The Passing of the Third Floor Back
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Passing of the Third Floor Back |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1935 |
| length | 91 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Berthold quarter |
| script |
Michael Hogan Alma Reville |
| production | Michael Balcon |
| music |
Hubert Bath John Greenwood |
| camera | Curt Courant |
| cut | Derek Twist |
| occupation | |
| |
The Passing of the Third Floor Back is a British feature film by Berthold Viertel with Conrad Veidt in the lead role of a redeemer-like, nameless stranger. The mystical story is based on the short story of the same name (1907) by Jerome K. Jerome .
action
The following events take place in a somewhat shabby London guest house, where people of various origins and social positions have mostly found poor homes. Only one of them, the wealthy businessman Mr. Wright, has had any real success in his life. The hostel belongs to the greedy Mrs. Sharpe, who treats the housemaid Stasia, once a criminal offender but who has become a good person, every day. The other residents of the house, long left behind by happiness and the small successes of everyday life, treat each other quite rude and scornfully. Only in relation to the well-respected Mr. Wright no one dares an improper word. The worn-out Major Tomkin and his wife therefore plan to bring their daughter Vivian together with the wealthy man. But Vivian is appalled by the idea of marrying this unattractive, corpulent and much older man.
The familiar routine of the house is suddenly broken one day by the arrival of a strange stranger. Nobody knows who this lean man, apparently a foreigner, really is, namely a guardian angel with a mission. In his flawless appearance and with his amazing actions, he soon earned the respect of the other tenants. Above all, Stasia feels attached to him thanks to the unknown friendliness. As the title of the film suggests, the stranger is housed in the back of the third floor. The stranger is invited to dinner on the occasion of a planned marriage between Vivian and Mr. Wright, and he soon realizes that Vivian absolutely does not want to marry the wealthy self-made man. The young girl has long since fallen in love with another roommate in the guest house and storms away from her own engagement party in horror and despair. Major Tomkin is appalled by his daughter's behavior and later tries to convince Mr. Wright that Vivian's behavior is just a misunderstanding and that the engagement is still going on. Tomkin urgently needs this wedding, as he hopes to be financially and socially secure from it in the future.
The stranger is an excellent observer of his fellow human beings and what he sees in this microcosm of human coexistence or rather against each other in this house, he dislikes very much. With gentle pressure, he encourages his fellow human beings to be better with one another and to pursue their dreams instead of living in fear. This is gradually starting to work, with some members of the house appearing to succumb to his charisma. On a public holiday, the stranger invites the residents to take a boat trip to Margate, and emphasizes that differences in social status should not have any significance today. Some of them turn up their noses at this, as this also invites the maid Stasia to the outing. When Stasia falls into the Thames, one of the women steps in to save her life. After the girl is fished out, she is looked after by the Tomkins, who treat her as if she were their own daughter. At that moment the couple realized that it was wrong to press Vivian to marry Mr. Wright.
During the trip, various residents of the house begin to have fun and treat each other with more respect. This change in their situation leads to Wright's displeasure, and he begins to torpedo the stranger's attempts to make the residents better people. This is particularly evident on the following day, when most residents return to their old behavior. Wright believes he has achieved a victory over the stranger and mocks him. The stranger tries to convince Wright that he too should try to aim for a better and happier life, but Wright refuses. The argument between the two protagonists develops into a moral struggle between good and evil, between the moral goodness of the individual and the power of the heartless mammon.
Production notes
The Passing of the Third Floor Back premiered on September 11, 1935 as part of a show of interests at London's Adelphi Theater. The mass start was on January 17, 1936. The film was not shown in Germany.
Ivor Montagu took over the production management. Oskar Friedrich Werndorff designed the film structures. Louis Levy was the musical director.
Reviews
In film Weekly was to read as follows: "This unusual film critics and moviegoers probably split into two camps. Some will praise it as a masterpiece, others will no longer see it as pretentious nonsense. (...) For the strange, admittedly artificial story, you couldn't have chosen a better director than Berthold Viertel, whose style blends well with the mystical and psychological subject matter. In the hands of this meticulous director, the drama takes on a touch of unreality, an ethereal quality that the character of the stranger ... demands. "
On November 1, 1935, film critic and writer Graham Greene wrote in The Spectator that director Viertel had "weakened the pious note [of the original], appropriately diluted the milk of human kindness and observed the guys in a small private hotel in London with malicious realism."
"Taking the power of the book, the play, the film adaptation and its star, in this form, should be invincible."
Halliwell's Film Guide found the film to be "a competent film version of a famous, sentimental, old-fashioned play."
Individual evidence
- ^ Film Weekly, October 18, 1935
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 783
Web links
- The Passing of the Third Floor Back in the Internet Movie Database (English)