Die Reise nach Tilsit
- Frits van Dongen: Endrik Settegast
- Kristina Söderbaum: Elske, his wife
- Anna Dammann: Madlyn Sapierska
- Eduard von Winterstein: Erwin Bohrmann, Elskes father
- Albert Florath: Teacher grinding
- Manny Ziener: Woman Papendieck
- Wolfgang Kieling: Franz, her son
- Ernst Legal: Mr. Witt Kuhn
- Charlotte Schultz: his wife
- Heiner Dugal: their son
- Babs Reckewell: Mariechen
- Jakob Tiedtke: Innkeeper
- Paul Westerberg Meier: Crier
- Bruno Ziener: Café in the upper
- Lotte Spira woman in cafe
- Max Wilmsen: her companion
- Alfred Karen: Owner of the fur business
- Heinz Müller: fat man at the carnival
- Eduard Wenck: a villager
The Journey to Tilsit is a German film from 1939 by Veit Harlan according to the same template ( 1917) by Hermann Sudermann.
Action
Endrik Settegast has brought it with his fishing business on the Curonian Spit in East Prussia prospering. He and his wife Elske live together with their son Jon, a happy life. Both marital happiness and harmony comes only at the moment falter when one day the beautiful and seductive Polin Madlyn Sapierska appears. She tries to win Endrik for themselves and threatened by their actions to destroy the marriage Endriks. The elegant Madlyn, in appearance so completely different from the simple Elske, has quartered as a summer guest at them. Elske is deeply unhappy, and the affair is in the village soon on everyone's lips. Elske Settegast wants to save their marriage at all costs, even if you Madlyn makes clear unequivocally that they will not be of Endrik. Touched by Elskes use, Endrik temporarily terminates this adventure and returns on New Year's Eve back to his wife and son.
But Madlyn does not give up. In the following spring she's back, and again forfeited the United Fishermen of Polin. Elskes father who does not want to see suffer silently to himself, his daughter, takes the initiative and sets Madlyn to task. When they do not want to end the affair, he takes the whip, beating the woman's face. Madlyn is seriously injured. As Endrik learns of this, he gives his wife the blame for the outburst of her father. The fisherman gets henceforth more and more under the spell of his beloved. He wants to separate from Elske, but retain the Son. And he sums up the plan to eliminate his wife to start a new life with Madlyn. Although Elske of his sinister intentions know, she goes with him to the fishing boat and goes to Tilsit. In the market of the city Endrik want the horse Lise, once her wedding gift sell. Endrik leaves Elske the control, in the hope that they maneuvered the ship into a dangerous vortex. Elske guesses what Endrik intends, and is prepared to go down with the ship. Only at the last moment recognizes her husband what he thought up for a diabolical plan and reinstates the tax.
In Tilsit arrived there between the two spouses, a very depressed mood. They speak little together. Endrik plaguing large guilt. Quite against her will, he buys an expensive fur Elske, he can not really afford. The horse they can not sell, but the couple have been drinking plenty of alcohol. You step on the return journey, and during the crossing draws to a severe storm that throws all three passengers on board. Endrik can save themselves. Now he sits in despair at his son's bed, as a complete surprise even Elske returns home. She holds the horse's reins in his hand. Lise had saved her by storm and pulled to shore. There Elske was just picked up and brought home by Madlyn. In a moment of deep knowledge decides the Pole, not to derail this marriage.
Production Notes
Filming began on February 6, 1939 and ended in early June 1939 The outdoor locations were all in East Prussia. Karkeln the fishing village on the Curonian Spit, the Curonian Spit, the fishing village Pillkoppen, the Memel estuary and the city of Tilsit. The studio recordings were made in the Efa - Atelier Berlin- Hallensee and in the Tobis studios in Berlin- Johannisthal.
The Journey to Tilsit is the second big screen adaptation of Sudermann template. 1927 FW Murnau had with his Hollywood version of Sunrise, in Germany under the title Sunrise - A Song of Two People started off achieved a worldwide success. Unlike the novel, Harlan's film has a happy ending.
The film passed the censor on 25 October 1939 was a youth ban and was premiered on November 2, 1939 in Tilsit. The Berlin premiere was held on 15 November 1939. The following year, The Journey to Tilsit in the Netherlands (19 January 1940) and the USA (9 February 1940) was shown. In Hamburg, Harlan staging as part of the Hamburg consortium film was combined in March 1940 with a revival of Murnau's Sunrise.
The original length of the trip to Tilsit was 93 minutes. In the re-release of the film 1952 film about incriminating ( = anti-Polish and racist ) was purified passages and was now only 88 minutes long.
Cost of sales amounted to approximately 1,012,000 RM. By February 1941 trip to Tilsit had already recorded 2.537 million RM and was thus a great commercial success.
For the Dutchman Frits van Dongen, who played here the male lead, was the trip to Tilsit his last German film before he left for Hollywood. Even before the premiere and before the outbreak of World War II, on 9 August 1939, he emigrated to the USA via Southampton, where he was called from 1940 Philip Dorn and participated in some of the anti-Nazi films. Actress Kristina Söderbaum married during the filming director Harlan. For Anna Dammann Part of the Madlyn Sapierska was the first starring role.
The production line took over Bruno Lopinski, whose last film until 1945 should be The Journey to Tilsit. Because of his Polish roots he had been largely sidelined after September 1, 1939. The Filmbauten designed Fritz Maurischat and were carried out by Paul Markwitz. Wolfgang Schleif assisted director Harlan.
The film received no awards. From Harlan reported comments suggest that propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels hated the movie. He is said to have been incensed that the film is about a man between two women would have too much respect to his own case. The year before, Goebbels had to disconnect from the Czech actress Lida Baarova at the behest of Hitler. Goebbels ' diary entry insinuated, however, that the minister of propaganda director in turn assumed that this seeking work up its own, in the previous year (1938 ) failed marriage to actress Hilde Körber with The Journey to Tilsit. In this regard, the following should be read: "A well-made, artistic film. But a nagging marriage to tragedy. Harlan describes his own experience, and not even taste " As next author Nicola Valeska Weber also Marei Gerken in her essay " stylization and stigma. Patriotic heroes from the sub-human. Poland pictures in the German feature film of the thirties and early forties " in the volume" Studies on the cultural history of the German Poland 1848-1939 image "reported Magda Goebbels should have to flee the cinema during a screening of The Journey to Tilsit
Criticism
According to Murnau's Sunrise and Harlan's Journey to Tilsit the critic summed up by "The film today and tomorrow", episode 43, in the issue dated 10 March 1940: " If one now compares the two films together, one arrives at the conviction that the progress of technology does not mean an advance in artistic form in equal force greatly. On the contrary: the silent film at the time of leaving now even more sustainable and more cohesive feel than the sound film of today " So, for example, in Harlan " reconciliation suddenly because without that they would have seen it coming. . They just have to believe. In Murnau one must experience it. "
The lexicon of the International Films writes: " In the style of Hermann Sudermann's naturalistic and mystical story Harlan made a film that has formal qualities, but by racist tendencies and another (different from the original ) " to please constructive " end the Nazi rulers sought. "