, kind-hearted Ferdinand had to atone for his courageous commitment and are planning to avenge him. The rascals overdo it: They cheat and trick and even forge the signature on a letter of recommendation - and all of this only to fulfill the old man's dream: the performance of a musical revue written by him. The previously empty theater space required for this will soon be found. The premiere, in which the Prater boys also appear, was a great success and helped the theater get a fresh start.

Production notes

The shooting of Praterbuben , the third Austrian post-war feature film , took place in Vienna's Rosenhügel studios from summer to October 1946. The first performance was also supposed to take place there, but the Communist City Councilor for Culture Viktor Matejka, appointed by the Soviet occupying power, expressed concerns: He disliked a scene in which some Prater boys were running around playing children in cowboy and Indian clothes and handling toy guns (theater props). He generally criticized the presence of weapons as well as the alleged glorification of violence. As a result, the film premiered on December 26, 1946 in the Orion cinema in Zurich, Switzerland, while cuts had to be made for the Austrian premiere. The film only opened in Vienna on February 7, 1947. Prater boys have been seen in Germany since the premiere in Cologne on December 21, 1948. On December 23, 1962, the film was also broadcast on ARD .

Karl Ehrlich took over the production management. Julius von Borsody designed the film structures. Alfred Norkus set the tone.

Reviews

The Österreichische Kino Zeitung criticized the fact that there was not much left of the "Austrian atmosphere that was really necessary here" and that, due to the commitment of a director who was mainly active in German film until 1945, "it became a cold Berlin product."

The paper “Neues Österreich” took the same line. Here, too, a general attack against the alleged “Karl May Romanticism” was postulated and the Saxon Indian story-writer was described as a favorite author of Hitler. It said: “When the SS set it on fire, the Wurstelprater was one of the victims of the Karl May convictions of a misled people. Instead of looking for the occasion for filmic work in our time, what had long been charred was put back up in the studio as well as possible and the boys' choir played roles that can hardly be reconciled with their reputation all over the world. " After all, the newspaper found words of praise for the technical issues: “The film itself is by no means bad in terms of technology and acting. It proves that the Austrian film industry ... would have everything it needs to work successfully. ”.

"Slightly sentimental folk piece with the Vienna Boys' Choir."

- Lexicon of International Films

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Österreichische Kino Zeitung, edition of January 11, 1947, p. 1
  2. ↑ Christian König: Endangered and dangerous. Youth and mass culture in Austria 1945 to 1950. Diploma thesis. Section: “Praterbuben”, p. 73 ff., Vienna 2013
  3. ↑ Paul Martin, however, was Hungarian, i.e. from the Habsburg monarchy
  4. ↑ Österreichische Kino Zeitung, Volume 1, Issue No. 21 of December 21, 1946, p. 1
  5. ^ Neues Österreich , Volume 2, edition of December 17, 1946, p. 3
  6. ↑ Prater boys in the lexicon of international film , accessed on April 1, 2020 Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used

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