SOS iceberg

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Movie
Original title SOS iceberg
Country of production German Empire
original language German
Publishing year 1933
length 103 minutes
Rod
Director Arnold Fanck
script Arnold Fanck
Friedrich Wolf
production Paul Kohner for Deutsche Universal-Film AG
music Paul Dessau
camera Richard Angst , Hans Schneeberger
cut Hermann Haller
occupation

SOS Eisberg is a German feature film by Arnold Fanck from 1932/1933, in which elements of the mountain film drama and the disaster film mix. The role models also include “Pol radio plays” from the late Weimar Republic, in particular SOS… rao rao… Foyn - “Krassin” saves “Italia” by Friedrich Wolf , who was also a screenplay co-author of SOS Eisberg.

action

Prof. Lorenz's Greenland expedition is lost in the eternal ice. Previous rescue expeditions of his young colleague Dr. Johannes Krafft remained unsuccessful. Krafft must be accused of not having searched extensively enough. When finally evidence is found that Prof. Lorenz could still be alive, Krafft sets up a new expedition and sets off for the north. On the Karajak Glacier, he finds records showing that Lorenz wanted to try to reach a nearby Eskimo settlement. Krafft and his men also set off, but when trying to cross a fjord, they are driven out onto the open sea on an ice floe. They are drifting straight towards an iceberg where they discover Lorenz. With the help of a shortwave radio, the stranded send out calls for help. By chance, a radio amateur on the mainland receives the signals and notifies Lorenz's wife Hella. She takes a plane to the Arctic Ocean to save her husband. The plane collides with the iceberg when it splashes down, but Hella manages to climb the iceberg. The rescue brings aviator Ernst Udet, who also plays himself in this Fanck film. He sifts through the iceberg and mobilizes the inhabitants of an Eskimo settlement. Commanded by the aviator ace, they come to the aid of the wreckers with their kayaks and bring them back to the mainland.

Remarks

The film was made as a German-American co-production (Universal Pictures / Deutsche Universal Film AG) and, as was often the case with the early talkies, was shot in two different language versions (German / English). Much of the filming took place in the summer of 1932 in the vicinity of the Uummannaq settlement on Greenland , some scenes were shot in the Swiss Alps in 1933.

According to Fanck's autobiography (1973), the film was already in danger on the day the contract was signed: "The contract was drawn up - I was offered 20,000 dollars (80,000 gold marks) as a director's fee. I was very happy with it, but I didn't know at the time that for a good American director was at least five times the norm. When I came to sign the next day, there was great excitement in the whole of Universal: An American director who also wanted to make a film on icebergs had just returned from Greenland with his own ship and 120 men had moved out - he came back with 19 survivors. By far the greatest catastrophe that had ever happened in a film. "For God's sake, hold back Dr. Fanck - icebergs cannot be climbed," he called to the directors. " Neither the film project nor the director could be identified to this day.

Fanck worked with his proven camera team led by Richard Angst and Hans Schneeberger , and the leading actress Leni Riefenstahl had also been a permanent member of Fanck for several years. With her and the aviator Ernst Udet he had already filmed The White Hell from Piz Palü (1929) and Storms over Mont Blanc (1930). At the same time, the Greenland Posse North Pole - Ahoi! Was commissioned by Carl Laemmle from Universal Pictures . turned. The director was Andrew Marton, who was responsible for editing the English version of SOS Eisberg. Marton cast the leading roles with his wife Jarmila Marton as well as Guzzi Lantschner and Walter Riml . Richard Angst was behind the camera. The film is considered a parody of SOS Eisberg and received rave reviews at its premiere on April 18, 1934 in Berlin's Mozart Hall. It is missing to this day.

SOS Eisberg had its world premiere on August 30, 1933 in Berlin. The US version SOS Iceberg premiered on September 22, 1933 in New York.

The script is based on motifs from the radio play by Friedrich Wolf, which deals with the crash of the airship “ Italia ” in the northern Arctic Ocean in 1928 and the subsequent international rescue operation. If the template still emphasizes the role of radio communications in international solidarity (the Italian wreckers are finally rescued by a Soviet icebreaker ), SOS Eisberg is told from an emphatically national perspective: A German radio station coordinates the search, a German aviator brings the rescue.

In the credits of the film, which premiered after the National Socialist " seizure of power " in 1933, the name Friedrich Wolf no longer appears because of his Jewish origins and membership in the KPD .

literature

  • Arnold Fanck: He directed with glaciers, storms and avalanches . Munich 1973
  • Arnold Fanck: SOS Iceberg - With Dr. Fanck and Ernst Udet in Greenland. The Greenland expedition of the Universal film SOS Iceberg . Munich 1933
  • Ernst Sorge: By plane, folding boat and film camera in the ice fjords of Greenland. A report on the Universal Dr. Fanck Greenland Expedition . Berlin 1933

See also

Web links