From Morn to Midnight

Last updated

From Morn to Midnight
Von morgens bis mitternachts (2.Akt).jpg
Directed by Karlheinz Martin
Written byKarlheinz Martin
Georg Kaiser
Produced by Herbert Juttke
Starring Ernst Deutsch
Roma Bahn
Erna Morena
Cinematography Carl Hoffmann
Release date
  • 1920 (1920)
Running time
73 minutes
CountryGermany (Weimar Republic)
Languages Silent film
German intertitles

From Morn to Midnight (German : Von morgens bis mitternachts) is a 1920 German silent expressionist film directed by Karlheinz Martin based on the 1912 play From Morning to Midnight by Georg Kaiser. It is one of the most radical films of the German Expressionist movement. [1]

Contents

The film uses stylized distorted sets, designed by Robert Neppach, which are even more avant-garde than those of the 1920 film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari . [2]

Full film

Plot

The film is divided in five acts.

1st Act

A foreign lady comes into a bank to withdraw money but the bank manager has not received a communication authorising the payment. The bank cashier is fascinated by her and contrasts her glamour with his boring life. A young man, the son of the lady, wants to buy a painting from a second-hand shop. The lady goes back to the bank to get money, without success. A beggar girl comes to the bank to beg for money. The cashier sees her as death. He steals a large amount of money from the bank.

2nd Act

The cashier goes to the lady's hotel and offers her his money, if she agrees to leave with him, but she only laughs at him and threatens to call her son. Learning that she has a son, he leaves the hotel. In front of the door, he sees the beggar girl again as death.

3rd Act

Meanwhile, his theft is discovered at the bank. At home, the cashier is welcome by his cosy and nauseating family. Aware of the danger of discovery, he flees on the road in a snow storm. The bank manager comes to his house with the police. A telegraphic message is sent indicating that a cashier is on the run. The cashier arrives at a large city. He buys top hat, white tie and tails.

4th Act

The cashier attends a six day bicycle race and offers a large sum of money for a special prize. He wants to buy passion for money. The various classes of society attending the race get very excited. But the arrival of the local Prince douses popular enthusiasm and they all bow to salute him. Disappointed, the cashier leaves and goes to a dance where he gets a private lounge where he tries to seduce two girls with his money. But the first one throws a glass of Sekt at him and the second one has a wooden leg. He sees her as death.

5th Act

A man brings the cashier to a seedy pub where he starts playing cards. As he wins the whole time, one of the men wants to stab him, but he is saved by a Salvation Army girl. He follows her to the Salvation Army premises. Inside, a man is confessing his sins. The cashier confesses that he has stolen from the bank and throws what is left of the money at the attendants. They all rush to take the money and run away. The Salvation Army girl tries to comfort him, but he sees her as death. He tells her there is a 5,000 marks reward for his capture. She rushes to report him to the police. When the police arrive, he shoots himself.

Cast

Ernst Deutsch as the cashier Ernst Deutsch in 'Von morgens bis mitternachts'.jpg
Ernst Deutsch as the cashier

Production

The film was produced in 1920 by theatre director Karlheinz Martin, a few months after the release of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari . He had already directed on stage the 1912 eponymous play by Georg Kaiser before World War I. The stage-like painted sets, the costumes and the performance of the actors form an artistic unity and are characteristic of Expressionism.

From Morn to Midnight is one of the first German films that address the lure of "the great world" and "the street". It can be considered as a forerunner of the so-called street films (Straßenfilme), such as Karl Grune's Die Straße (1923) and Georg Wilhelm Pabst's Joyless Street (1925).

Distribution

The world première of the film in Germany was not recorded. It was probably only shown in a few cinemas or in private screenings. The film was however screened with some success in Japan in 1922.

It was long considered lost until 1959 when a copy was found at the Tokyo National Film Center in Japan. It was acquired by the National Film Archive of the German Democratic Republic and was screened for the first time in Germany in East Berlin in 1963. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari</i> 1920 film by Robert Wiene

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a 1920 German silent horror film, directed by Robert Wiene and written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. Considered the quintessential work of German Expressionist cinema, it tells the story of an insane hypnotist who uses a brainwashed somnambulist to commit murders. The film features a dark and twisted visual style, with sharp-pointed forms, oblique and curving lines, structures and landscapes that lean and twist in unusual angles, and shadows and streaks of light painted directly onto the sets.

<i>Pandoras Box</i> (1929 film) 1929 silent film directed by G. W. Pabst

Pandora's Box is a 1929 German silent drama film directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, and starring Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, and Francis Lederer. The film follows Lulu, a seductive young woman whose uninhibited nature brings ruin to herself and those who love her. It is based on Frank Wedekind's plays Erdgeist and Die Büchse der Pandora.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilhelm Hauff</span> German poet and novelist

Wilhelm Hauff was a German poet and novelist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conrad Veidt</span> German-British actor (1893–1943)

Hans Walter Conrad Veidt was a German-British actor. He attracted early attention for his roles in the films Different from the Others (1919), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), and The Man Who Laughs (1928). After a successful career in German silent films, where he was one of the best-paid stars of UFA, Veidt and his new Jewish wife Ilona Prager left Germany in 1933 after the Nazis came to power. The couple settled in Britain, where he took citizenship in 1939. Veidt subsequently appeared in many British films, including The Thief of Bagdad (1940). After immigrating to the United States around 1941, he was cast as Major Strasser in Casablanca (1942), his last film role to be released during his lifetime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">German expressionist cinema</span> German art movement during the 1910s–1930s

German expressionist cinema was a part of several related creative movements in Germany in the early 20th century that reached a peak in Berlin during the 1920s. These developments were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central European culture in fields such as architecture, dance, painting, sculpture and cinema.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Wiene</span> German film director

Robert Wiene was a German film director, screenwriter and producer, active during the silent era. He is widely-known for directing the landmark 1920 film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and a succession of other expressionist films. Wiene also directed a variety of other films of varying styles and genres. Following the Nazi rise to power in Germany, Wiene, who was of Jewish descent, fled into exile.

<i>Destiny</i> (1921 film) 1921 film by Fritz Lang

Destiny is a 1921 silent German Expressionist fantasy romance film directed by Fritz Lang and inspired by the Indian folktale of Savitri. The film follows a woman desperate to reunite with her dead lover. It also follows three other tragic romances, set in a Middle Eastern city; in Venice, Italy; and in the Chinese Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernst Deutsch</span> Austrian actor

Ernst Deutsch, also known as Ernest Dorian, was a Jewish Austrian actor. In 1916, his performance as the protagonist in the world première of Walter Hasenclever's Expressionist play The Son in Dresden was praised. Deutsch also played the antihero Famulus in Paul Wegener's The Golem: How He Came into the World in 1920. He is known by English-speaking audiences for his role as Baron Kurtz in Carol Reed's 1949 film noir, The Third Man.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georg Kaiser</span> German dramatist

Friedrich Carl Georg Kaiser, called Georg Kaiser, was a German dramatist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karlheinz Martin</span>

Karlheinz Martin was a German stage and film director, best known for his expressionist productions.

<i>The Phantom Carriage</i> 1921 film by Victor Sjöström

The Phantom Carriage is a 1921 Swedish silent film directed by and starring Victor Sjöström, based on the 1912 novel Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness! (Körkarlen) by Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf. In the film, Sjöström plays a drunkard named David Holm who, on the night of New Year's Eve, is compelled by the ghostly driver of Death's carriage to reflect on his past mistakes. Alongside Sjöström, the film's cast includes Hilda Borgström, Tore Svennberg, and Astrid Holm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Expressionism (theatre)</span>

Expressionism was a movement in drama and theatre that principally developed in Germany in the early decades of the 20th century. It was then popularized in the United States, Spain, China, the U.K., and all around the world. Similar to the broader movement of Expressionism in the arts, Expressionist theatre utilized theatrical elements and scenery with exaggeration and distortion to deliver strong feelings and ideas to audiences.

<i>The Chimneys Secret</i> 1915 film

The Chimney's Secret is a 1915 American silent drama film written and directed by, and starring, Lon Chaney. Chaney's screenplay was based on a story by Milton Moore. The film is now considered to be in the public domain and a lost film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elsa Wagner</span> German actress

Elsa Wagner was a German actress who appeared in numerous theatrical productions and feature films during the 20th century, including 1920's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Werner Fuetterer was a German film actor. He appeared in nearly 100 films between 1925 and 1967.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Platen</span> German actor

Karl Platen was a German actor and cinematographer known for Girl in the Moon (1929) and M (1931).

Hermann Picha was a German stage and film actor. Picha was extremely prolific, appearing in over 300 short and feature films during the silent and early sound eras. Picha played a mixture of lead and supporting roles during his career. He played the title role in the 1920 film Wibbel the Tailor, directed by Manfred Noa. He appeared in Fritz Lang's Destiny.

Von morgens bis mitternachts is an expressionist play written by the German dramatist Georg Kaiser in 1912, but banned for reasons which were not entirely clear, being neither immoral nor anarchistic, then in 1917 produced by the Austrian Max Reinhardt.

<i>The Beggar Student</i> (1936 film) 1936 film

The Beggar Student is a 1936 German operetta film directed by Georg Jacoby and starring Fritz Kampers, Harry Hardt and Ida Wüst. It is an adaptation of the 1882 operetta Der Bettelstudent by Carl Millöcker. It was shot at the Babelsberg Studios of UFA in Potsdam. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Fritz Maurischat and Karl Weber.

Hugo Döblin was a German stage and film actor. He appeared in more than eighty films, most of them during the silent era. The Jewish Döblin left Germany following the Nazi Party's rise to power in 1933, and after moving first to Czechoslovakia and Austria, eventually settled in Switzerland. His younger brother was novelist, essayist, and doctor Alfred Döblin (1878–1957).

References

  1. Review, synopsis and link to watch the film: "A cinema history" . Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  2. "From Morning to Midnight". Cineaste . Archived from the original on 7 September 2014. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
  3. "From Morning to Midnight". Cineaste . Archived from the original on 7 September 2014. Retrieved 8 November 2014.