Schätze des deutschen Tonfilms: Three films by Harry Piel

[Tommaso]

It looks like a new edition of early German sound films has been started by Koch Media, which totally flew under my radar. Info on the Koch site about future releases is non-existant, but anyway: the series so far consists of three early sound films by the half-mythical silent adventure film star and director Harry Piel, most of whose early films seem to be lost, so this edition is very welcome to me, though I would have of course preferred some silents.

The three films released are:

Johnny stielt Europa (1932)
Sein bester Freund (1937)
Ein Unsichtbarer geht durch die Stadt (1933)

A brief review in German can be found here.

As I've never been able to see any film by Piel, could anyone comment on whether they're worthwhile? The description reminds me a lot of Albers films like "FP1" or "Ein gewisser Herr Gran". And at least the cover designs look pretty cool...

And hopefully the series will go on and give us some more early German sound films. So much great stuff out there...

[lubitsch]

And hopefully the series will go on and give us some more early German sound films. So much great stuff out there...

If things turn out as planned (I know the series editor), you'll see a few pearls and I suggested the inclusion of English subs in some special cases. However I can't be more specific at the moment.

[Tommaso]

Thanks Lubitsch, that sounds really promising! I hope the general quality will be a little higher than the Ufa-Edition or BlackHill discs with their often overly denoised audio. Keep us informed if Koch doesn't do it on their site...

[Tommaso]

I've now seen one of the three Piel films, "Ein Unsichtbarer geht durch die Stadt". A nice, light-hearted science fiction/crime-adventure which makes nice use of special effects and occasionally harks back to Lang's "Mabuse"-films in its portrayal of a literally invisible menace that our good hero of course is able to sort out, though in fact the ending is somewhat of a letdown in terms of plot. The film is preceded by a disclaimer about the image quality, pointing out that the neg is lost and the materials are sub-optimal, but actually: I've seen far worse examples, especially with early German sound films. The transfer itself is absolutely flawless with consistently high bitrate, too, and thankfully the audio sounds unmanipulated (unlike many of the Black Hill discs). Certainly recommended if you want to have some nice amusement and fun for a change; no subs, though.

However, I'm a bit irritated by the company Spirit Media's marketing (or lack thereof): the Piel discs are distributed by Koch Media, and you can find a bit of info on their website; however, there doesn't seem to be a dedicated website for Spirit Media and this "Schätze des deutschen Tonfilms" series. Too bad, as I'd surely like to be informed about forthcoming discs.

What's more is that the company released two more films that sound potentially even more interesting, "Spione im Savoy Hotel" (1932), directed by Frederic Zelnik and starring Alfred Abel(!), and "Der Hund von Baskerville" (1936), directed by Carl Lamac. However, these are not available via the usual outlets but only through the otherwise thoroughly uninteresting 'Weltbild'-mail order:

Spione im Savoy Hotel
Der Hund von Baskerville

Lubitsch, do you know more about this decision? I'm not sure what to think of this, even though these discs are cheaper than the Piel discs; but this series is basically very promising and should get all the attention it can get, and I doubt that going via Weltbild exclusively is a good idea in this respect. I hope they'll get a higher profile, especially as Black Hill seems to have almost completely ceased releasing new discs.

[TMDaines]

As you've neglected to mention them, I'm guessing there wasn't any English subs?

The disks are on Amazon.de by the way:

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http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/B ... evolver-21" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Tommaso]

Yes, the Piel discs are widely available; I was just referring to the two new releases by other directors.

As you've neglected to mention them, I'm guessing there wasn't any English subs?

Certainly recommended if you want to have some nice amusement and fun for a change; no subs, though.

[TMDaines]

[Tonfilmfan]

O:) Hi, I am happy to join this forum and I am pleased to read that the edition "Schätze des deutschen Tonfilms" has finally found its way to an international audience. Since I have the pleasure to participate in this edition a few words as comment. Thanks to Spirit Media we will certainly release more treasures of pre 1945 German Cinema. Next titles to come are "Knock Out" - Ein junges Mädchen ein junger Mann (1935 featuring Max Schmeling & Anny Ondra), "Lumpacivagabundus" (1936, featuring Heinz Rühmann, Paul Hörbiger and Hans Holt). These titles will be released the 31st of January 2010 by Koch. Next releases will be in March / April - "Drei blaue Jungs-ein blondes Mädel" (a believed lost Rühmann feature of 1933) and in April a real highlight - the 1931 version of "Der Zinker" - the first sound version of the Edgar Wallace story featuring Fritz Rasp, Karl Ludwig Diehl and others. Apart from a very detoriated Czech Copy which was not at all a pleasure to watch a good copy of this film was not available for decades, but finally the Bundesarchiv Berlin found a nitrate copy which has been carefully restored. O:)
As with many German films of the pre 1945 era the state of material is difficult, the negatives often detoriated, copies of the first generation mostly not available due to war damage etc etc - but we will do our very best to obtain the finest quality possible. And we will also have "a good ear" on the audio restauration, which is very important for us. A Promise!
Distributer for all Spirit releases is Koch Media. However in some cases the first release might be via "Jokers" Mail Order Service, as it is the case with "Der Hund von Baskerville" and "Spione im Savoy Hotel". A special site dedicated to the edition is under construction and will hopefully be able by mid of February. Any information or comments on our edition are highly welcome! I will keep you informed about any progress and thank you for your kind support!

[Tommaso]

Wonderful news, and great to have you here, Tonfilmfan.

Some of these new announcements absolutely water my mouth, especially "Der Zinker", not least because I'm an admirer of the great Fritz Rasp. However, even if the news of the edition has found its way to this forum and a few people here try to raise some awareness of early German sound films, I think the language barrier is a real problem if you want to reach an international audience. So perhaps English subs might be considered at least for some of the more high-profile releases, even if that costs extra money for you, probably.

About the films you choose: all of these so far seem to be true rarities, which I've never even seen on TV, and I hope you continue with this policy. I personally would really love to see more Lilian Harvey/Willy Fritsch, for instance. "Liebeswalzer", "Ein blonder Traum", "Quick" or anything else. So far your titles seem to be focussing on the 'lighter' side, which is fine with me, but if you consider some more 'artsy' fare, too, I hope you won't bypass films by Veit Harlan (especially "Opfergang", which must be seen to be believed, really) and Gustav Ucicky, even though their names are not the best for historical reasons. But only a few of their films are problematic, and they were simply among the most talented directors in Germany at the time. Ideal for getting interest from international audiences would also be Pabst's "Komödianten" and "Paracelsus" (not to speak of "Skandal um Eva", if you can find/license a print).

And finally, as I said above: the only film I've seen from you so far is "Ein Unsichtbarer geht um die Stadt", and again: I was very pleased with the presentation and the quality of the transfer. Thumbs up, and I hope you will continue in this vein. Keep us informed!

[TMDaines]

I'll definitely look at picking up a couple of these films on my visit to Germany late this year/early next year. As Tommaso said, English subs would be excellent, especially in helping reach a much wider international audience.

[Tonfilmfan]

Thank you for your encouraging response!
We will do our very best to build up a good repertoire, but - as you have correctly said - unfortunately we have that barrier of the language. The original scripts are mostly lost and subs - if you want them in good quality - are expensive.
However if we could find a good distributor for the Anglo-American territory it would be more easy to recupe these costs. So let's make a call for all competent distributors out there: If you feel that there is a market for German pre 1945 films in England and USA please let's get in touch!
"Lumpacivagabundus" and "Knock Out" are ready for distribution and should be available next week from "Koch".

[billy98]

I have bought the Spirit Media/Koch DVDs from amazon.de of Piel's SEIN BESTER FREUND and KNOCKOUT and they are as described by other members of this topic...good quality, good sound, at least as good as if not better than some other re-mastered German classics from e-m-s, Black Hill, Ufa Klassiker, etc in the past.

I would hope that Spirit or Black Hill would put out OPFERGANG (there was a rumoured Agfacolor box set of OPFERGANG, IMMENSEE and DIE GOLDENE STADT at one point but of course only STADT ever appeared....) PARACELSUS would be terrific for Pabst and Werner Krauß fans. There is about to be a change of CEO at the F.W.Murnau Stiftung and perhaps some progress will then be made on stalled Black Hill Pictures releases of Ritter's BAL PARÉ and the Sybille Schmitz classic FÄHRMANN MARIA, both of which got to cover art development and amazon.de listings, and then got cancelled without notice or explanation. Thanks to Black Hill, however, for seeing that Zarah Leander's missing DER WEG INS FREIE finally got into orbit!!

[Tommaso]

A few days ago, someone posted in the German Stummfilmforum that "Fährmann Maria" will definitely not come out via Black Hill, due to some rights issues (no further info given). However, the same person confirmed that "Immensee" will be released by Black Hill this year; but nothing about "Opfergang", unfortunately. Or about Ucicky's "Savoy Hotel 217", which had also made it to cover art and amazon listing once...

Thanks for the info about the two other Spirit Media films; quite what I hoped for. Must get them soon...

[TMDaines]

No wonder there was no information on the Koch site: they are only the distributors. Here is the website: http://www.spiritmediagmbh.de

[Tommaso]

Thank you. No sign of "Der Zinker" yet....

[Tonfilmfan]

Hi, Tommaso,

We are just preparing the Premaster. It is a good part of work to restore the film, but it will be released in June via Weltbild/Jokers. The regular Spirit release will be in Autumn! All the best!

[Tommaso]

Have looked through the website again, and lo and behold: one of those German classics I always wanted to see is announced for December:

"Durch die Wüste", the first film version of German youth/cult author Karl May's oriental story. Never heard about the director J.A. Hübler-Kahla, though.

Also announced for November, "Der Hexer", probably the follow-up to "Der Zinker", and also directed by Carl Lamac. Well, certainly interesting, though I hope that the series will expand a little bit thematically. Those adventure and crime pictures certainly aren't representative for the treasures of the early German sound film...

[billy98]

Hi, I bought the Piel film SEIN BESTER FREUND (Spirit /Koch) edition and it is a solid B-picture, and quite good print quality. A detective with his trusty german shepherd, like the current German TV series, Rex. But Spirit will be concentrating on Edgar Wallace mysteries and the like, and I doubt any Harlan, Ritter, Steinhoff or Selpin films will be out on that label, ever.

Black Hill got into problems with Warner Bros. distribution Germany, I was told, and the contract was not renewed. For some unexplained reason the remaining films announced three years ago (and still even advertised with cover art boxes on amazon.de today) of FÄHRMANN MARIA, BAL PARÉ and IMMENSEE never came out. The plan was to put out IMMENSEE and OPFERGANG on restored Agfacolor discs like had been achieved with DIE GOLDENE STADT, and then box set the three of them together as a Harlan color film box edition. Incidentally, there is a new coffee table book on the Ufa Agfacolor Films coming out in Germany later this year, UFA IN FARBE, TECHNIK, POLITIK UND STARKULT ZWISCHEN 1936 UND 1945,
€58, listed on amazon.de for pre-order.

Speaking of CARL PETERS, it should be out later this Fall from IHF Films,Chicago in a restored DVD edition with optional English subtitles.

[Tommaso]

So far, I've only seen Piel's "Ein Unsichtbarer geht durch die Stadt", which can only be described as 'cool'. Not unlike a mixture of some 50s-B-Science Fiction-movie and James Bond, but all of course seen through the eyes of late Weimar. I would definitely recommend this as a starter for the whole series, although I find one of Piel's few surviving silents, "Was ist los im Zirkus Beely?", even better. I also already have "Johnny stiehlt Europa", but haven't managed to watch it yet.

But Spirit will be concentrating on Edgar Wallace mysteries and the like, and I doubt any Harlan, Ritter, Steinhoff or Selpin films will be out on that label, ever.

Is that guesswork or do you know for sure from someone from the label? If so, the title of the series is misleading, although I certainly don't want them to focus on these controversial directors either.

But what is it with these detective/adventure pictures? I watched "Spione im Savoy Hotel" and "Der Hund von Baskerville" recently, and whereas the former is only average (despite great actors like Olga Tschechowa and Alfred Abel), the latter is rather sub-par in my view. A totally unimportant film quite far away from the quality of, say, "Der Mann der Sherlock Holmes war" with Albers. If they must focus on adventure stuff, I'd much rather say they should have an eye on Ucicky: "Morgenrot", "Flüchtlinge", "Aufruhr in Damaskus" would all be great choices. Or is it that they perhaps can't get these because they are UFA productions now owned by Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung? As far as I can see, all films released in the series so far were made by other studios.

Black Hill got into problems with Warner Bros. distribution Germany, I was told, and the contract was not renewed.

Indeed, and that's why they changed to Koch as a distributor one year ago. But since then, apart from one Heinz Rühmann film, no new releases I think.

The plan was to put out IMMENSEE and OPFERGANG on restored Agfacolor discs like had been achieved with DIE GOLDENE STADT, and then box set the three of them together as a Harlan color film box edition.

Which would have been a dream come true indeed, even if the image quality of "Die goldene Stadt" was only average and on top of it only contained a post-war-cut with some alterations to make it less 'offensive' politically. But "Immensee" and "Opfergang" are certainly less problematic in this respect, and so I really wonder what keeps them from releasing them now. And if they want to do a Harlan colour film set, they should definitely also include his 1951 "Hanna Amon", probably the weirdest Heimatfilm ever made.

Speaking of CARL PETERS, it should be out later this Fall from IHF Films,Chicago in a restored DVD edition with optional English subtitles.

While I still don't know what to think of IHF and don't know whether their releases can even be considered as legitimate, they seem to be doing good work; careful editions with good contextualization, so this is good news at least.

[Tonfilmfan]

Hallo, everybody! I really enjoy observing the controversal discussion about the Spirit Media releases which I find is quite helpful for the survival of the entire series. I am proud to say that I participate in the restoration and release process. Perhaps I can put an end to some speculation that have occured here. So there is to say a great "Yes"! : Yes - there is a big part of German film heritage whose copyrights are not held neither by Murnau nor Kirch and it is on these pictures the edition is concentrating presently.
As you may have observed there are several releases bearing the Max Schmeling Logo in the editorial title (Knock Out, Hund von Baskerville, Der Zinker and for future releases Der Doppelgänger and Der Hexer). All these titles come from the same source who also holds quite a large number of the greatest Anny Ondra Pictures. Alas we could not start releasing these really gems of German Musical Comedy (Anny Ondra was regarded the female Charly Chaplin - and she really was it) since we are not sure how they will sell. So we had to see to get out the "Blockbusters" first! Apart from this there are a few other sources that supply material that you can figure out very easily if you study the editorial notes.
The general problem with the release of these films is the now very limited fan-community AND WE NEED a minimum of 4000 solidly sold copies to come to a happy break even point! If there is anybody out there who can supply good ideas how to achieve this you are really welcome and invited to post your advice.
Finally we all want the same: To secure the German Film Heritage from getting completely lost and therefore also a great "Bravo" to Spirit. who with every release is taking the financial risk,

Finally I would like to contradict Tomasso from my personal point of view. For me "Der Hund von Baskerville" is in no way "sub-par". I really like Basil Rathbone and I think that this early Ondra-Lamac version in many ways can rival the Rathbone version made three years later in Hollywood. Just think about sinister Fritz Rasp in the role of the mysterious Barrymore or the final show down in the swamps. "Der Mann der Sherlock Holmes war" is a parody, a comedy not to be compared with a serious effort to put Conan Doyle's most famous novel onto to silver screen. There are some points that could be discussed also with this film. Perhaps the problem is a bit with the dialogues that for German ears are in many sequences brilliant, full of irony and very often putting Watson on the first place, e.g. when Holmes and Watson come to wake up the rather bad-humored village telephonist at night Watson points out at Holmes in order to calm down the lady: "Oh Holmes, you have forgotten the flowers again!" I love this film. I have seen it I don't know how many times and I still discover details that I have not seen before - and - this is to conclude for today - it is one of the best selling releases of the entire series!
But anyway: Any advice how we can make things better is highly apreciated!

[htdm]

If there is anybody out there who can supply good ideas how to achieve this you are really welcome and invited to post your advice.　But anyway: Any advice how we can make things better is highly apreciated!

I find your title selections are a breath of fresh air and have experimented with 2 so far. I would buy far more (as would my library) if there were English subtitles. I believe this was already mentioned earlier in this thread, but it would make a difference for me and I imagine for others too.

[Tommaso]

Tonfilmfan, thanks for your explanations, really appreciated. There are producers from the BFI and Masters of Cinema in this forum, too, and they have been really helpful with information on new releases and the decisions behind them etc. and I guess they created quite a fanbase by this alone, so please continue to be around.

Alas we could not start releasing these really gems of German Musical Comedy (Anny Ondra was regarded the female Charly Chaplin - and she really was it) since we are not sure how they will sell. So we had to see to get out the "Blockbusters" first! Apart from this there are a few other sources that supply material that you can figure out very easily if you study the editorial notes.
The general problem with the release of these films is the now very limited fan-community AND WE NEED a minimum of 4000 solidly sold copies to come to a happy break even point!

Phew, 4000 copies are a lot, so I can understand that you went for the 'blockbusters' first, but I'd say that there certainly is a fanbase for the musicals as well, as far as I can see. I'd really, really love to see "Die vertauschte Braut", for instance, and I know some people here who'd genuinely go crazy if they could get it, simply because Anton Wohlbrück is in this film, too. I'm pretty sure that a small collection of Wohlbrück films would be quite a good idea, if you market it in a similar way to the initial Piel releases: something a la " the great lost films with the best-dressed man in film history whom you all know from "The Red Shoes" or something...

Finally I would like to contradict Tomasso from my personal point of view. For me "Der Hund von Baskerville" is in no way "sub-par". I really like Basil Rathbone and I think that this early Ondra-Lamac version in many ways can rival the Rathbone version made three years later in Hollywood. Just think about sinister Fritz Rasp in the role of the mysterious Barrymore or the final show down in the swamps. "Der Mann der Sherlock Holmes war" is a parody, a comedy not to be compared with a serious effort to put Conan Doyle's most famous novel onto to silver screen.

Well, to each his own taste, then. When I watched the film I almost became annoyed by Fritz Rasp (whom I really like!) playing the same kind of role all over again. He had played his typical screen character so often before - perhaps best in Otsep's "Dmitri Karamasoff' - that I found it had become a bit stale in 1936. I also found the concentration on Watson rather than on Holmes somewhat irritating, and to me the whole film isn't quite a match for the Rathbone version. But I have to admit that I probably like the much later Terence Fisher version best, simply because it's so over-the-top. You're right, of course: "Der Mann der Sherlock Holmes war" is a parody, but a very good one, and what always interests me more than faithfulness to a character or a book is the general impression a film leaves on me: and the Albers film is genuinely great in my view, not just because of Karl Hartl's direction.

That "Der Hund von Baskerville" is one of the best selling releases doesn't surprise me: the title and the book on which it is based alone make it attractive. I, too, bought it because of that.

[Tonfilmfan]

Hi Tommaso,

speaking of "Die vertauschte Braut", this is my top candidate, too. The material is considered lost in Germany but we have a source that holds a good print of which I have already seen some samples. We really hope to get this out as soon as possible, perhaps in combination with "Baby" which is the other film of the Ondra/Wohlbrück combination.
I really hope that this thread is also read by people who say "I know a competent distributer who could release these pictures in other territories", or simply the distributor himself who says: "Here I am. I Love German films and I would like to do this". So with the aid and support of an international distributor it would be easy to produce the subs for the entire back-catalogue.
Be shure I'll come back here regularly to let you know the latest developments. My "Google" is on steady "Alert"!
Best wishes!

[Tommaso]

Fantastic! Count me in on buying a copy of "Die vertauschte Braut" and "Baby" as soon as they come out. And then let's hope this sells really well.

[serdar002]

About Verkaufte Braut, this is great news indeed

lost films link https://www.lost-films.eu/films/show/id/3490" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
and for Die drei von der Stempelstelle 1932 https://www.lost-films.eu/films/show/id/3349" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;