Ferdinand Marian Movies

This 1943 film, produced at the UFA studios in West Germany, was refurbished by Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Foundation to mark the 50th anniversary of that studio. The Nazi director of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, wanted a big internationally acceptable production to celebrate the studio's 25th anniversary, and the Münchausen story was chosen. It was thought suitable for Germans of the time, because of the ridiculous light in which it shows other nationalities. Baron von Münchausen (1720-97) was an eccentric figure in European history, whose tall tales about his adventures rival anything to be found in the legends of Paul Bunyan, or of the classical figure of Odysseus; they are similar in tone to the stories in Gulliver's Travels. The Baron's tales have been favored reading by the young-at-heart for centuries. This film recounts some of the episodes from the Baron's "autobiographical" stories, which are set in the world of the eighteenth century. In the story, the Baron's 1940s descendant narrates some of the Baron's famous tales; it gradually becomes clear that the original Baron attained immortality, and that his modern descendant is actually the original Baron. The American-born director Terry Gilliam made another film based on these tales in 1988, also titled The Adventures of Baron Münchausen. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Leon Feuchtwangler's novel Jud Süss was originally about a powerful ghetto businessman who believes himself to be a Jew. Süss' ruthless business practices result in the betrayal of an innocent girl, for which he is arrested and sentenced to be hanged under the anti-Jewish laws of the 18th century. While he waits to be executed, Süss discovers he is not Jewish. Rather than turn his back on the people of the ghetto with whom he'd grown up, Süss courageously refuses to declare his "Aryan" status, even though it means he will die on the gallows. The Feuchtwangler book was designed in roundabout fashion to strike a blow against anti-Semitism. But when Jud Süss was filmed in Germany at the behest of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels in 1940, its original message was twisted and perverted into an argument in favor of "ethnic cleansing." As played by Werner Krauss, Süss is not only genuinely Jewish, but also an amalgam of every vicious caricature ever concocted by the anti-Semitic propagandists of the past two centuries. With hooked nose and greasy beard, Krauss portrays Süss as a whining, wheedling, hand-wringing subhuman rapist; small wonder that Krauss was proclaimed an Actor of the State by the Nazis. The final scene of Jud Süss shows a screaming, protesting Süss being hanged in the public square; the scene is directed to cast Süss' tormenters in an utterly sympathetic light, and perhaps even to invoke cheers from an impressionable audience. Though disgusting beyond belief, Jud Süss should be seen at least once, if only to show what a dangerous weapon film can be in the hands of hate merchants. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This German adaptation of Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary seldom appears in the standard movie source books (certainly never as often as the 1949 Vincente Minnelli version!), but it might well be worth seeing again. This time, the magnificent Pola Negri is cast as Emma Bovary, the unhappy bride of bourgeois Charles Bovary (Arlbert Wascher). Bored with her husband's narrow-minded attitudes and provincial lifestyle, Emma dreams of great wealth and a "perfect" romance with a young lover. When she gets the chance to escape her boredom, it is with handsome Roudolphe Boulanger (Ferdinand Marian). Alas, Madame Bovary's dreams of lasting happiness are doomed from the start, not so much by fate as by her own inner demons. The German Madame Bovary was consummately produced and acted, yet failed to strike a responsive chord with the public, possibly because Negri was too dynamic a performer for the limits of her role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Axel Nielsen's stage play Kontuschowska was the basis for the German comedy Ein Hoczeitstraum (A Wedding Dream). Ida List plays heroine Vera, who is railroaded by her title-chasing mother into a marriage with "Prince Narishkin" (Heinz Salfner). Turns out, however, that the Prince is a phony; the real monarch (Ferdinand Marian) has gone incognito, taking a job as a chauffeur to escape his responsibilities. While honeymooning with the false prince, Vera falls in love with the real Narishkin, never suspecting that she's actually married to the Prince's valet! Things can only get more complicated from here on in, and they do. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide