''Schlußakkord'' (''Final Accord'' or better ''Final Chord'';Sabine Hake, ''Popular Cinema of the Third Reich'', Austin: University of Texas, 2001, , p. 246, note 4: the title "refers to a musical term" whereas that of Sierck's 1939 French-language ''Accord Final'' can also mean "concluding agreement". sometimes anglicised ''Schlussakkord'') is a German film melodrama of the Nazi period, the first melodrama directed by Detlef Sierck, who later had a career in Hollywood as

Douglas Sirk Douglas Sirk (born Hans Detlef Sierck; 26 April 1897 – 14 January 1987) was a German film director best known for his work in Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s. Sirk started his career in Germany as a stage and screen director, but he left for ...

and specialised in melodramas. It was made under contract for (UFA), stars Lil Dagover and

Willy Birgel Willy Birgel (19 September 1891 – 29 December 1973), born Wilhelm Maria Birgel, was a German theatre and film actor. Career Birgel began his acting career before World War I on the stage in his native city of Cologne, and came to movies ra ...

and also features

Maria von Tasnady Maria von Tasnady (16 November 1911 – 16 March 2001) was a Hungarian singer, stage and film actress. She was born as Mária Tasnádi Fekete and used a variety of other professional names including Maria De Tasnady during her career. von Tasn ...

, and premièred in 1936. It shows stylistic features later developed by Sierck/Sirk and makes symbolic and thematic use of music.

Production and release

Production took place from February to April 1936. Concert scenes were filmed at the

Berliner Philharmonie The Berliner Philharmonie () is a concert hall in Berlin, Germany, and home to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The Philharmonie lies on the south edge of the city's Tiergarten and just west of the former Berlin Wall. The Philharmonie is o ...

in Kreuzberg, which would be destroyed in an air raid in 1944. The film had two premières, on 27 June 1936 at the annual cinema owners' convention in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

, and on 24 July 1936 at the

Gloria-Palast The Gloria-Palast was a German Movie theater, cinema located on the Kurfürstendamm in the German capital Berlin. It was constructed in 1924 and replaced the existing Baroque Revival architecture, neo-Baroque Romanischen Hauses designed by Franz ...

in Berlin, after which it was placed on general release.Cinzia Romani, tr. Robert Connolly, ''Tainted Goddesses: Female Film Stars of the Third Reich'', New York: Sarpedon, 1992, repr. Rome: Gremese, 2001, , p. 52.Hake, p. 112.

Plot

At a New Year's Eve party in New York, Hanna Müller (

) is informed that her husband has been found dead in Central Park, presumably a suicide. The couple had left Germany because he had embezzled money. Meanwhile, the young son they left behind in an orphanage, Peter, is adopted by Erich Garvenberg (

), a famous conductor, and his wife Charlotte ( Lil Dagover), who is having an affair with an astrologer, Gregor Carl-Otto. Hanna Müller goes to the orphanage to enquire after her son and Erich Garvenberg hires her as a nanny. They grow close through their love for the boy. Charlotte Garvenberg learns of Müller's husband's criminality and fires her. Müller returns to abduct her son, but Charlotte, who is being blackmailed by Carl-Otto, overdoses on morphine and dies. Müller administered the drug and is suspected of murder, but at the trial a maid reveals that Charlotte had said she was committing suicide. Hanna and Erich Garvenberg can now marry.

Partial cast list

: Hanna Müller *

: Erich Garvenberg * Lil Dagover: Charlotte Garvenberg (

Pola Negri Pola Negri (; born Apolonia Chalupec ; 3 January 1897 – 1 August 1987) was a Polish stage and film actress and singer. She achieved worldwide fame during the silent and golden eras of Hollywood and European film for her tragedienne and femm ...

refused the role, saying she was too busy) * Maria Koppenhöfer: Frau Freese, the maid *

Peter Bosse Peter Bosse (born Heinrich Peter Friedrich Willi Bosse, 15 January 1931 – 21 September 2018) was a German film actor.Waldman p.132 The son of actress Hilde Maroff, he appeared as a child actor in a number of Nazi era films during the 1930s. Lat ...

: Hanna's son Peter *

Theodor Loos Theodor August Konrad Loos (18 May 1883 – 27 June 1954) was a German actor. The son of a watchmaker and instruments manufacturer, he left secondary school prematurely and worked for three years at an export firm for music instruments in L ...

: Professor Obereit, the paediatrician * Albert Lippert: Gregor Carl-Otto, an astrologer *

Kurt Meisel Kurt Meisel (18 August 1912 – 4 April 1994) was an Austrian actor and film director. He appeared in 65 films between 1934 and 1994. He also directed 21 films between 1949 and 1984. Meisel was married to the actress Ursula Lingen. He was born a ...

: Baron Salviany, Carl-Otto's friend *

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 ...

: judge * Hella Graf: Frau Czerwonska *

Paul Otto Paul Otto Schlesinger (8 February 1878 – 25 or 30 November 1943) was a German film actor and director. Born in Berlin, he began a qualification as a retail merchant and made his actor's debut at the age of 17. Otto worked at Theaters in ...

: prosecutor *

Alexander Engel Alexander Engel, birth name: Kurt Engel (4 June 1902 – 25 July 1968) was a German film actor. He appeared in more than 70 films between 1932 and 1968. He was born in Berlin, Germany and died in Saarbrücken, West Germany. He chose the sta ...

: Mr. Smith, landlord * Eva Tinschmann: head nurse * Walter Werner: Dr. Smedley, doctor in New York *

Carl Auen Carl Theodor Auen (16 February 1892 – 23 June 1972) was a German film actor of the silent era. He appeared in more than 110 films between 1914 and 1938. Auen was a member of the Militant League for German Culture and also a member of the A ...

: New York criminal investigator * Erich Bartels: court official * Johannes Bergfeld: adoption notary * Ursula Deinert: dancer * Christa Mattner: Peter's foster mother *

Erna Berger Erna Berger (19 October 1900 – 14 June 1990) was a German lyric coloratura soprano. She was best known for her Queen of the Night and her Konstanze. Career Born in Dresden, Germany, Berger spent some years as a child in India and South Amer ...

: soprano soloist * Luise Willer: alto soloist * Rudolf Watzke: bass soloist * Hellmuth Melchert: tenor soloist

Themes and imagery

The film contrasts American with German culture and "a decadent past" (the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...

) with a "healthy, hopeful present" (the

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

) that reaffirms the values of the "old" (pre-Weimar) Germany.Hake, p. 119. The interiors, by

Erich Kettelhut Erich Karl Heinrich Kettelhut (1 November 1893 – 13 March 1979) was a German production designer, art director and set decorator. Kettelhut is considered one of the most important artists in the history of early German cinema, mainly for his s ...

, a co-designer on ''

Metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big ci ...

'', have symbolic force; in particular, Charlotte Garvenberg is surrounded by mirrors, suggesting

narcissism Narcissism is a self-centered personality style characterized as having an excessive interest in one's physical appearance or image and an excessive preoccupation with one's own needs, often at the expense of others. Narcissism exists on a co ...

, preoccupied with her own happiness at the expense of her husband or other integration into society, so that her fate in the film "in a way, rehearses the conditions under which eimarculture came to an end", in selfishness, "erotic obsessions" and "empty rituals". In contrast Erich Garvenberg and Hanna are both guided by duty, and Garvenberg is a decisive leader and Hanna is able to draw strength from her rootedness in German culture and her healthy maternal feelings. Sierck stated in an interview that he saw melodrama in its original and etymological sense, as "music + drama". In ''Schlußakkord'', Kurt Schröder's score is reminiscent in style of later work by

Erich Korngold Erich Wolfgang Korngold (May 29, 1897November 29, 1957) was an Austrian-born American composer and conductor. A child prodigy, he became one of the most important and influential composers in Hollywood history. He was a noted pianist and compo ...

and incorporates several excerpts of classical music, including radio broadcasts and gramophone records.

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is a choral symphony, the final complete symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, composed between 1822 and 1824. It was first performed in Vienna on 7 May 1824. The symphony is regarded by many critics and musi ...

was performed for the soundtrack by the orchestra of the

Berlin State Opera The (), also known as the Berlin State Opera (german: Staatsoper Berlin), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic center of Berlin, Germany. The opera house was built by order of Prussian king Frederick the Great from ...

with well-known soloists including Hellmuth Melchert and

. Throughout ''Schlußakkord'', music serves both to further the plot and to symbolise values.

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

and swing are played at the New York New Year's Eve party and a party given by Charlotte; Charlotte is late to a performance by her husband of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, fails to gain entrance and back home exclaims to her maid, " metimes he is so foreign to me. Always with Bach, Beethoven, and whatever their names are"; while in an interwoven scene, an ailing Hanna in New York, hearing on the radio the notes of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony which Garvenberg is conducting, whispers "Beethoven", remembers Germany and decides to return to her homeland, whereupon the scene shifts back to the concert hall, where the performance has reached the "Ode to Joy". The sequence contrasts Charlotte's estrangement in Berlin with the expatriate Hanna's need to belong (and to be reunited with her child). In the scene where they discover they love each other, Hanna tells Garvenberg that the ''Adagio'' movement saved her life. Other passages of classical music serve as leitmotifs in the film. A passage from Tchaikovsky's ''Nutcracker Suite'' is introduced in the opening credits and recurs "repeatedly . . . each time announcing an emotional crisis or insight." A theme from "Dance of the Toy Flutes" first occurs as Hanna mentions her child when the police in New York are questioning her, and the music changes to "lyrical and pastoral tones" as the viewer sees in turn New York

tenement A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, i ...

s, the lighted skyline of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, the Atlantic, the historic centre of Berlin, and finally the boy in the orphanage. The theme recurs when Hanna gives Charlotte her medicine and when she dreams about that last encounter, foreshadowing that she will be reunited with her son.Hake, p. 116. Other ''Nutcracker'' passages occur when Hanna is at the theatre with the director of the orphanage and are intercut with scenes of Charlotte and her lover; and after an argument with Charlotte, Hanna goes to an opera in the style of Richard Strauss, where an older woman sings an aria, "Drop of Hemlock, Sweet and Deadly," expressing Hanna's fear of elimination, but it is a younger woman who is poisoned on stage. Finally, the closing scene is at a performance of Handel's oratorio ''Judas Maccabaeus'', and the camera moves from the newly united family to the triumphant angels on the ceiling of the concert hall. Sabine Hake points out that in addition to expressing the deepest feelings of the characters, the use of music in the film establishes the "social, psychological, and cultural terms" in which it defines community, and that the use of classical music quotations as well as the film's visual symbolism presuppose a shared middle-class cultural frame of reference.

Reception

The film was successful and strengthened Sierck's negotiating position with UFA. The ''Film-Kurier'' review praised Sierck for "manag ngto blend the various emotional and affective elements of the plot into a moving musical unity" with "appropriate emphases" and "sustaining dramatic tension from start to finish." Schneider in ''Licht-Bild-Bühne'' called it " e most honest, most decent and, in its form, most compelling film of ecentyears." Another Berlin critic wrote that "Sierck . . . shows with this film that he ranks with the most important contemporary filmmakers" and singled out in particular his not favouring some "stars" over other actors: " l his actors are stars from the moment they appear on the screen." However, most of the reviews focussed on the stars Willy Birgel and Lil Dagover rather than on the direction. In 1969, David Stewart Hull wrote that the film was "done with much the same flair which Sierck (Douglas Sirk) was to evidence . . . two decades later in the United States" but also that "the excellent musical sequences saved the film from banality."David Stewart Hull, ''Film in the Third Reich: A Study of the German Cinema, 1933–1945'', Berkeley, California: University of California, 1969, , p. 103.

Awards

* ''Prädikat'' ( Propaganda Ministry award of distinction): Artistic Value (''künstlerisch Wertvoll'')Hake, p. 115. * Best Musical Film, Venice International Film Festival

''Accord final''

In 1939, Sierck made ''Accord final'' in France for France-Suisse Film; this is the same title as ''Schlußakkord'' but the plot is different.According to Rentschler, p. 288 (who gives the year as 1938), he was artistic director but the film was directed by I.R. Bay (Ignacy Rosenkranz). In French, unlike German, the title is ambiguous.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schlussakkord 1936 films Films of Nazi Germany Films directed by Douglas Sirk Films set in the United States Films set in Germany German black-and-white films German musical drama films 1930s musical drama films Melodrama films 1936 drama films 1930s German-language films 1930s German films