Burg Theatre
Again, Lubitsch for KG. This is a cut version, the complete version runs to 123 min, but the cuts are well done and to me invisible. I wrote the subs, and toerless will write the Spanish subs one of these days, won't he? I liked this film even better than Komödianten. This film actually needs the Austrian flag.
IMDBLubitsch writes: One of Forst's efforts in the 30s, very prestigious with Werner Krauß and the national institution of the Burgtheater in the title. It's the old story of an actor who always lived for his art but discovers love for a younger girl who naturally is interested in a poor, young actor. It's not in the Maskerade or Bel Ami class, but of interest nevertheless.
own thoughts: The film has a darker mood than one is used to with Willi Forst (there are some sunny Viennese backyards too, and an exalted scene in a church, for the "Leise flehen meine Lieder" fans), and it's now my second favorite, after Maskerade. It leaves all his other films far behind, that is, the ones I've seen so far. There is little music, the song "Sag beim Abschied leise Servus" serves as a leitmotiv and bits of Bruckner's 4th symphony. The gossipy drawing room scenes were just what I like, and one montage sequence of the spreading of a rumour was as good as the similar bit in Maskerade about the scandalous magazine cover. To prevent gate-crashing, the Baroness gives out numbered invitations to her soirée, and the butler checks them in a register, if he doesn't know a guest, a detail I didn't know before, Claudette Colbert would never have made in into Hedda Hopper's salon that way. Werner Krauß was a bit too much the sentimental lover in the first part, but in the finale, in the mask of King Philip from Don Carlos, he has some great scenes, talking to Hans Moser, his prompter and butler, through the curtain, taking off his make-up in front of the mirror in his dressing room, later with the watchman with his flashlight and his German shepherd dog, barking, really very good.
Tommaso writes (who also helped me with some subtitle lines): Have watched it right now as a very late-night treat, and it leaves mixed feelings. These have perhaps more to do with the society and the rules it portrays than with the film, but I can't take that Viennese 'cultured society'and its 'artistic soirees' centering around Burgtheater actors seriously anymore ever since I read Thomas Bernhard's "Holzfällen" not too long ago . The Bernhard book admittedly portrays a much more despicable form of these circles than shown in the Forst film, but the original leaves a stale taste nevertheless, especially as Forst still sings the praises of that kind of society, or so it seems to me. The Burgtheater, after all, still retains it 'hallowed place' in the cultural imagination at the end of the film. This is underlined to me by the 'Faust'-performance that bookends the film.
But content aside, there are some other things I feel ambivalent about, too. The most important is indeed Werner Krauss, and I agree completely with Serdar's assessment above: he appears rather over-sentimental and not quite believable in the first part, though he indeed delivers an amazing performance in the latter half. Hortense Raky is charming and convincing as Leni, and Olga Tschechowa is her stately and seductive self as ever. And I really quite liked Hans Moser here, too, not least because he brings a little bit of fresh air into this somewhat a little stiff film.
Not a bad film, then, and one which gives you quite a bit of enjoyment in places. And surely it is beautifully photographed all the way. But if it comes to films about theatre and the passion for it, give me Pabst's "Komödianten" over it any time.
Werner Krauss ... Friedrich Mitterer
Hans Moser ... Souffleur Sedlmayer
Hortense Raky ... Leni Schindler
Karl Skraup ... Schneidermeister Schindler
Josefine Dora ... Frau Schindler
Carl Esmond ... Josef Rainer
Olga Tschechowa ... Baroness Seebach
Camilla Gerzhofer ... Frau von S., Gesellschaftsdame
Karl Günther ... Baron Seebach
Franz Herterich ... Direktor des Burgtheaters
Otto von Lessen ... Kritiker
filmportal.de
file details:
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Burgtheater (Willi Forst 1936) TVRip.VO.102min.avi [1.07 Gb] 
English subs
