Carl Zuckmayer Movies
German screenwriter, playwright, and poet Carl Zuckmayer is best known for two plays: the masterful Captain of Koepenic, which was twice filmed in 1931 and 1956, and The Devil's General (1946), which became a German film nine years later. Born in Nackenheim, Germany, a cork manufacturer's son, Zuckmayer didn't begin writing until he attended Frankfurt and Heidelberg Universities. Prior to that he had served in the German army during WWI and had received several medals for his courage. As a writer, he began writing lyric poetry and then plays. By the 1920s, Zuckmayer was being hailed the successor to dramatist Gerhart Hauptmann. As a screenwriter, he got his start adapting his play Captain of Koepenic for both film versions. He also worked on the script of Josef Von Sternberg's classic The Blue Angel (1930). Because his mother had been a Jew, Zuckmayer found himself persecuted by the Nazis. After Hitler banned his plays, Zuckmayer moved to Austria and began writing a few screenplays for British films. In 1938, he fled to France and emigrated to the U.S. where he began teaching playwriting at the New York New School for Social Research. Zuckmayer also wrote screenplays in Hollywood. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Marlene Dietrich became an immediate international star on the strength of her performance as the temptress Lola Frohlich in Josef von Sternberg's classic tale of love and obsession. Professor Immanuel Rath (Emil Jannings) is a strict and humorless schoolmaster who is shocked when he discovers the boys in his class have been spending their time at a sleazy cabaret called The Blue Angel, where an entertainer named Lola (Dietrich) keeps the men in thrall and sells suggestive postcards of herself. Rath goes to the club in hopes of catching his students and giving them a severe dressing-down, but he instead finds himself entranced by the carefree atmosphere of the club, and is struck by Lola's earthy, sensual beauty. Rath finds himself strongly attracted to Lola, and she later entertains him in her dressing room. When word of Rath's infatuation with Lola spreads to his students, he is taunted mercilessly, and eventually Rath is dismissed from the school. While Lola agrees to marry Rath, she shows little affection for him and delights in humiliating him, making him her servant and forcing him to play a clown in her stage show. The Blue Angel was shot in both German and English language versions; the German is preferable, as most of the cast were obviously more expert in that tongue. Dietrich introduced her theme song, "Falling In Love Again", in this picture. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich, (more)
- 1931
In this drama, set in Germany during the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm, a practical joker cons a town. It is based upon the true tale of a daring shoemaker who dons a captain's uniform and leads a troop of soldiers into a small town of Koepenick. He immediately places the mayor and the treasurer under arrest and absconds with the town coffer. When the townfolk learn that they have been the butt of a joke that criticized their blind acceptance of anyone in uniform they are angry. The cobbler confesses his action and is sent to prison. The Kaiser, a man with a sense of humor, gives him a pardon. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Max Adalbert, Willi Schur, (more)
- 1935
Margaret Kennedy, whose novel The Constant Nymph dealt with a musician's love for a pretty young gamin, penned a variation of the same concept in Escape Me Never. Elizabeth Bergner stars as an unwed mother, who is befriended by impoverished composer Hugh Sinclair. He marries her out of pity, but his heart belongs to Penelope Dudley Ward, the wife of his brother. Sinclair is shaken out of his infidelity when his own wife's baby dies. This popular British version of Escape Me Never was remade by Warner Bros. in 1946, which though not as well cast (Ida Lupino is not a fair exchange for Elizabeth Bergner) boasts a superb musical score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold--who'd also scored Warners' filmization of Margaret Kennedy's Constant Nymph. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elisabeth Bergner, Hugh Sinclair, (more)
Lightning steadfastly refused to strike twice for the director/actor team of Alexander Korda and Charles Laughton. Though the pair had scored an international success with the 1933 quasi-biopic The Private Life of Henry VIII, they couldn't make the magic happen again with 1936's Rembrandt. Laughton's performance is solid throughout, and Korda's recreation of Rembrandt's Holland is meticulous, but the film suffers from a lack of overall dramatic tension. Except for his artistic achievements and the deaths of his two wives, nothing really "happens" to Rembrandt--at least nothing as colorful as the escapades of Henry VIII. The best element of the film is the successful effort by cinematographer Georges Perinal to recreate the famous "Rembrandt lighting" effect in each scene. Laughton is given fine support by Elsa Lanchester (his real-life wife), and by legendary stage star Gertrude Lawrence in a rare film role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Laughton, Gertrude Lawrence, (more)
- 1940
Director Max Ophuls managed to get three productions before the cameras in 1940, the best of which was De Mayerling a Sarajevo. In his characteristic pageant-like fashion, Ophuls traces the fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire by spiritually linking the tragic 19th century romance of Crown Duke Rudolph and Baroness Maria Veretsa to the 1914 assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and the subsequent outbreak of WW1. According to the film, Ferninand (played by American actor John Lodge) was no slouch in the romantic department himself; but unlike his predecessor Rudolph, the Archduke is permitted to marry his mistress (Edwige Feuilliere), who thereby becomes the Duchess of Hohenberg. Mistrusted by his aristocratic peers because of his progressively democratic notions, Ferdinand seems destined to be martyred at the hands of his enemies, in much the same way that Rudolph's non-royal impulses brought about his demise. One of Ophuls' favorite cinematic devices, the "court dance", is cunningly utilized in De Mayerling a Sarajevo when the lovers are prevented from attending a palace ball, symbolizing the irreparable schism between the modernistic Ferdinand and the hidebound Hapsburgs-and also presaging the deaths of the Archduke and his Duchess. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Lodge, Aimé Clariond, (more)
- 1948
Nach dem Sturm (After the Storm) is based on a story by the prolific Carl Zuckmeyer. Shortly after VE day, Austrian girl Barbara von Trentini (Marte Harrell) falls in love with American occupation soldier Maj. Michael Sinclair (Nicholas Stuart). Their romance is fiercely opposed by both Barbara's family and Sinclair's superiors, but the lovers pay no heed to the many nay-sayers. Besides, they've already selected "their song," a popular ballad called "Somewhere, Some Time." Except for the timeliness of the film's postwar setting, Nach dem Sturm is really nothing new or innovational. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marte Harell
- 1955
The popularity of Maria Schell continued on its upward course via the 1955 drama Herr Ueber Leben und Todd (Master Over Life and Death). Schell plays Barbara Bertram, whose life is thrown into turmoil when she gives birth to a mentally defective child. Her somewhat fascistic doctor husband George (Wilhelm Borchert) is all for "euthanizing" the unfortunate infant. Barbara's shock at her husband's attitude virtually forces her into the arms of the more sympathetic -- and handsomer -- doctor Daniel Karentis (Ivan Desny). The plot takes a unexpected twist when one of the principal characters dies under mysterious circumstances. Herr Ueber Leben und Todd is based on a novel by Zuckmayer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Schell, Ivan Desny, (more)
- 1955
The Devil's General (Des Teufels General) stars Curt Jurgens as a courageous Luftwaffe officer. Jurgens loves the service, even though he barely tolerates the Hitler regime. Sickened by wartime Nazi atrocities, Jurgens renounces his government, and is imprisoned and tortured as a result. Once released, the general takes pity on a downtrodden Jewish family. This isolated act of kindness is a point in his favor when Jurgens stands before Satan himself for his final judgment. The Devil's General was based on an immensely successful postwar play by German author Carl Zuckmeyer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Curd Jürgens, Viktor de Kowa, (more)
- 1956
1956's Captain from Koepenick was the second film version of Der Hauptmann von Koepenick, a play by Carl Zuckmayer (the first was directed by Richard Oswald in 1931). This fact-based seriocomedy stars Heinz Reuhmann as Berlin shoemaker Wilhelm Vogt, who in 1906 finds himself in possession of a Prussian military officer's uniform. Donning the outfit, Vogt struts about posing as a Captain, going so far as to declare martial law on the town of Koepenick, arresting the mayor in the process. Then he commandeers the town's cashbox and heads for the hills--as newspapers all over Germany celebrate his "scam". Helmut Kautner, director of The Captain from Koepenick, appears in a bit part as an organ grinder. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hannelore Schroth, Martin Held, (more)
- 1959
May Britt attempts to follow in the footsteps of Marlene Dietrich in this glossy Hollywood remake of the German classic. Professor Immanuel Rath (Curt Jurgens) is shocked to discover a number of his students have been frequenting a nightspot called the Blue Angel, where a scandalous entertainer named Lola (May Britt) performs. Rath attends the show one night in order to catch some of his boys in this den of wickedness, but he is soon drawn into Lola's sensual spell, and in time becomes involved in an obsessive romance with her that costs him his job, his savings and his dignity. Josef von Sternberg's original version of The Blue Angel was actually a good bit franker and more sensual than this version, which adds a happier ending, along with color and CinemaScope. A year after this film's release, star May Britt made headlines when she married entertainer Sammy Davis Jr.. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Curd Jürgens, May Britt, (more)
- 1959
Schinderhannes is the legendary Robin Hood of Germany, a thief who did not focus on robbing from the rich but on defeating them, and battling Napoleon at the same time. This routine but dressed-up drama interprets his story. Popular German star Curt Juergens plays the title role with a certain amount of reserve and as in Robin Hood, he also has a Maid Marion, Julchen (Maria Schell). Schinderhannes' mission is to convert others to his cause, which introduces not only a humble shoemaker (Joseph Offenbach) and a blacksmith (Paul Esser), but also Carl von Cleve-Boost (Christian Wolff), an aristocratic nobleman who turns tail on his class and joins the rebels. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Schell, Christian Wolff, (more)
- 1962
In this murder mystery, a man is killed during the carnival before Ash Wednesday right in front of a cathedral. Now a detective must solve the case. Initially, there are four suspects, the carnival prince, the dead man's father, and two women. A second murder occurs on Ash Wednesday. This leads the gumshoe to the real murderer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
