''Bookkeeper Kremke'' (German: ''Lohnbuchhalter Kremke'') is a 1930 German silent

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by Marie Harder and starring

Hermann Vallentin Hermann Vallentin (24 May 1872 – 18 September 1945) was a German actor. Biography Hermann Vallentin was born in Berlin in 1872. He was the son of a Jewish timber merchant and factory owner, Felix Vallentin. He was the older brother of actress ...

Anna Sten Anna Sten ( ua, А́нна Стен; born Anna Petrivna Fesak, December 3, 1908November 12, 1993) was a Ukrainian-born American actress. She began her career in stage plays and films in the Soviet Union before traveling to Germany, where she st ...

and

Ivan Koval-Samborsky Ivan Koval-Samborsky ( Ukrainian: Іван Коваль-Самборський; 16 September 1893 – 10 January 1962) was a Ukrainian stage and film actor. After establishing himself in the Soviet film industry in the 1920s, he briefly went to wor ...

.Bergfelder, Carter & Göktürk p.172 It was made with backing from Germany's

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

. It was one of two films, along with ''

Brothers A brother is a man or boy who shares one or more parents with another; a male sibling. The female counterpart is a sister. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to non-familia ...

'' (1929), made at the time that espoused the movement's left-wing ideology. The film's sets were designed by

Carl Ludwig Kirmse Carl Ludwig Kirmse (1888–1982) was a German art director who worked prolifically on films during the silent and sound eras.Giesen p.220 Selected filmography * ''The House of Torment'' (1921) * '' Country Roads and the Big City'' (1921) * '' T ...

. It was not a commercial success on its release, generally attributed to its theme and to the fact that it was a released as a silent at a time when cinemas had gone over almost entirely to showing

sound film A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...

Synopsis

After losing his job, a

clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keeping, filing, staffing service ...

is devastated by the threatened drop in social status now that he is

unemployed Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the referen ...

. However, his daughter falls in love with a chauffeur who encourages her to embrace her new

working-class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

status.

Cast

as Kremke *

as Kremkes Tochter *

as Junger Arbeiter * Else Heller *

Inge Landgut Inge Landgut (23 November 1922 – 29 May 1986) was a German child actress. She is probably best-remembered for playing Pony Hütchen in ''Emil and the Detectives'' and as the child murder victim Elsie Beckmann in Fritz Lang's classic '' M'', bo ...

Wolfgang Zilzer Wolfgang Zilzer (January 20, 1901 – June 26, 1991) was a German-American stage and film actor, often under the stage name Paul Andor. Biography Zilzer was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to German-Jewish emigrant Max Zilzer, who was employed at the ...

References

Bibliography

* Tim Bergfelder, Erica Carter & Deniz Göktürk. ''The German Cinema Book''. BFI, 2002. * Bruce Arthur Murray. ''Film and the German Left in the Weimar Republic: From Caligari to Kuhle Wampe''. University of Texas Press, 1990.

External links

* 1930 films Films of the Weimar Republic German silent feature films German drama films 1930 drama films German black-and-white films Silent drama films 1930s German films 1930s German-language films {{Germany-silent-film-stub