Die Pratermizzi (literally, "Mizzi of the

Prater The Prater () is a large public park in Leopoldstadt, Vienna, Austria. The Wurstelprater, an amusement park that is often simply called "Prater", lies in one corner of the Wiener Prater and includes the Wiener Riesenrad Ferris wheel. Name The ...

") is an

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

silent

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

Gustav Ucicky Gustav Ucicky (6 July 1899 – 27 April 1961) was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer. He was one of the more successful directors in Austria and Germany from the 1930s through to the early 1960s. His work covered a wid ...

in 1926, released in January 1927, and starring

Anny Ondra Anny Ondra (born Anna Sophie Ondráková; 15 May 1903 – 28 February 1987) was a Czech film actress. She began her career in 1920 and appeared in Czech, German, Austrian, French and English films. In 1933, she married German boxing champion M ...

, Igo Sym and

Nita Naldi Nita Naldi (born Mary Nonna Dooley; In this reference Naldi's birth name Nonna is mistakenly cited “Donna”. Naldi's birthname in this reference is also incorrectly cited as “Donna”. November 13, 1894 – February 17, 1961) was an Ameri ...

. The film was long believed lost until its rediscovery in 2005. The film's art direction was by

Artur Berger Artur Semyonovich Berger (german: Arthur Berger, russian: Артур Семёнович Бергер; 27 May 1892 – 11 January 1981) was an Austrian-Soviet film architect and set designer. He was active in Austria between 1920 and 1936, durin ...

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 ...

Plot

Marie, a cashier in the tunnel of love ''Zum Walfisch'' on the Prater in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, and Baron Christian von B. fall in love, but their relationship is disrupted by the willful involvement of the dancer Valette, who always wears a mask. Christian eventually follows Valette to Paris. When he tears the golden mask from her face he is shocked to discover that she is disfigured by a disease. He returns to Vienna with the intention of putting an end to his life, but at the last minute Marie is able to save him. The ride through the tunnel of love is associated in this film with the journey into one's own self.

Cast

* Igo Sym as Freiherr Christian von B. *

as Marie *

as Valette, the dancer with the mask *Hedy Pfundmayr as the dancer's double * Carl Götz as Herr von Z. *

Ferdinand Leopoldi Ferdinand Leopoldi, real name Ferdinand Israel Kohn (20 August 1886 – 20 December 1944) was an Austrian pianist, hit composer and cabaret manager. Life Born in Vienna, Leopoldi was the eldest son of the musician Leopold Kohn (the official ch ...

as Adam Lorenz Stingl, owner of the tunnel of love *

Hugo Thimig Hugo August Thimig (16 June 1854 – 24 September 1944), although born in Germany, spent his working life in Austria as an actor, director, and director of the ''Burgtheater'' in Vienna. Biography Thimig was the founding father of one of Au ...

as Matthias Veitschberger This was the last major film role of Nita Naldi, whose career did not survive the advent of the talkies.

History of the film

In 2005 a print of the ''Pratermizzi'' on a base of the inflammable

cellulose nitrate Nitrocellulose (also known as cellulose nitrate, flash paper, flash cotton, guncotton, pyroxylin and flash string, depending on form) is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to a mixture of nitric acid an ...

was discovered in the archives of the ''

Centre national de la cinématographie Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricit ...

''. It was successfully copied and restored in time to be shown at the opening of Prater Film Festival the same year. Excerpts from the film were published by the

Filmarchiv Austria The Filmarchiv Austria ("Austrian Film Archive") is an organisation for the discovery, reconstruction and preservation of Austrian film record material: films themselves, literature about film and cinema, or film-related periodicals. With over 260, ...

on the DVD "Der Wiener Prater im Film" in July 2005.www.ofdb.de – Online Film Database
entry of 23 November 2008, retrieved 24 February 2009)

References

Sources and external links

*
Österreichisches Filmarchiv

Stummfilm.at
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pratermizzi, Die 1926 films 1927 films 1926 drama films Austrian black-and-white films Austrian silent feature films Austrian drama films Films directed by Gustav Ucicky Films set in Vienna Wiener Film 1920s rediscovered films 1927 drama films Rediscovered Austrian films Silent romantic comedy films Silent drama films 1920s German films