If We All Were Angels (1956)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | If we were all angels |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1956 |
| length | 98 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Günther Lüders |
| script | Kurt Nachmann |
| production |
Georg Richter for Bavaria Filmkunst |
| music | Franz Grothe |
| camera | Günther Rittau |
| cut | Anneliese Schönnenbeck |
| occupation | |
| |
If we were all angels is a German comedy film by Günther Lüders from 1956. After 1936 it was the second film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Heinrich Spoerl .
action
“Order, cleanliness and a sense of duty” - this is the life motto of the Weinbach city librarian Christian Kempenich. Christian and Elisabeth's marriage is happy, even if Christian's cousin Selma does not appreciate the relationship. When Christian goes to live with relatives in Düsseldorf for a day to baptize twins , Selma uses the opportunity to question Christian's loyalty in front of Elisabeth. At the same time, she critically questions the singing lessons that Elisabeth takes from the singer Enrico Falotti.
Elisabeth is doing during Christian's departure spontaneously long desired cruise on the Mosel gen Cochem and Koblenz . Falotti is also on board, who would like to be the man at Elisabeth's side, but is always turned away by her. He engages them in a conversation and soon they are both sitting in a large group and drinking wine. Elisabeth missed one station after the other and finally disembarked with Falotti in Koblenz. The last train to Weinbach has long since left, so both of them want to take a hotel.
Christian didn't feel comfortable at the christening party and instead met up with his friend Robert. Since he wanted to go out with a friend, all three end up in a dance hall, which Christian leaves drunk with a strange woman. The next day he wakes up in an unfamiliar hotel room. The woman from the previous evening is lying on the bed and Christian leaves the hotel in horror. The woman in turn reacts angrily and steals the hotel bed linen.
Christian and Elisabeth appear back in Weinbach almost at the same time and pretend to the other that everything went as planned: he was with relatives overnight and she was at home. Only when Christian and Elisabeth are supposed to appear at the police station for allegedly stolen bed linen does the facade crumble. Since Christian did not share a room with his wife, as stated in the hotel book, and Elisabeth does not want to reveal later in which hotel she stayed the night, the couple suspects and falls out. Separate beds are the result, Christian is increasingly being cut by customers at his place of work and the attempt to bribe Falotti also fails - when Falotti claims to Elisabeth that he was in Düsseldorf that night and was staying at the hotel under a strange name she knows he's lying.
All the frauds in private life and in front of the police ultimately lead to a trial. Christian's lawyer Genius has all the hotel bellboys from Koblenz appear who are supposed to identify Elisabeth. One remembers that she was in Koblenz with her husband that night. After some chaos, the truth emerges: Elisabeth and Falotti wanted to spend the night in a hotel because they missed the last train to Weinbach. However, when Falotti ordered a double room for both of them, Elisabeth slapped him and instead spent the night alone at the train station. Christian, on the other hand, is innocent because an unknown woman took advantage of his drunkenness and stole the bed linen after he disappeared. Both defendants are acquitted and now know that "order, cleanliness and a sense of duty" are important, but people are also allowed to make mistakes, because after all they are not angels.
production
If we were all angels, the film was shot from July 13th to August 25th 1956 on the Moselle in Traben-Trarbach as well as in Weilheim and Düsseldorf . The square that Christian Kempenich crosses every day from his library home is the market square of Bernkastel .
The film was mass-launched in German cinemas on September 21, 1956.
It was the directorial debut of the actor Günther Lüders.
The film contains some vocal parts, for example Marianne Koch sings the song After a day like today .
criticism
In 1956, the film-dienst criticized that the film “by no means exhausted all the possibilities of loving irony about petty-bourgeois narrowness and moral etiquette” and criticized Dieter Borsche's game , which lacks ironic lightness: “Its strenuous comedy is sometimes downright embarrassing”.
The lexicon of international films published by film-dienst in 1990 called the film "a little more clumsy staged [than the film made in 1936] and without Spoerl's cryptic comedy".
Cinema found: “The Posse is based on the Heinz Rühmann comedy of the same name from 1938, but does not achieve its frivolity. Conclusion: As uptight as its protagonists. "
Web links
- If we all were angels in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- If we were all angels at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ If we were all angels . In: film-dienst , No. 50, 1956.
- ↑ Klaus Brüne (Ed.): Lexicon of International Films . Volume 9. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1990, p. 4263.
- ↑ If we were all angels. In: Cinema , Hubert Burda Media , accessed on August 4, 2018.