Melody of the Heart
- Willy Fritsch: János Garas
- Dita Parlo: Julia Balog
- Gero Maly: Janos ' father
- Marcsa Simon János ' mother
- Ilka Gruening: Miss Czibulka
- Anni Mewes: Anna Kovács
- János Körmendy: her father
- Juliska D. Ligeti: her mother
- Tomy Endrey: the little Kovács
- Lázló Dessöffy: platoon leader Beneze
Melody of the Heart is a Hungarian -playing, formerly German sound film from the year 1929. Directed by Hanns Schwarz, Willy Fritsch and Dita Parlo play the lead roles.
Action
The young Hungarian hussar János, descendant poor peasant people, save a horse, with which he wants to achieve a modest prosperity one day. He wants to leave the military, build with the horse a small trucking company and get married in the near future and perhaps start a family. One day when he the shy, 16 -year-old peasant girl Julia Balog gets to know, it happened to him. Surprising both fall in love. Julia works as a maid in the big city and is out of love ready to put their frugal income of just 20 pengő János for the purchase of a horse available. It is an investment in both common future.
But the young, fragile happiness is put quickly to a hard test. Julia loses her job because she was late on her return from János. Immediately she lives only on their savings, and finally falls into the clutches of a madam, her landlady Miss Czibulka that drives them into prostitution. Despite this social descent, the girl her pure heart and love to János preserved. The device one day about his fellow soldiers in the House of Pleasure, where Julia works, and believes not to believe his eyes. Extremely disappointed, he hits his remaining money on his head while Julia with her recently earned cash to acquire a reasonably priced horse. Then she plunges into suicidal intent in the Danube. The horse is left behind on the shore. On his neck dangles a farewell letter in which Julia Janos explains everything and gives him the horse.
Background
Melody of the Heart was the first sound film 100 percent of the UFA. Filming began in May / June 1929 and ended in September of that year. At the same time was of the film three more versions in English ( Melody of the Heart ), French ( Mélodie du cœur ) and in Hungarian ( Vasárnap délután ) were prepared.
In Germany melody of the heart ran on 16 December 1929 in Berlin UFA-Palast am Zoo on.
The exterior shots were taken in the countryside in Hungary and in Budapest.
Erich Pommer also took over the production line, assisted by Max Pfeiffer, who also held the line of the recordings in Hungary. For sound, Fritz Thiery responsible, the Filmbauten come from Erich Kettelhut.
The lyrics to Werner Richard Heymann's melodies are, among others, Hans Székely, Fritz Grünbaum, Fritz Rotter, Arthur Rebner and Fritz Löhner- Beda.
Reviews
" The sound film skeptics must be silent. The existence and the possibility of success of the singing and speaking image has now been proven clear for Germany. The talkie is out of the stage of the experiment. Goal, direction and methodology of the talkies distinguished clearly in the " Melody of the Heart " from. This Hungarian love story is not accompanied with only about mechanical music. There is no question that here and there a few noises were photographed exactly like the picture. Man, created something new. Took language, sound, word and song exactly as full as the game itself, such as the scene and the photo. [ ... ] It does not even come to the question whether it is original audio recordings or resynchronised places. It even do not mind that in two or three places of synchronism not absolutely works exactly. It's the whole picture that inspires. Wonderfully photographed. A symphony of beautiful pictures from Budapest and Puszta. The wide, wide steppe opens up. The fantastic Hungarian Ziehburnnen protrude into the sky. Countless herds graze, and the strange horn of csikós and Gulyás sounds melancholic, until it is suddenly replaced by a wild Czardas. "
"Unfortunately the film, because you repeated all the well-known error of silent film ( in manuscript). And also with the tone has led a losing battle. The microphone, once put to film integral with respect, did not come with the camera. So it was panting behind. All this would have the author must avoid even the manuscript. There are examples showing that the can be avoided. Between pure theater directing and pure film directing a gaping abyss. Hanns Schwarz could not be bridged. So he led theater director, began when the characters talk and sing. [ ... ] But it is his work, apart from the basic one, but clean work and skilled labor. Every detail is good, each scene built dramatic errors, underlined effectively. But lengths are there, and the whole thing is long-winded. It lacks the freedom in sound and scene, both are enslaved each other. "
" All hopes were fulfilled: beautiful photography, masterful image design, wonderful pictures from the unknown, dreamy Hungary, language, music, songs, sounds, Willy Fritsch, Dita Parlo [ ... ], everything sings and speaks in " Melody of the Heart " "