Sergeant Madden
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Sergeant Madden |
| Original title | Sergeant Madden |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1939 |
| length | 77 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Josef von Sternberg |
| script | Wells Root |
| production | J. Walter Ruben |
| music | William ax |
| camera | John F. Seitz |
| cut | Conrad A. Annoying |
| occupation | |
| |
Sergeant Madden is an American drama about a police family, shot in 1939 by Josef von Sternberg with Wallace Beery in the title role.
action
New York City, late 1930s. Police Officer Sergeant Shawn Madden holds on to the proud traditions of the New York Police Department and makes festive preparations for the day his son Dennis and adoptive son Al Boylan Jr. will also join his unit. As a young boy, Dennis, unlike the level-headed Al, was always a troubled troublemaker; a quality that he also displayed during his training at the police academy. After graduating, Dennis proposes marriage to the young girl Eileen Daly, whom her father picked up from the street as a foundling. Eventually Eileen Daly becomes the policewoman Mrs. Dennis Madden. Ambitious Dennis believes that he is most likely to use brute force to climb the police career ladder. This means that he has his finger on the trigger very quickly. One day, Madden Jr. shoots a teenager when he is stealing a fur. As a result, Dennis draws the violent hostility of the gangster "Piggy" Ceders. His lover is namely the sister of the downed fur thief. Ceders devises a plan of revenge and claims that Dennis is corruptible. Then Dennis has to go to prison. Just as old Sergeant Madden has convinced “Piggy” to exonerate his son, Dennis breaks out of the train that was supposed to take him to jail and goes into hiding with Eileen.
His pregnant fiancée is becoming more and more estranged from her trigger-happy and highly aggressive husband. Finally, she escapes the fearful living situation at home and rushes to Shawn's father-in-law, where she reveals Dennis' hiding place to his adopted son Al. The old Sergeant Madden then goes to Dennis to tell him that gangster "Piggy" has agreed to withdraw his accusation and thus exonerate Dennis again. Shawn's police colleagues have learned from a witness where Dennis is hiding. You move in front of his house with a large contingent and surround it. Dennis shoots his way in a panic, kills a fellow police officer and flees. Sergeant Madden quits his job, deeply disappointed and bitter. Dennis Madden's descent into crime is only now really picking up momentum. First he robs a bank and then kills the man he blames for his downfall: “Piggy” Ceders. When Eileen goes to work, Sergeant Maden wants to put an end to the horror on his own and sets a trap for his escaped son. He lures Dennis to the hospital. Trapped between his father on the one hand and a large-scale police armada on the other, there is a showdown in which Dennis dies in a hail of bullets.
Production notes
Filming of Sergeant Madden began on January 7, 1939 and ended in mid-February of that year. Some follow-up photos were taken in early March. The world premiere took place on March 24, 1939. On June 24, 1973 the film was broadcast for the first time on German television ( ARD ).
Cedric Gibbons designed the film structures implemented by Randall Duell , Edwin B. Willis provided the equipment. Douglas Shearer monitored the sound.
synchronization
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Sergeant Madden | Wallace Beery | Fritz Tillmann |
| Dennis Madden | Alan Curtis | Christian Brückner |
| "Piggy" Ceders | Marc Lawrence | Erich Ebert |
| Punchy LePage | David Gorcey | Pierre Franckh |
Reviews
"Good drama program."
The Movie & Video Guide stated that director Sternberg was “out of place with this standardized Beery vehicle”.
In the lexicon of the international film it says: "Police melodrama with atmospheric charm and careful staging."
Halliwell's Film Guide found the film to be "a routine detective melodrama of a sentimental style, rather untypical for its director."
Individual evidence
- ^ Sergeant Madden in the German synchronous file .
- ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 1157.
- ↑ Sergeant Madden. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed June 1, 2020 .
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 898.
Web links
- Sergeant Madden in the American Film Institute Catalog
- Sergeant Madden in the Internet Movie Database (English)