The Song of Songs | |
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Directed by | Rouben Mamoulian |
Screenplay by | |
Based on | from the novel by Hermann Sudermann and the play by Edward Sheldon |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Victor Milner |
Music by |
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Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 90 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Song of Songs is a 1933 American pre-Code romantic drama film directed by Rouben Mamoulian, starring Marlene Dietrich as a naive German peasant named Lily who moves to Berlin and suffers a considerable amount of heartache. This particular version of the film was based on the 1908 novel The Song of Songs (Das hohe Lied) by Hermann Sudermann. The novel's original title, which translates to English as "The High Song", does indeed refer to the Song of Solomon, which is often described in German as "Das Hohe Lied der Liebe". However, that is not the only possible inference. "HoheLied" has been translated as "ode" "hosannas" "praises" and used in purely secular as well as religious contexts. [1] Most telling in this case is the use in German of the entire phrase to describe the "great song of love" or "ode to love" in Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians. This creates a double layer of meaning to the title of the novel in German, one that could not be duplicated in an English rendition.
The 1914 play, The Song of Songs by Edward Sheldon, also contributed to this version. It is a remake of the 1918 silent film The Song of Songs starring Elsie Ferguson and the 1924 silent film Lily of the Dust with Pola Negri. [2]
Once in Berlin, Lily meets and poses for Richard, the sculptor who lives across the street. Despite the eventual romance between the two lovers, Lily marries one of Richard's wealthy clients, Baron von Merzbach. By the end of the story, Lily and Richard are reunited after Lily struggles on a personal journey. [3]
James Marcus | cleric at cemetery who says, "Don't you worry, I'll take care of your father's grave", as Lily kneels with flowers at the grave |
Hans Schumm | passenger who walks in front of Lily as she arrives at Berlin train station |
Paul Panzer | carriage driver who brings Lily to her aunt's book lending library and says, "Thank you, miss", when she pays him |
Richard Bennett | originally cast as Baron von Merzbach but, due to illness, was replaced by Lionel Atwill. Seen from the back and in some longshots |
Adrienne D'Ambricourt | French teacher who is tasked by the Baron to provide Lily with culture |
Wilson Benge | Baron von Merzbach's servant who informs him that there is a fire at the lodge |
Florence Roberts | customer at Lily's aunt's library who argues over how many days she kept a book, "I pay you ten and no more" |
Rita La Roy | One of the women who dances with men at the upperclass cafe where Lily has become an escort |
Morgan Wallace | Lily's admirer at the upperclass cafe where she is an escort, "What's the matter with you? You go along laughing and singing like everybody else and suddenly you freeze up like this, for no reason" |
The Encyclopedia Britannica notes that the film was "dismissed by a number of critics as 'a trite melodrama'. [4] However, it is difficult to either verify the proportion of negative to positive reviews or to substantiate the disdain the professional critic community might have held for the film due to lack of preservation of the actual reviews.
The film was a box office disappointment for Paramount. [5]
Marie Magdalene "Marlene" Dietrich was a German and American actress and singer whose career spanned from the 1910s to the 1980s.
Hermann Sudermann was a German dramatist and novelist.
"Lili Marleen" is a German love song that became popular during World War II throughout Europe and the Mediterranean among both Axis and Allied troops. Written in 1915 as a poem, the song was published in 1937 and was first recorded by Lale Andersen in 1939 as "Das Mädchen unter der Laterne". The song is perhaps best known as performed by Lale Andersen.
The Blue Angel is a 1930 German musical comedy-drama film directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring Marlene Dietrich, Emil Jannings and Kurt Gerron. Written by Carl Zuckmayer, Karl Vollmöller and Robert Liebmann, with uncredited contributions by Sternberg, it is based on Heinrich Mann's 1905 novel Professor Unrat and set in an unspecified northern German port city. The Blue Angel presents the tragic transformation of a respectable professor into a cabaret clown and his descent into madness. The film was the first feature-length German sound film and brought Dietrich international fame. It also introduced her signature song, Friedrich Hollaender and Robert Liebmann's "Falling in Love Again ". The film is considered a classic of German cinema.
Friedrich Hollaender was a German film composer and author.
A Foreign Affair is a 1948 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Billy Wilder and starring Jean Arthur, Marlene Dietrich, and John Lund. The screenplay by Wilder, Charles Brackett, and Richard L. Breen is based on a story by David Shaw adapted by Robert Harari.
Karl Gustav Vollmöller was a German philologist, archaeologist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and aircraft designer. He is most famous for the elaborate religious spectacle-pantomime The Miracle and the screenplay for the celebrated 1930 film The Blue Angel, which made a star of Marlene Dietrich.
Filmzauber, literally 'Film Magic', is a Posse mit Gesang in four scenes by Walter Kollo and Willy Bredschneider, with a German libretto by Rudolf Bernauer and Rudolph Schanzer. A parody of silent films, Filmzauber premiered in Berlin in 1912. An English version, The Girl on the Film, translated and adapted by James T. Tanner with additional music by Albert Szirmai, premiered in London in 1913 and was later performed in New York and elsewhere.
Charlotte Ander was a German actress.
Mischa Spoliansky was a Russian-born composer who made his name writing cabaret and revue songs in the Weimar Republic of the 1920s and early 1930s, before he was forced to emigrate to London in 1933 when Hitler rose to power. He stayed in Britain for the rest of his life, re-inventing himself as a composer of film scores.
Leo Birinski was a playwright, screenwriter and director. He worked in Austria-Hungary, Germany and in the United States. As a playwright in Europe, he gained his biggest popularity from 1910 to 1917 but was ultimately forgotten. From the 1920s to 1940s he worked mainly as a screenwriter, first in Germany, later in the United States, to which he emigrated in September 1927. In the United States, he also returned to writing stage plays. He wrote in German and English. Until recently, only a minimal amount of information about his life has been available. Complicating matters, there have been many legends and rumours concerning Birinski's person, including the false report of his "suicide" in 1920 that found its way from newspaper obituaries into encyclopedias.
Marlene Dietrich was a German and American actress and singer.
The Song of Songs is a 1918 American silent drama film produced by Famous Players–Lasky and based on a 1914 stage play version by Edward Sheldon of the 1908 novel by Hermann Sudermann, The Song of Songs. This picture was directed by Joseph Kaufman and stars Elsie Ferguson. This was Kaufman's last film before his death on February 1, 1918, very early on during the 1918 flu pandemic.
Lily of the Dust is a 1924 American silent drama film directed by Dimitri Buchowetzki, starring Pola Negri, produced by Famous Players–Lasky, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. This movie was based on the 1908 novel The Song of Songs by Hermann Sudermann and the 1914 Broadway play The Song of Songs by Edward Sheldon.
János Székely was a Jewish Hungarian writer and screenwriter. His best-known work is the 1949 autobiographical novel Kísértés (Temptation).
The Little Napoleon is a 1923 German silent historical comedy film directed by Georg Jacoby and starring Egon von Hagen, Paul Heidemann and Harry Liedtke. It depicts the life and amorous adventures of Jérôme Bonaparte, the younger brother of Napoleon, who installed him as King of Westphalia.
The Woman One Longs For is a 1929 German silent drama film directed by Curtis Bernhardt and starring Marlene Dietrich, Fritz Kortner and Frida Richard. It was based on the novel of the same title by Max Brod, published in Vienna by Paul Zsolnay Verlag in 1927. Made partly at the Babelsberg Studios and the Terra Studios, the film premiered on 29 April 1929 at the Mozartsaal in Berlin. The film's art direction was by Robert Neppach. It is also known by the alternative title The Three Lovers.
The Song of Songs is a 1908 novel by the German writer Hermann Sudermann. It was published in English in 1909, translated by Thomas Seltzer. A new translation by Beatrice Marshall was published in 1913.
The Song of Songs is a 1914 play written by Edward Sheldon, based on the 1908 German novel Das hohe Lied by Hermann Sudermann, which had been translated to English under the title The Song of Songs. Producer A. H. Woods staged the play on Broadway at his Eltinge 42nd Street Theatre, where it was a box office success. The play was the basis of several movie and radio adaptations.
Leap Into Life is a 1924 German silent drama film directed by Johannes Guter and starring Xenia Desni, Walter Rilla and Paul Heidemann. It features one the earliest film appearances of the future star Marlene Dietrich. It was partly shot at the Johannisthal Studios in Berlin as well as on location around Rügen in the Baltic Sea. The film's sets were designed by Rudi Feld.