Dance with the emperor

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Movie
Original title Dance with the emperor
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1941
length 102 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Georg Jacoby
script Géza by Cziffra
Friedrich Schreyvogel
production Max Pfeiffer
music Franz Grothe
camera Reimar Kuntze
cut Erika Engelbrecht
occupation

Dance with the Kaiser is a German equipment film from the year 1941. Directed by Georg Jacoby his wife play Marika Rokk and Wolf Albach-Retty and Axel von Ambesser the leading roles. The story is based on the comedy Die Nacht in Siebenbürgen by Nikolaus Asztalos .

action

Austria, in the second half of the 18th century. Emperor Joseph II is a subtle and culturally conscious monarch whose whole love is for high art, literature and music, old clocks and beautiful books. His co-ruling mother, Empress Maria Theresa, is very displeased that the young monarch shows no interest in the female sex, because the country urgently needs an heir to the throne. The Empress therefore absolutely wants to marry her son and believes, after many fruitless efforts, to have found a suitable partner in Caroline von Sachsen. Again Joseph pretends to have to leave the court in Vienna hastily because of supposedly "urgent business". Why not travel to the Crown Land of Transylvania ? It's a good distance from the farm, from your own mother and every young lady willing to marry, thinks Joseph and sets off. Fittingly, the last governor sent by Austria has just died there in the Balkans, and so one could see that everything was going well on the spot. Rittmeister von Kleber, Joseph's loyal adjutant, who had given him the idea, followed His Majesty with a lot of baggage. On the way, however, he broke his wheel with his carriage and accordingly did not keep up.

After a delay, von Kleber, whose first name is Josef like his chief boss, arrives at an estate in Transylvania. Baroness Christine von Alwin is celebrating Easter there. Kleber mingles with the people unobtrusively and is identified by the landlady. She has heard of the emperor's journey and now assumes that he, Josef, must be the monarch from distant Vienna and that he is resting here completely incognito. You feel good very quickly and spend a night of love together. However, despite sincere efforts, Rittmeister-Josef does not succeed in clearing up the “imperial” error. The next morning the captain doesn't have time to say goodbye to his Christine, because duty is duty and she calls. The Kaiser must be caught up with as soon as possible. However, since the monarch was told that the bride-to-be, Caroline von Sachsen, had already left Vienna, there was no longer any reason for the ruler to perish in the deepest province, and so he immediately set off on the journey home to Vienna .

Meanwhile Christine longs for her very personal "Kaiser", the Rittmeister Josef von Kleber, and decides to write her "dear Joseph" a letter in which she states that he should not forget her. At court, Empress Maria Theresia got the letter into her hands and was delighted that her son seemed to have finally found a woman abroad that he was interested in. Christine is immediately invited to court by Her Majesty. Even if not entirely befitting, the young baroness still appears presentable. Christine travels to Schönbrunn and is disappointed to find that Joseph II is not "her" Josef. She howls herself to the emperor's chest, who is so touched that he promises her to track down the “villain” who pretends to be under his name and, of course, to punish him with death immediately. Since Rittmeister Kleber is always where his ruler is, it is inevitable that Christine soon meets her lover. She makes him angry with a scene and then doesn't look at him anymore.

In order to challenge and annoy Kleber, Baroness Christine now begins, much to the delight of his mother Maria-Theresa, to hook up with the real emperor, in the hope that he will show interest in her. And indeed Joseph begins to fall in love with the spirited young Hungarian from Transylvania. On his birthday, Joseph II invites Christine to his rooms. That doesn't fit Rittmeister Josef at all, he intervenes and makes it clear to his monarch that he has the older claims. Christine, who has only been waiting for it, is fine with her Josef, but His Majesty keeps the promise he made to the baroness and has the alleged Hallodri, who pretended to be him, arrested by his guard. The Rittmeister should comment on his name presumption in court. Finally, however, Maria-Theresa intervenes and prevents a death sentence from being pronounced against the other Josef. With Christine in tow, Rittmeister von Kleber is allowed to leave Vienna. He is sent to Transylvania as the new governor, while Joseph II can now fully devote himself to his great love, art.

Production notes

Tanz mit dem Kaiser was created from April 2, 1941 to mid-June 1941 (studio recordings) and from June 27, 1941 (exterior recordings in Schönbrunn Palace and in Transylvania ). The film passed the censorship on December 17, 1941 and was premiered on December 19, 1941 at the Scala cinema in Vienna. The Berlin premiere was on April 28, 1942. On March 26, 1978, the German television first broadcast took place in the third program of Bayerischer Rundfunk.

The film was quite expensive with production costs of around RM 2,307,000 , but was still considered a box office success. Dance with the Kaiser was also successful abroad . Marika Rökk, who traveled to Zurich and Basel for the Swiss premieres, had to be protected from a large crowd of fans and autograph collectors by ten Swiss police officers when she arrived at the train station. In the autumn of 1943, the strip was again one of three German film contributions as part of the international film exhibition in the Portuguese luxury seaside resort of Estoril. Marika Rökk also traveled there as a guest of honor, as reported by the Münchner Neue Nachrichten of October 6, 1943

Production group leader Max Pfeiffer also took over the production management. Erich Kettelhut created the film structures , Walter Rühland provided the sound . Herbert Ploberger designed the extensive costumes. Sabine Ress rehearsed the dances. Marika Rökk, Jockel Stahl and Willy Schulte-Vogelheim danced.

Music track

The following music tracks were played:

  • It can't be more beautiful in heaven
  • Spring in Vienna (vocals: Marika Rökk and Wolf Albach-Retty)
  • Nightingale, I hear you sing (vocals: Marika Rökk and the maids)
  • Palotás
  • As beautiful as today, it should stay that way (two vocals: Marika Rökk)

Reviews

“'The Dance with the Emperor' belongs to the kind of historical costume films in which the atmosphere of a time epoch is captured as precisely as possible with great effort. (...) That would be pretty much all right, and we would have nothing to object to, because the film is shot quite well and offers a wealth of wonderful scenes. The film is also consistently satisfying in terms of performance. What we are complaining about is the way in which the spirit that reigns in this court ... is displayed. These courtly people were certainly not saints, and the atmosphere in which they moved was quite reckless and frivolous. But there are certain things that a noble-minded person delicately hides and prefers to leave in the dark. It goes against our sense of equity and decency that one lingers on the frivolous side of a farm… with obvious pleasure (…) A film that we cannot recommend despite its technical and performance qualities. "

- The film advisor, Lucerne No. 1a. January 1942

Boguslaw Drewniak said: “As nice as the film was, it didn't have the right atmosphere for the play. Both the play and the film flirted with historical garb. In the film, however, the political topicality only flashed out less subtly ”.

The lexicon of the international film found that the film was prepared lackluster with "Franz-Grothe-Schlagern (As beautiful as today ', so it must' stay") and dance numbers in front of a poor backdrop; one of Marika Rökk's weakest performances. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ German sound films, 11th year 1940/41. 062.41, p. 274, Berlin 2000
  2. ^ Boguslaw Drewniak: The German Film 1938-1945 . A complete overview. Düsseldorf 1987, p. 759
  3. ibid. P. 770
  4. ibid., P. 576
  5. Dance with the Emperor. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed November 6, 2018 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used