His Highness - Comrade Prince

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Movie
Original title His Highness - Comrade Prince
Country of production GDR
original language German
Publishing year 1969
length 86 minutes
Age rating FSK o.A.
Rod
Director Werner W. Wallroth
script Rudi Strahl
Werner W. Wallroth
production DEFA , KAG "Berlin"
music Karl-Ernst Sasse
camera Hans-Jürgen Kruse
cut Helga Emmrich
occupation

His Highness - Comrade Prinz is a German DEFA film comedy directed by Werner W. Wallroth from 1969.

action

Kaspar Mai works as a GDR foreign trade merchant for porcelain. His cadre file is clean, he is popular with his colleagues and especially with the women who fall for him by the dozen - much to the displeasure of his friend Hennes, who has fallen in love with his new colleague Angelika Engel, who promptly falls for Kaspar. It's not just his style that is popular with women, but also his past: in 1945 he was found as a toddler at a train station. Since he was found in May and reminded of a foundling Kaspar Hauser , he got his name.

Hennes complains about his difficult situation with women with his best friend Bruno, who works as a painter and restorer. He is currently restoring the image of a ruler of Hohenlohe-Liebenstein who looks like Kaspar's face. Since Bruno had previously made a portrait of Kaspar, he suspects an unconscious copy of Kaspar's picture. He has a guilty conscience, but Hennes lets him return the picture as it usually hangs in a castle where Kaspar is used to kidnap his latest love affair. Both want to play a trick on him. In fact, Kaspar visits the castle with Angelika and is faced with his other self in portrait form. Angelika believes in a bad joke and lets it stand. Kaspar also quickly realizes that Bruno has restored the picture and the next day he is quite princely as a joke. But when a strange woman appears in the evening and pretends to be his Spreewald wet nurse from princely days, Kaspar is going too far.

It becomes clear that Kaspar is indeed a prince. Only the restored picture in the castle brought his former wet nurse on his trail. Kaspar's real name is Eitel Friedrich Prince von Hohenlohe-Liebenstein and is the Hereditary Prince of the princely estates near Stuttgart . In his company he tries to publicize the new findings, but everyone believes that the joke will continue. Angelika is so annoyed that she breaks up with him and the colleagues make fun of him. Kaspar therefore travels to Stuttgart and visits the princely palace in Liebenstein. There he has to defend himself against the loving widow, Princess Diana, and also tame the relatives. The plans to sell part of the extensive property to the state so that a NATO airport can be built on it. Even now, smaller planes are constantly flying over the princely property, causing extreme noise and crashing with a certain regularity. Kaspar resists the request and leaves a short time later.

Back at work, the press has meanwhile reported about the “red prince” in the West. Kaspar's superiors are unsure how to record his new identity in the management file. "Social origin: feudal aristocracy" and "father: state regent" would throw a strange light on Kaspar. He now wants to get rid of his new name. A corresponding legal process would take years and so he finally decides on the fastest option: He marries Angelika Engel and takes her last name. A little later both of them are in the marriage bed and Angelika asks Kaspar to just repeat something again. Resignedly, he sits on the prince's crown naked and Angelika bursts out laughing.

production

His Highness - Comrade Prince was filmed in Thuringia , among other places . Parts of the script had to be changed on official instructions. "Strahl and his director Werner W. Wallroth are provided with lists of words and sentences to be deleted several times, right up to the minister, the finished film [...] is almost only funny, without bite and social sharpness".

The film was finally premiered on September 16, 1969 in the Berlin cosmos .

criticism

The contemporary criticism found that the film may change from a simple comedy to Schwank, but in the end only offers "gags from the kitchen in which home-style cooking is prepared". Renate Holland-Moritz praised the fact that the film is improving after a lengthy beginning and highlighted Rolf Ludwig's and Jutta Wachowiak's comedic achievements.

The lexicon of the international film found: “Despite a few gossips, an overall successful comedy that delivers its message - not ancestry, but the social conditions that shape people - predominantly with biting irony. The film is also not stingy with swipes at the GDR, although some points had to be removed from the script. "

For Cinema , His Highness - Comrade Prince was "amusing, mildly ironic class struggle".

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Habel, p. 535.
  2. ^ Ralf Schenk (Red.), Filmmuseum Potsdam (Hrsg.): The second life of the film city Babelsberg. DEFA feature films 1946–1992 . Henschel, Berlin 1994, p. 240.
  3. ↑ Manfred Jelenski: Gags à la home cooking . In: Filmspiegel , No. 22, 1969, p. 8.
  4. ^ Renate Holland-Moritz: cinema owl . In: Eulenspiegel , No. 42, 1969.
  5. ↑ His Highness - Comrade Prince. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 7, 2018 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  6. ↑ His Highness - Comrade Prince. In: Cinema , Hubert Burda Media , accessed on August 7, 2018.