Adopted happiness

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Movie
German title Adopted happiness
Original title Sun Valley Serenade
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1941
length 86 minutes
Rod
Director H. Bruce Humberstone
script Robert Ellis ,
Helen Logan
production Milton Sperling
for 20th Century Fox
music Emil Newman
camera Edward Cronjager
cut James B. Clark
occupation
synchronization

Adopted Glück (OT: Sun Valley Serenade ) is an American revue film from 1941 with Sonja Henie and John Payne in the leading roles. The well-known orchestra leader Glenn Miller made his debut as an actor.

action

The well-known singer Vivian Dawn is supposed to perform in the exclusive winter sports resort Sun Valley , but is dissatisfied with her current band and dismisses them. It just so happens that Phil Carey and his Dartmouth Troubadors, a so far rather unsuccessful swing band, are in the office of their manager Mr. Murray in New York . Not least because of the persuasion of the band's attractive pianist, Ted Scott, Lynn signs them up for her performance in Sun Valley. The two quickly become a couple in their private lives. Immediately before leaving for Sun Valley, the news bursts in that a young Norwegian refugee child is waiting for the support promised by the band. The offer was actually only meant as a publicity gag, but now Ted sets out to receive the supposed child. To his surprise, Karen Benson stands before him, a grown and very pretty young woman.

Karen soon complicates Ted's situation as she frankly admits that she wants to marry him. He rejects her advances, also because otherwise a jealous Karen could break the commitment again. Phil therefore forbids her to travel to Sun Valley with her - but the charming Karen can convince the band manager Nifty to sneak her into the train to Sun Valley, so that Ted suddenly finds herself facing Karen during a ski trip, who proves to be an excellent skier. At first Ted reacts angry, but slowly he can make friends with Karen thanks to mutual interests. Lynn leaves the band out of jealousy, whereupon the performance in Sun Valley has to be improvised quickly: Karen becomes the star of an extravagant ice show, for which the Dartmouth Troubadors play the music. Ted and Karen become a couple after several entanglements.

background

The Norwegian figure skater Sonja Henie decided after the end of her unprecedented series of success with three Olympic victories , ten world championship titles and six European championship titles in mid-1936 for a career in film.

20th Century Fox developed a very special form of the revue film for Henie with spectacular shows in the form of ice revues. For this purpose, a special camera had to be developed in order to be able to record the extremely fast movements of the ice skaters without distortion. In addition, it was necessary to specially prepare the ice for the revue scenes. A top layer of milk-colored ice was applied to make the recordings easier. A wafer-thin film of water always had to be guaranteed, as this was the only way to prevent pieces of ice from being thrown around during braking maneuvers and fast turns and spoiling the recording. Successes like Thin Ice and Second Fiddle made Henie one of the most popular stars at the box office of the time.

The film was planned in mid-1939 under the working title Passport to Life and with Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell as a follow-up project to her success in Daytime Wife , before the whole story was completely rewritten for the talents of Sonja Henie and finally under the title Sun Valley Serenade Was released in theaters in late August 1941. The title Chattanooga Choo Choo , which Glenn Miller plays in the film, sold over a million copies shortly after it was released.

Sonja Henie later referred to Adopted Glück as her favorite film.

music

Glenn Miller while serving with the US Army Air Corps

Composers Harry Warren and Mack Gordon were mainly responsible for the songs in the film . The following pieces of music are performed in the course of the plot:

synchronization

The German-language dubbed version was created in 1949 for the cinema premiere at Kaudel Film GmbH Berlin . The dubbing was done by Karl Metzner, the dialogue book was written by Erika Görner .

role actor German Dubbing voice
Karen Benson Sonja Henie Renate Barken
Ted Scott John Payne Erik Schumann
Phil Corey Glenn Miller Rolf Heydel
Vivian Darn Lynn Bari Bettina Schön
Nifty Allen Milton Berle Georg Thomalla

criticism

Bosley Crowther wrote in the New York Times of September 6, 1941 that Sun Valley Serenade offered "a clean, healthy look at natural landscapes" as well as "a lot of innocent fun." The plot is not packed like in other musical films and overall rather thin. Sonja Henie is "more charming and lithe than ever", but the other actors and Glenn Miller's orchestra are also convincing.

The All Movie Guide was decades later a similar opinion: Actually, the film would have to be worse, as the screenplay solid, but was nothing special. But due to the talents of everyone involved, the entertainment factor is “too high to resist” and ultimately makes adopted happiness a “real winner”.

The Lexicon of International Films ruled:

"Musical comedy about the former world figure skating champion Sonja Henie with some lengths, but beautiful nature shots, rapid ski runs and music by the Glenn Miller Orchestra."

Awards

At the Academy Awards in 1942 , the film received nominations in the following categories:

  • Best Cinematography (black and white) - Edward Cronjager
  • Best Score (musical film) - Emil Newman
  • Best song - Chattanooga Choo Choo

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Adopted happiness. In: Synchrondatenbank.de. Retrieved May 30, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Review by Bosley Crowther in the New York Times
  3. ^ Craig Butler: Sun Valley Serenade (1941). Bruce Humberstone, H. Bruce Humberstone | Review | AllMovie. In: AllMovie. AllMovie, Netaktion LLC, accessed July 6, 2020 (American English).
  4. ↑ Adopted luck at two thousand and one