Saturday 24 December 2022

Das Mädchen von Moorhof (1935 'Detlef Sierck' aka Douglas Sirk)

Based on novel by Selma Lagerlof, screenplay Lothar M. Mayring. Sirk's second feature film, for UFA, is a short and tangy melodrama about a dishonoured young peasant woman (Hansi Knotek), a man who looks out for her (Freidrich Kayssler) and his fiancee (Ellen Franck).

The bit I slightly didn't follow (because I watched a French subtitles version!) was that the girl in court says she would rather have a child with no legal father than have him swear on the Bible an untruth. It's this that impresses the young man so he hires her.

Good performances, interesting camera positions, some nice effects such as the prophet of doom who knocks a stone into the water and the ripples turn into the church where no wedding is going to take place.    



Good photography Willy Winterstein, music Hans-Otto Borgman.

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