The Bells (1931)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Bells |
| Country of production | Great Britain |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1931 |
| length | 75 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Harcourt Templeman Oscar Friedrich Werndorff |
| script | CH Dand |
| production |
Sergei Nolbandov Isidore Schlesinger |
| music | Gustav Holst |
| camera |
Eric Cross Günther Krampf |
| cut |
Michael Hankinson Lars Moen |
| occupation | |
| |
The Bells is a British fiction film from 1931. The film is based on the play Le juif polonais by the author duo Emile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian . It premiered in Great Britain on October 9, 1931.
action
Mathias runs an inn in his hometown. One day he murders a wealthy Pole who is a guest in his tavern. But the ghost of the murdered man haunts Mathias again and again, the guilty conscience of the inn owner becomes more and more tormenting.
The murder victim's brother initiates an investigation into the murder case, which Mathias, as mayor of the town, has to lead. The victim's brother consults a mesmerist who can read minds. After all, Mathias can no longer resist his guilty conscience.
background
The soundtrack comes from Gustav Holst , the composer of the orchestral suite The Planets , who wrote his only soundtrack for The Bells . Holst even got an extra appearance in a crowd. The producers of the Associated Sound Film Industries in Wembley had taken care of the music for the film late, so they asked Holst to do the job quickly. Nevertheless, Holst had the time for a previously planned Easter holiday in Normandy.
In his music for the film, Holst used a small orchestra for wind instruments , brass instruments , string instruments , percussion instruments , harp , piano and celesta . To his disappointment, however, the producers asked Holst, since they had cut the film in the meantime, to make appropriate changes to his music. Holst's disappointment grew when, during a private preview of the film in the studio, he discovered that the film music that he heard due to the poor quality of the speakers no longer had anything in common with the music that he had played with the orchestra.
Both the film and Holst's music are now considered lost. The press release for the film in 1931 and another from 1932 received little response. Apparently the film was not shown in the US either, whereupon its trail is lost. An official representative of the Associated Sound Film Industries could still remember a scene in which a brass band and a flute band came together from different directions and played different melodies; Holst had used a similar effect several years earlier in the final of Beni Mora .
Web links
- The Bells in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Michael Short: Gustav Holst - The Man and his Music , Circaidy Gregory Press (first published by Oxford University Press), 1990, new edition 2014, pp. 190–192
- ↑ Michael Short: Gustav Holst - The Man and his Music , Circaidy Gregory Press (first published by Oxford University Press), 1990, new edition 2014, p. 191
- ^ Michael Short: Gustav Holst - The Man and his Music , Circaidy Gregory Press (first published by Oxford University Press), 1990, new edition 2014, p. 192