Schlussakkord (1936)

Final Chord (1936)

 

Directed by: Detlef Sierck (Douglas Sirk)

Screenplay by: Kurt Heuser, Detlef Sierck

Produced by: Bruno Duday

Cinematography: Robert Baberske

Music by: Kurt Schröder; classical music excerpts

Production company: UFA

Release date: 24 July 1936

Running time: 100 minutes

Country: Germany

Language: German

 

Starring:

 

Maria von Tasnady: Hanna Müller

Willy Birgel: Erich Garvenberg

Lil Dagover: Charlotte Garvenberg

Maria Koppenhöfer: Frau Freese, the maid

Peter Bosse: Hanna’s son Peter

Theodor Loos: Professor Obereit, the paediatrician

Albert Lippert: Gregor Carl-Otto, an astrologer

Kurt Meisel: Baron Salviany, Carl-Otto’s friend

Erich Ponto: judge

Hella Graf: Frau Czerwonska

Paul Otto: prosecutor

Alexander Engel: Mr. Smith, landlord

Eva Tinschmann: head nurse

Walter Werner: Dr. Smedley, doctor in New York

Carl Auen: New York criminal investigator

Erich Bartels: court official

Johannes Bergfeld: adoption notary

Ursula Deinert: dancer

Christa Mattner: Peter’s foster mother

Erna Berger: soprano soloist

Luise Willer: alto soloist

Rudolf Watzke: bass soloist

Hellmuth Melchert: tenor soloist

 

Schlußakkord (Final Accord or better Final Chord; sometimes anglicised Schlussakkord) is a German film melodrama of the National Socialist period, the first melodrama directed by Detlef Sierck, who later had a career in Hollywood as Douglas Sirk and specialised in melodramas. It was made under contract for Universum Film AG (UFA), stars Lil Dagover and Willy Birgel and also features Maria von Tasnady, and premièred in 1936. It shows stylistic features later developed by Sierck/Sirk and makes symbolic and thematic use of music.

 

Production and release

 

Production took place from February to April 1936. Concert scenes were filmed at the Berliner Philharmonie in Kreuzberg, which would be destroyed in an air raid in 1944. The film had two premières, on 27 June 1936 at the annual cinema owners’ convention in Dresden, and on 24 July 1936 at the Gloria-Palast in Berlin, after which it was placed on general release.

 

Plot summary

 

At a New Year’s Eve party in New York, Hanna Müller (Maria von Tasnady) is informed that her husband has been found dead in Central Park, presumably a suicide. The couple had left Germany because he had embezzled money. Meanwhile, the young son they left behind in an orphanage, Peter, is adopted by Erich Garvenberg (Willy Birgel), a famous conductor, and his wife Charlotte (Lil Dagover), who is having an affair with an astrologer, Gregor Carl-Otto. Hanna Müller goes to the orphanage to enquire after her son and Erich Garvenberg hires her as a nanny. They grow close through their love for the boy. Charlotte Garvenberg learns of Müller’s husband’s criminality and fires her. Müller returns to abduct her son, but Charlotte, who is being blackmailed by Carl-Otto, overdoses on morphine and dies. Müller administered the drug and is suspected of murder, but at the trial a maid reveals that Charlotte had said she was going to commit suicide. Hanna and Erich Garvenberg can now marry.

 

Reception

 

The film was successful and strengthened Sierck’s negotiating position with UFA. The Film-Kurier review praised Sierck for „managing to blend the various emotional and affective elements of the plot into a moving musical unity“ with „appropriate emphases“ and „sustaining dramatic tension from start to finish.“ Schneider in Licht-Bild-Bühne called it „the most honest, most decent and, in its form, most compelling film of recent years.“ Another Berlin critic wrote that „Sierck . . . shows with this film that he ranks with the most important contemporary filmmakers“ and singled out in particular his not favouring some „stars“ over other actors: „All his actors are stars from the moment they appear on the screen.“ However, most of the reviews focussed on the stars Willy Birgel and Lil Dagover rather than on the direction.