The Woman from Monte Carlo

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Movie
Original title The Woman from Monte Carlo
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1931
length 65 minutes
Rod
Director Michael Curtiz
script Harvey Thew
production Warner Brothers
music Bernhard Kaun
camera Ernest Haller
cut Harold McLernon
occupation

The Woman from Monte Carlo is a 1931 American drama film starring Lil Dagover in the title role. Her film partner was Walter Huston . Directed by Michael Curtiz . The story is based on the novel Veille d'Armes by Claude Farrere and Lucien Nepoty .

action

The once easy-going Deanna Corlaix from Vienna married the French naval commander Corlaix, who first made her a real lady before he fell seriously in love with her. Captain Corlaix now commands La Fayette , the pride of the French Navy. While Corlaix is ​​completely absorbed in his job on the high seas and often stays away for months, Deanna remains lonely and alone on land. One day, on the eve of World War I, Lieutenant George D'Ortelles, an ex-lover, hands her a note from her husband. With this note he asks his wife to come aboard the La Fayette for a dance . While Lotti waits for her husband, his commanding officer Brambourg, who has known her since meeting in Monte Carlo, tries to ensnare her. But Deanna is a loyal wife and laughs at the Commander at his awkward advances. While Corlaix is ​​dancing with his wife, he is told that a war has broken out between the major European powers. All guests of the social gathering are quickly brought back ashore.

Deanna is annoyed at having to leave the ship again so quickly, and with it her husband, and complains, now slightly drunk, to Lieutenant D'Ortelles, who was chosen by Captain Corlaix to bring his wife safely back to shore bring. Instead, the lieutenant brings her to his officers' cabin and assures Deanna of his love. Corlaix is ​​not right for her. After Corlaix has to assume that his wife has already left the ship, the captain turns to his subordinate D'Ortelles that he does not believe that Deanna loves him. Deanna, who is hiding right next door, hears this sentence and decides to come ashore somehow and to get D'Ortelles, who she really likes, out of her head immediately. But too late: the anchor has already been lifted and Deanna cannot leave the ship. Officer Brambourg suspects that D'Ortelles is hiding a woman and deliberately stays around longer, making it impossible for Deanna to leave her hiding place.

On the high seas, Corlaix's La Fayette spots another ship (of an ally), which gives the La Fayette a light signal, which means a code signal from the ally. Corlaix therefore senses no danger and contributes. But suddenly the La Fayette comes under torpedo fire and the ship sinks. Over 350 sailors out of 800 men on board lose their lives. D'Ortelles can safely get Deanna off the ship, but her husband faces a court-martial. Corlaix is ​​blamed for the catastrophe, especially since he is married to an "enemy foreigner". Commander Brambourg would be the only witness who could testify to the Allied light signal, able to exonerate his boss Corlaix, but does not do so because he is eager for his post. Deanna had also noticed the light signal, but does not want to testify because then everyone present - the court as well as her husband - would realize that she was illegally on board when the ship left.

D'Ortelles, who was in the hospital to the last for treatment, tries at the last moment to save Corlaix's skin and reputation, and rushes into the courtroom, but his testimony is not believed. Deanna now appears: She confirms D'Ortelles' statement and gives her husband all discharge, even if this also means that her honor - her being with D'Ortelles at the moment in question suggests adultery - is being questioned. But Deanna and D'Ortelles have done nothing wrong. Nevertheless, Brambourg tries to denigrate both behavior, whereupon D'Ortelles draws a gun and shoots Brambourg. Although the honor of the eponymous woman from Monte Carlo is restored, the lieutenant is taken away. Captain Corlaix leaves the courtroom with honor restored and leaves his wife. Deanna returns to Vienna broken.

Production notes

The Woman from Monte Carlo was created from mid-October 1931 and was presented for the first time at the end of the year under the working titles The Captain's Wife and The Marked Woman . The mass start was on January 9, 1932. In Germany, the film never ran despite the German star.

The film is a remake of the late silent film Night Watch from 1928. Before (1925) and afterwards (1935) there had also been French versions of this popular film material under the title Veilles d'Armes .

useful information

Lil Dagover was also well known in the United States due to her numerous silent film successes in the 1920s. At the height of her fame, she therefore accepted an invitation from Warner Bros. to Hollywood for a film role in the summer of 1931 . In August 1931 she arrived and took over the part of Deanna, listed on the cast list before Walter Huston, who is very well known in the USA . The entire advertising campaign was aimed entirely at the Germans.

At the end of November 1931, the Dagover traveled home to Germany. In the February 1932 issue of the specialist publication Picture Play it was read that the actress had no great love for Hollywood and would wait in Europe to see whether the public reaction to The Woman from Monte Carlo gave her a reason to return to the USA to travel. This was not the case, after which Lil Dagover never returned to the USA.

Reviews

The reviews were mostly poor, with Lil Dagover being consistently excluded from the negative reviews.

The Film Daily was headed May 3, 1932, “Weak story, overloaded with talk and very little action. Good cast in a losing position ": " Lil Dagover ... makes her English-language debut in a sadly ineffective melodrama that has showered her and the other cast members with arguably the greatest overdose of gossip that has ever been put into any of the recent films. "

Halliwell's Film Guide found the film to be "a stiff husband elodrama", but that "no wonder it works because of its German star Lil Dagover".

Leonard Maltin called the film a "crunchy, romantic melodrama" and praised Curtiz '"elegant image feel and the court martial that allows you to continue to watch the whole thing".

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Woman from Monte Carlo on warrenwilliam.com
  2. ^ Review on The Film Daily
  3. ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 200
  4. ↑ criticism in tcm.turner.com

Web links