Als ich tot war

Last updated

Als ich tot war
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
Written byErnst Lubitsch
Produced by Paul Davidson
StarringErnst Lubitsch
Production
company
Release date
  • 25 February 1916 (1916-02-25)
Running time
36 minutes
Country Germany
Language Silent film

Als ich tot war (English: When I Was Dead) is a 1916 German silent comedy film in three acts written and directed by and starring Ernst Lubitsch. The film premiered under the censored title Wo ist mein Schatz? (English:Where Is My Treasure?).

Contents

Plot

Despite the protests of his wife Louise and his unpleasant mother-in-law, Ernst spends the evening at a chess club. Revenge follows when he returns home at night: his mother-in-law has chained the door, and Ernst is therefore not allowed into the apartment. He undresses in the stairwell where he spends the night. The next day, a resident flees at the sight of him – the clothes he had covered himself with the night before are gone. Back at the apartment, Ernst is soon chased away by his mother-in-law. Since his wife also informs him in writing that one of them must leave the apartment forever, he finally fakes suicide: in a letter to his wife, he writes that he will kill himself, and leaves the apartment. He then enjoys his newfound freedom, but soon grows weary of it.

Louise and his mother-in-law place an ad for a servant, and Ernst, who reads the ad in the newspaper at his club, applies for the position. Together, they promptly hire Ernst in disguise. He uses all sorts of tricks to scare Louise's new admirer out of the house. Finally, he reveals himself to the grieving Louise, after he has chased away her mother-in-law, and a happy ending ensues.

Cast

Production

Als ich tot war was criticised by the censors in December 1915: it was banned from youth screenings and had to be renamed to the innocuous title Wo ist mein Schatz? (English: Where Is My Treasure?) under which it premiered on 25 February 1916.

Critical reception

Critics classified Als ich tot war as a farce [1] and described the film as a "splendid comedy": "Lubitsch plays this role in such a droll way that you practically can't stop laughing." [2]

In 1947 Lubitsch viewed his part as his first attempt at a serious leading role which, as he recalls, was a failure with the audience:

Like every comedian, I longed to play a straight leading man, a sort of a bon vivant role. So together with my collaborators, I wrote a screenplay, called Als ich tot war. This picture was a complete failure as the audiences were unwilling to accept me as a straight leading man.

Ernst Lubitsch, 1947 [3]

Survival status

The film was considered lost until the 1990s. In 1978, Robert L. Carringer and Barry Sabath suspected that Als ich tot war was identical to the 1915 silent film Wie ich ermordet wurde (English:How I Was Murdered) by Louis Ralph, [4] but by the 1980s this was no longer considered to be true, partly due to various censorship dates. [5]

At the beginning of the 1990s, an almost complete copy of Als ich tot war was finally found in the Slovenska Kinoteka (Slovenian Cinematheque) in Ljubljana, Slovenia and was shown for the first time in 1995 at the silent film festival in Pordenone. [6] [7] A portion of the first act is missing, as is the ending with the reconciliation between Ernst and Louise. This is a tinted version of the film, which is now being shown again under the title "Als ich tot war", and is Lubitsch's earliest surviving film. [8] [9]

Home media

In 2014, the film was released on dual format Blu-ray and DVD as part of the Masters of Cinema series, accompanying Madame Dubarry (1919). [10]

References

  1. "Wo ist mein Schatz?". Der Film (in German). 1 (8). 18 March 1916.
  2. Contemporary criticism in Wiener Fachblatt Kinematographische Rundschau. Quoted in bonnerkinemathek.de
  3. Letter from Ernst Lubitsch to Herman G. Weinberg, 10 July 1947. Weinberg, Herman G. (1977). The Lubitsch Touch. A Critical Study (3 ed.). New York NY: Dover Publications. p. 284. ISBN   978-0486234830.
  4. Carringer, Robert L.; Sabath, Barry, eds. (1978). Ernst Lubitsch: A guide to references and resources (A Reference publication in film). Boston: G. K. Hall. p. 39. ISBN   978-0816178957.
  5. "Ernst Lubitsch". Cahiers du cinéma. Paris. 1985. p. 135. ISBN   2-86642-035-7.
  6. "Rediscovered Lubitsch/Rare Dietrich from the George Eastman House". University of California, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive. Archived from the original on 21 May 2015. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
  7. Kothenschulte, Daniel (8 July 2008). "Die Zukunftsruine" [The Ruin of the Future]. Frankfurter Rundschau Online (in German). Retrieved 30 August 2025.
  8. Wagner, Naima (6 October 2023). "Slowenische Filme in Frankfurt: Ženja Leiler Kos und Igor Prassel (Slowenische Kinemathek) im Gespräch" [Slovenian Films in Frankfurt: Ženja Leiler Kos and Igor Prassel (Slovenian Cinematheque) in Conversation]. DFF.FILM (in German). Retrieved 9 October 2023.
  9. McCormick, Rick (2020). "From the Jewish "Bad Boy" to the "Bad Girl": Early Comedies, 1914–18". Sex, Politics, and Comedy, The Transnational Cinema of Ernst Lubitsch. Indiana University Press. p. 69.
  10. Blu-ray.com - Madame DuBarry Blu-ray