Where is Madeleine F.'s child?
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Where is Madeleine F.'s child? |
| Original title | Miss Fane's baby is stole |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1934 |
| length | 70 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Alexander Hall |
| script |
Rupert Hughes Adela Rogers St. Johns |
| production | Bayard Veiller |
| music | Karl Hajos |
| camera | Alfred Gilks |
| cut | James Smith |
| occupation | |
| |
Where is Madeleine F.'s child? is a 1933 American crime and kidnapping film drama directed by Alexander Hall . The main role of Miss Fane is played by Dorothea Wieck, who traveled to Hollywood in 1933 for several film projects . The film was based on a novel by Rupert Hughes , who also contributed to the script.
action
Madeleine (in the original: Madeline) Fane is a soulful mother through and through. The little son of just one year of age is the whole happiness of the early widowed film actress. Every day the screen star drives back and forth from his spacious house in Hollywood to the location just to be with his son Peter (in the original: Michael) as often as possible. One morning his crèche is empty and the baby has disappeared without a trace. For a moment, Madeleine refrains from calling the police, hoping that the little one will somehow turn up soon. When the panic got bigger, she did it and got a man by her side in the form of police captain Murphy, who promised her to use all means to find the criminal or criminals, arrest the child intact in the hands of the mother return. With great concern, Miss Fane waits for a sign of life from the boy, for the kidnappers to report and finally ask for their ransom . When the amount is stated, she makes her way to the specified meeting point to deposit the money. But the kidnappers are overly careful. They believe in a police trap when a motorcycle unexpectedly races after their mother's car and they cannot get out of their hiding place. The money remains untouched just as the baby has disappeared.
Captain Murphy now proposes to go public with the case and start a nationwide search. Newspapers, radio and airplanes are harnessed to the large-scale search. Madeleine Fane speaks on the radio and asks other mothers to take more care of their babies. She speaks from a plane that is flying over the country and asks all women to contact the police immediately if there are men who are unknown to them in their area. This address also reaches the remote area in which Peter Fane's kidnappers are hiding with the toddler in a remote hut. Madeleine's message is also heard by the simple, impoverished farmer's wife Molly Prentiss, who, as a big fan of the film star, asked Madeleine for an autograph and received it not so long ago. She recently noticed a few men in the neighborhood who appear suspicious to her. Meanwhile, the kidnappers are getting more and more restless, because of course they too have heard of the manhunt. They are already planning their escape while the police are getting closer. Molly's big moment comes when she manages to take the baby and save it from the worst. Finally she can hand Peter back into Madeleine Fane's hands.
Production notes
Where is Madeleine F.'s child? was written in the late summer of 1933 and premiered on January 12, 1934. The German premiere took place in May 1934, the Vienna premiere was in September of the same year.
The film structures were created by Hans Dreier and John B. Goodman , the costumes were designed by Travis Banton .
Background and interesting facts
The film was the second of several other Hollywood productions planned by Dorothea Wieck. In June 1934, however, she decided to return to Germany after interested parties in the USA had deliberately and falsely denounced her as a Nazi agent in order to (successfully) prevent her American career from continuing.
The film was heavily inspired by the abduction of the Lindbergh baby , which happened just a year and a half earlier (1932) and which had deeply disturbed America at the time. Unlike the real kidnapping, the one in Where's Madeleine F.'s Baby? depicted child robbery well.
criticism
Mordaunt Hall was enthusiastic about the film in the New York Times and found that "the subject is dealt with in an intelligent, reserved and challenging manner." As the mother of the kidnapped boy, Dorothea Wieck gave a "wonderfully sensitive and captivating performance". Your “interpretation of psychological torment is reserved, but very true. Her expression of joy at the return of Michael is apt to bring tears to the eyes of even the toughest moviegoer ”.
“Dorothea Wieck finds a wide range of possibilities of expression in the representation of joy and sorrow, despair and happiness. The little Le Roy enchants with its unspoilt naturalness. "
The journal Variety found the film to be both a "box office hit and entertainment". In short: "The best film of its kind since the Lindbergh kidnapping".
Halliwell's Film Guide found the film to be a “no-nonsense crime story” with some “weird side-effects”.
Individual evidence
- ↑ in the original: Madeline Fane
- ↑ in the original: Michael Fane
- ^ The large personal dictionary of films, Volume 8, p. 371. Berlin 2001
- ^ Review in The New York Times of January 20, 1934
- ^ Variety, January 1934
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 681
Web links
- Where is Madeleine F.'s child? in the Internet Movie Database (English)