''Second Hand Destiny'' (german: Schicksal aus zweiter Hand) is a 1949 West German

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 ...

directed by Wolfgang Staudte and starring

Erich Ponto Erich Johannes Bruno Ponto (14 December 1884 – 14 February 1957) was a German film and stage actor. Career Erich Ponto was born in Lübeck as the son of a merchant. After his family had moved to Hamburg- Eimsbüttel, he attended the gymnasium ...

Heinz Klevenow Heinz Klevenow (8 November 1908, Hildesheim–27 January 1975, Hamburg) was a German actor. Selected filmography * ''Love '47'' (1949) * ''Second Hand Destiny'' (1949) * '' Klettermaxe'' (1952) * '' The Bogeyman'' (1953) * ''Confessions of Felix K ...

and

Marianne Hoppe Marianne Hoppe (26 April 1909 – 23 October 2002) was a German theatre and film actress. Life and work Born in Rostock, Hoppe became a leading lady of stage and films in Germany. She was born into a wealthy landowning family and was initiall ...

. It is sometimes considered a film noir.Spicer p. 460 At the time the director Staudte was mostly known for his work for the

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

studio

DEFA DEFA (''Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft'') was the state-owned film studio of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) throughout the country's existence. Since 2019, DEFA's film heritage has been made accessible and licensable on the PRO ...

. It was made between May and July 1949 at the

Wandsbek Studios The Wandsbek Studios are film production and television studios located in Wandsbek, a district of the German city of Hamburg. The complex was established in 1948 when Real Film, set up the previous year, acquired a site in Wandsbek for constr ...

of the

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

-based company

Real Film Real Film or Real-Film was a West German film production company. It was established in 1947 in Hamburg, then part of the British Zone of Occupation. Its founders were Walter Koppel and the Hungarian Gyula Trebitsch. The company released some rub ...

. The film's sets were designed by the art directors

Albrecht Becker Albrecht Becker (14 November 1906 – 22 April 2002) was a German production designer, photographer, and actor who was imprisoned by the Nazi regime for the charge of homosexuality. Personal life Born in Thale, Germany, Becker trained as a ...

and

Herbert Kirchhoff Herbert Kirchhoff (1911–1988) was a German art director. Selected filmography * ''Nora's Ark'' (1948) * '' My Wife's Friends'' (1949) * '' The Last Night'' (1949) * ''Second Hand Destiny'' (1949) * ''Third from the Right'' (1950) * ''Harbour ...

Synopsis

A man now working as a

clairvoyant Clairvoyance (; ) is the magical ability to gain information about an object, person, location, or physical event through extrasensory perception. Any person who is claimed to have such ability is said to be a clairvoyant () ("one who sees cl ...

narrates in flashback how he has sunk from once being a happily married man to murdering his own wife.

Main cast

References

Bibliography

External links

* 1949 films 1949 drama films German drama films West German films 1940s German-language films Films directed by Wolfgang Staudte Real Film films Films shot in Hamburg Films shot at Wandsbek Studios German black-and-white films 1940s German films {{1940s-Germany-film-stub