The Final Chord (1936) User Reviews (2)

Has anybody seen my boy ? (no room for the mom).

[dbdumonteil · 7/10 · 20 October 2010]

"Schlußakkord" was the movie preceding "La Habanera" when Douglas Sirk was still Detlef Sierck and it is par excellence the movie which predates his great melodramas of the fifties.Not that the subject was very new:A young, impoverished German woman named Hanna (Maria Von Tasnady) gives her infant up for adoption ;when she comes back to her native land ,her son is now living in a rich family ,the man is a conductor and his wife ,a frustrated woman ,plays around until she gets this child she longed for;the biological mother takes a job as the brat's governess but of course the posh woman abetted by her former nanny ,a sinister-looking matron Rebecca's Mrs Danvers style , comes to hate her and dismiss her.Those who like stuff such as "the old maid" or "to each his own" or " a stolen life" should have a wonderful time watching this work.

There are sequences which predate Sierck's future works: a drunken guy wearing a carnival mask entering the heroine 's room at a dramatic moment makes one think of this skeleton bursting into an apartment in "tanished angels" (1957);the trial predates that of "written on the wind"(1956) with its new developments;and the final is almost as pompous as the ending of "imitation of life" (1959).

The shows are omnipresent:concerts (Beethoven's 9th symphony which cheers up the heroin far away from her land;pretty soon Sierck would have to leave it too) ,stage dramas ,heavenly choirs -the camera shows a statue of the Virgin babe in arms before filming the mother and child reunion;even more remarkable is the brat's little "show" : telling the story of "SnowWhite and the six dwarfs" -because a dwarf is missing- becomes a "tale in the tale", for as the young princess bites into the poisoned apple,his true mom is about to have a bad time.

Douglas Sirk's early German works

[cynthiahost · 10/10 · 22 May 2013]

This is a typical Douglas Sirk melodrama.The story contains strong sentiment ,that would be his signature in his Hollywood career,in the fifties.But First the German Nazi propaganda New.The Nazi' invade Russia.The Stukas bomb Russia.On the ground ,after the Nazis bombed Russia ,they shoot there way to Stalingrad.They Bomb two eastern islands.They invade the Ukraine.They round up Russian farmer prisoners,The narrator, calls them names and alleges that if they did not stop these Russians that they would destroy Europe.A two color ,silent theatrical commercial promoting a bakery,possibly, in the 1920's, comes on ,the green is more shrunk than the red.Now back to the movie.In this typical Douglass Sirk Melodrama,Maria Von Tasnady,as Hanna, is already in the united states.She already gave her son to rich folks.She's worried cause her husband is not back.Her next door Neighbor? Mr Smith,played by Alexander Engel. is comforting her.It's new years eve .A Drunk citizen find her husband in the park dead.Once she finds out,she become ill.The doctor,played by Walter Werner comes in to help her.She gets well and goes back to Germany to find her son.The foster Parents.Willy Birgel is a Symphony conductor.He has no time for his wife.His wife is spoiled,played by Lil Dagover,So while he's out,she's having an affair with Albert Lippert, who later turns out to be black mailing her ,with the aid of Kurt Miesel.Well Anna is hired as a baby sitter for the step mothers child, played by Peter Bosse,whom she does not know that Anna is the real mother and Lil has no time for Peter.Theodor Loose plays the professor who helps Anna get the baby sitting job.Maria Koppenhoffer,Who played a rotten Queen Elizabeth and another rotten character in Tiefland,plays A crusty house keeper,Hypocritically Lil sees Willy close to Anna and mistake it for romance.She gets mad at him.Finally annal is fired.But she goes back and steals her son,but before that helps Lil to take her Medici.But Anna follows the direction.But all of a sudden,later Anna is charged with murder,but through the aid of the no longer crusty house keeper ,who witness what had happen,she's freed.This Douglas Sirk film did not have a sad ending.It a shame that the bigger film distributors and broadcast classic film channels are bias against Douglass Sirk German career ,just because of Hitler .Good print! Available at Germanwarfilms.com 05/22/13 05/22/13 ,Made a mistake it was Leningrad,not Stalingrad