''The Emperor's Candlesticks'' () is a 1936 Austrian

historical History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some theorists categ ...

adventure film The adventure film is a broad genre of film. Some early genre studies found it no different than the Western film or argued that adventure could encompass all Hollywood genres. Commonality was found among historians Brian Taves and Ian Cameron in ...

directed by

Karl Hartl Karl Hartl (10 May 1899 – 29 August 1978) was an Austrians, Austrian film film director, director. Life Born in Vienna, Hartl began his film career at the Austrian Sascha-Film company of Alexander Kolowrat and from 1919 was assistant to the H ...

and starring

Sybille Schmitz Sybille Maria Christina Schmitz (2 December 1909 – 13 April 1955) was a German actress. Biography Schmitz attended an acting school in Cologne and got her first engagement at Max Reinhardt's Deutsches Theater in Berlin in 1927. Only one year l ...

Karl Ludwig Diehl Karl Ludwig Diehl (14 August 1896 – 8 March 1958) was a German film actor. He appeared in 66 films between 1924 and 1957. His father was Karl Diehl, the German professor of Anarchism. Filmography * ''Die Tragödie der Entehrten'' (1924) ...

and

Friedl Czepa Friedl Czepa (1898–1973) was an Austrian stage, film and television actress. Czepa made her film debut in 1935, and went on to appear in roughly thirty cinema and television films during her career. Along with Oskar Sima, Fred Hennings and Leni ...

. It is an adaptation of

Baroness Orczy Baroness Emma Orczy (full name: ''Emma Magdalena Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála Orczy de Orci'') (; 23 September 1865 – 12 November 1947), usually known as Baroness Orczy (the name under which she was published) or to her family and friends ...

's 1899 novel ''

The Emperor's Candlesticks ''The Emperor's Candlesticks'' is an 1899 historical novel by Baroness Orczy. Written soon after the birth of her son John, it was her first book as an author rather than translator and was a commercial failure. As in the Scarlet Pimpernel, th ...

.'' A

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

film version of the story ''

'' was released the following year. It was shot at Sascha Film's

Sievering Studios Sievering Studios were film production studios located in Sievering, a suburb of the Austrian capital Vienna. The studios were established in 1916 by the film pioneer Alexander Kolowrat for use by his Sascha-Film. After the First World War they f ...

and

Rosenhügel Studios The Rosenhügel Studios are film studios located in the Austrian capital Vienna. They were opened in 1923 and originally owned by the Vita-Film production company. After the company's bankruptcy the following year the studios were taken over by ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

Kurt Herlth Kurt Herlth (1896–1966) was a German art director known for his designs of film sets. His brother Robert Herlth was also an art director active in the German film industry, and the two men worked together a number of times.Bock & Bergfelder p.1 ...

Werner Schlichting Werner Schlichting (1904–1996) was a German art director who worked on over a hundred films during a lengthy career. He worked on a number of Austrian films including '' The Congress Dances'' and '' The Last Ten Days'' (1955).Fritsche p.253 Sel ...

and

Emil Stepanek Emil Stepanek (21 February 1895 – 12 April 1945) was an Austrian set designer and film architect. Biography Stepanek was born in Vienna, the son of a carpenter, and received a training in stage set construction, in which he worked for severa ...

. It premiered at the

Gloria-Palast The Gloria-Palast was a German cinema located on the Kurfürstendamm in the German capital Berlin. It was constructed in 1924 and replaced the existing neo-Baroque Romanischen Hauses designed by Franz Heinrich Schwechten. It became a common lo ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, and a month later in Vienna.

Plot summary

Cast

as Anna Demidow *

as Georg Wolenski *

as Maria *

Inge List Inge List (1916–2003) was an Austrian stage and film actress.Von Dassanowsky p.394 Selected filmography * '' Grand Duchess Alexandra'' (1933) * '' Princess Turandot'' (1934) * '' The Csardas Princess'' (1934) * ''Mazurka'' (1935) * '' I Love A ...

as Zofe bei Anna Demidow *

Anton Edthofer Anton Franz Edthofer (18 September 1883 – 21 February 1971) was an Austrian actor. He married Helene Thimig on December 4, 1948 and they remained married until his death. Partial filmography * '' The Sacrifice'' (1918) * ''Freier Dienst'' (191 ...

as Erzherzog Ludwig *

Max Gülstorff Max Walter Gülstorff (23 March 1882 – 6 February 1947) was a German actor and stage director. Biography Gülstorff was born in Tilsit, East Prussia. He first appeared in 1900 at the Rudolstadt municipal Theater and moved to Cottbus in 1908 ...

as Graf Surowkin *

Johannes Heesters Johan Marius Nicolaas Heesters (5 December 1903 – 24 December 2011), known professionally as Johannes Heesters, was a Dutch-German actor of stage, television and film, as well as a vocalist of numerous recordings and performer on the conce ...

as Grossfürst Peter Alexandrowitsch *

Fritz Rasp Fritz Heinrich Rasp (13 May 1891 – 30 November 1976) was a German film actor who appeared in more than 100 films between 1916 and 1976. His obituary in ''Der Spiegel'' described Rasp as "the German film villain in service, for over 60 years." ...

as Stanislaus *

Heinrich Schroth Heinrich August Franz Schroth (23 March 1871 – 14 January 1945) was a German stage and film actor. Career Schroth was born in Pirmasens, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. He made his acting debut at the Sigmaringen Royal Theatre in 1890. In 189 ...

as Der Führer der Verschworenen *

Jane Tilden Jane Tilden, born as Marianne Wilhelmine Tuch, (1910–2002) was an Austrian actress who enjoyed a long career on stage and in films and television shows. She was born as Marianne Tuch in Aussig, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She was ...

as Ein Stubenmädchen *

Hans Unterkircher Hans Unterkircher (22 August 1894 – 27 May 1971) was an Austrian stage,film actor and film director. He appeared in more than 60 films between 1916 and 1971. He was born in Graz, Austria and died in Vienna, Austria. Selected filmography * ...

Fritz Imhoff Fritz Imhoff, real name: Friedrich Arnold Heinrich Jeschke (January 6, 1891, Alsergrund February 24, 1961, Wieden) was an Austrian actor. He was a brother of the Wienerlied composer (18901962). Selected filmography * '' Daughter of the Re ...

* Reinhold Häussermann * Hans Siebert * Babette Devrient *

Wilhelm Schich Wilhelm may refer to: People and fictional characters * William Charles John Pitcher, costume designer known professionally as "Wilhelm" * Wilhelm (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname Other uses * Wilhe ...

* Dora Seifert *

Otto Storm Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants '' Audo'', '' Odo'', '' Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded fr ...

Robert Valberg Robert Valberg (28 April 1884 – 15 October 1955) was an Austrian stage and film actor. Selected filmography * ''The Traitress'' (1911) * '' Ivan Koschula'' (1914) * '' The Silent Mill'' (1914) * '' Laugh Bajazzo'' (1915) * '' Money in the Street ...

* Kurt von Lessen

Reception

Writing for ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

'' in 1936,

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquired a re ...

gave the film a mildly good review, summarizing the audience experience as "good direction, fair acting, and the attractively Baker Street dresses make this a pleasant film to doze at." (reprinted in: )

References

Bibliography

* Bock, Hans-Michael & Bergfelder, Tim. ''The Concise Cinegraph: Encyclopaedia of German Cinema''. Berghahn Books, 2009. * Von Dassanowsky, Robert. ''Screening Transcendence: Film Under Austrofascism and the Hollywood Hope, 1933-1938''. Indiana University Press, 2018

External links

* 1936 films 1930s German-language films Films directed by Karl Hartl Austrian black-and-white films 1930s historical adventure films Austrian historical adventure films Films set in the 19th century Films shot at Rosenhügel Studios Films shot at Sievering Studios Films based on British novels Films set in Vienna Films scored by Willy Schmidt-Gentner German-language historical adventure films {{1930s-Austria-film-stub