Posts Tagged ‘Anders als die Andern’

Hope you had a great holiday! The Hitler Channel, Casablanca and Conrad Veidt

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. God, I’m full. So I got to spend the holiday with my parents and my husband. Was fun. At my parents’ house it is a ritual to watch some old movies. Lots of them. My husband is not so tolerant of our addiction so we broke it up with a little Hitler..uh, I mean The History Channel. They had a great series on WWII in HD my Dad recorded. Lots of really interesting footage in color taken by the military and by people in the military. I’m not a huge fan of this kind of stuff but it was very good. Very moving and candid. Ugh…Obama is about to speak about the troop deployment. It’s so terrible what these families have to go thru. Thoughts are with you.

On a lighter note, Casablanca was on (we won’t talk about the exchange between my husband and I when he turned off the TV right before Humphrey Bogart says to Claude Rains “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”).

Fritz Mannheimer

Here’s a great bit of dialogue that is a bit timely..

Woman: What makes saloonkeepers so snobbish?
Banker: Perhaps if you told him I ran the second largest banking house in Amsterdam.
Carl: Second largest? That wouldn’t impress Rick. The leading banker in Amsterdam is now the pastry chef in our kitchen.
Banker: We have something to look forward to.

Ok that was fun. So now for Conrad Veidt. My mom was reeling over my find  Anders als die Andern (Different from the Others 1919). She was an admirer of Veidt, but now she was fascinated, she saw a whole new level to his performances and how versitile he was. He wasn’t just that tough guy who played evil Nazi’s anymore.

“Did you know he gave his paychecks to the war effort?”, my Dad said. “He hated Nazi’s so much he donated all of his earnings he made from his films to the war effort to fight the Nazi’s.”

I have no idea if this is true but it made sense. I mean they destroyed at least one great film of his that I am aware of. According to Wikipedia he was strongly opposed to the Nazi’s and fled Germany after he married a Jewish woman. I liked him enough when I saw him in the film Anders al die Andern, now I just think he’s seriously cool.

Amazing that he ended up being famous for playing Maj. Strasser the big bad Nazi in Casablanca.

Why else is Conrad Veidt a bad ass? He was the model for the Batman character The Joker!

Take a look at The Man Who Laughs.

What is also interesting about him is how he flourished on the bookends of the Pre-Code era films. He made many films before 1929 and then again in 1938-his death in 1943. During the Pre-Code film era he had Nazi problems. So he is the inverse Pre-Code star.

Speaking of the Weimar Republic…

I’m always trying to find ways to link the Weimar Republic with our current social and economic environment. The report in Time Magazine about Detroit and other news articles about Detroit’s deteriorated social and economic situation are mind boggling. CNN reports how bodies are piling up in morgues because families can’t afford the $695 to bury them and the city has no money to bury them either. “Oh the shark bites…”

Then a week later there was a huge article in the Detroit Free Press on how when housing and utility assistance was offered the Cobo Center was mobbed. “with his teeth dear…”

Then a few days later I happened to see a jaw dropping documentary on HBO called Outrage.
(I say jaw dropping because you just can’t believe what self-loathing produces, I’m so naive!)
This film is about how many of the polices in Washington against same sex couples are championed by closeted, self loathing homosexuals. Really interesting film. “…and he keeps them pearly white…”

Today I came across a film I have hear of but have NEVER seen. Anders als die Andern this film is a stunner. It is so sad that it was destroyed by the Nazi’s. The scene that really made the connection for me with the film Outrage, was the scene where the blackmailer of Paul is in an all male bar conspiring to blackmail Paul further which eventually leads to Paul being sent to jail.

So what does this have to do with Detroit? Not sure, but for some reason I can’t get Three Penny Opera out of my head. “They call him Mac the Knife”.

Anders als die Andern (1919, Germ.) (aka Different From the Others)
This is what Sex in Cinema has listed about the film:
This silent film (only half of it survives) by director Richard Oswald was reportedly the first representation of male homosexuality (“the third sex”) in a feature-length film, and the first screen depiction of a gay bar (with gay males and butch females); it was also notable for sympathetically portraying homosexuality; the two ill-fated lovers were prominent pianist Paul Korner (Conrad Veidt) and his young music student, Kurt (Fritz Schulz); the film had a tragic ending (suicide for Korner) due to the effects of blackmail (threats of exposure), jail time for violating anti-homosexuality statutes, and the social stigma of being outed; the film was banned by the Nazis and all prints were ordered destroyed, although one incomplete print surfaced in the Ukraine; the film’s themes were repeated in Victim (1961, UK), with Dirk Bogarde.