Where's Mister Belling?
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Where's Mister Belling? |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | none (canceled in 1945) |
| Rod | |
| Director | Erich Engel |
| script | Curt Johannes Braun |
| production | Production group Oskar Marion for Bavaria-Film, Munich |
| music | Oskar Wagner |
| camera |
Franz Koch Erich Claunigk |
| cut | Hildegard Grebner |
| occupation | |
and in small roles: Margareta Henning-Roth , Rose Marten and Joseph Offenbach . | |
Where's Mister Belling? is an unfinished German film comedy from the winter of 1944/45 with Emil Jannings in the leading role. Directed by Erich Engel , who had staged the last completed Jannings film Old Heart Becomes Young Again in 1942 .
action
Eberhard Belling is a respected, well-to-do industrialist who has built his own company to a proud size. His marriage seems happy, he and his wife Eveline have a daughter who is studying art history and a son who is an excellent tennis player. When the father is away for the planned two days, however, son Rupert learns from the company syndicate that the Belling works are in a serious crisis. So you start to worry when old Belling disappears even after the planned two days of business trip. In order not to stir up rumors about the ailing company, one comes up with the idea of claiming in public that Eberhard Belling has been involved in a car accident and as a result has to stay in bed in the hospital.
Rupert uses the time to familiarize himself with the company and thus also with its problems and solve them in cooperation with his mother and sister. Suddenly a telegram arrives from Berlin in which old Belling says that he will be home soon. The syndic is not really reassured by this news and then sets off for Berlin to look for Mr. Belling, who is his friend. He lives in a small, furnished room in the center of the city and explains to his bewildered friend that he has been taking this break from time to time for years to relax from the stress of the company at home. In order to uphold the white lie that the family has put into the world about hospitalization, he has to stay away from the family and company for the time being, even though he is urgently needed at home.
However, the family at home initially believed in completely different reasons for Papa's absence: namely in the shape of the pianist Bettina Heinemann. Rupert fears that the head of the family is actually having an affair with the young woman, that she is his lover. Finally, the errors and speculations dissolve in favor: old Belling, delighted that his family has mastered the company crisis so well (with the help of his advice), finally returns home. Contrary to expectations, his wife shows understanding and takes the repentant homecomer back after the rumors about him and Bettina have proven to be null and void. And Rupert seems to find his personal happiness when he gets to know the attractive pianist better.
Production notes
Where's Mister Belling? is the last Jannings film. Here he met his former partner in early silent films, Dagny Servaes , who played his wife. Filming began on December 12, 1944 and had to be interrupted and then finally canceled in January 1945 due to Jannings' serious illness. A letter from Jannings and his director Engel dated February 2, 1945, in which the film was to be continued by NS for the forthcoming continuation of the filming , is documented by a letter from Jannings and his director Engel in the Federal Archives in Berlin -To borrow and watch the documentary film Das Stahltier by Willy Zielke that has been banned from performing .
The film structures were made by Ludwig Reiber , Rudolf Pfenninger and Herbert Hochreiter , Oskar Marion was the production manager and Walter Lehmann was the production manager . Jannings received a flat fee of RM 225,000 for his role in Where is Mr. Belling? despite the fee freeze that had long been ordered at the time, it was one of the highest salaries ever paid in the Third Reich during the Second World War. Only Hans Albers earned more (266,000 RM in 1941). In 1951, Where's Mr. Belling? Re-filmed under the title The strange life of Mr Bruggs by the same director with Gustav Knuth in the role of Jannings.
Reviews
Since the unfinished film was never shown, there are no reviews either.
Web links
- Where's Mister Belling? in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Where's Mister Belling? at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. Boguslaw Drewniaks: The German Film 1938–1945. A complete overview. Düsseldorf 1987, p. 168