The Marriage Swindler
The Marriage Swindler (German:Heiratsschwindler) is a 1938 German drama film directed by Herbert Selpin and starring Eduard von Winterstein, Viktoria von Ballasko and Kurt Waitzmann. It is sometimes known by the alternative title Die rote Mütze (The Red Cap).[1] A confidence trickster is released from prison and travels to a village where he blackmails and tricks women out of their savings, before eventually being caught.[2]
Production
The film was directed by Selpin for the small studio A.B.C.-Film and based on a novel by Gertrude Von Brockdorff. Its neorealism and pessimistic tone were a sharp change from Selpin's recent work which had been dominated by musicals, comedies and society dramas and was extremely rare in the Nazi era when German cinema strove to be light and entertaining.[3] The film had trouble with the censors, and its release was delayed. It has been described as "One of the finest German sound films ever made".[4]
Cast
- Eduard von Winterstein - Franz Buschko
- Viktoria von Ballasko - Marianne, seine Tochter
- Kurt Waitzmann - Mathias Schröder
- Harald Paulsen - Häselich / Ullmann
- Hilde Körber - Melitta Dolechal
- Fita Benkhoff - Frau Lindemann
- Elisabeth Flickenschildt - Frau Buschko
- Alfred Maack - Paaschen, Bahnhofswirt
- Heinrich Kalnberg - Vater Zierlein
- Friedrich Ettel - Vorsteher Scharrelmann
- Ernst Behmer - Pauluschkat
- Gerhard Bienert - Assistent Obermeier
- Hans Hemes - 1. Beamter
- Helmut Heyne - Assistent Fiedler
- Eva Klein-Donath - Frau Becker
- Gerda Kuffner - Frau Niemeyer
- Waldemar Potier - Kellnerjunge Karl
- Arthur Reinhardt - 2. Beamter
References
Bibliography
- Bergfelder, Tim & Street, Sarah. The Titanic in myth and memory: representations in visual and literary culture. I.B. Tauris, 2004.
- Hull, David Stewart. Film in the Third Reich: a study of the German cinema, 1933-1945. University of California Press, 1969.