''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' (german: Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor) is a 1950 East German musical

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

directed by Georg Wildhagen. It was based on

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's play by the same name.

Plot

Elizabethan England The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personific ...

, Sir John Falstaff is embroiled in attempting to have a love affair with several women, which soon turns into a humorous adventure.

Cast

* Sonja Ziemann as Mrs. Fluth * Camilla Spira as Mrs. Gretchen Reich *

Paul Esser Paul Esser (24 April 1913 – 20 January 1988) was a German stage and television actor and voice actor. He is remembered for playing the lead role in the Sender Freies Berlin version of the detective series ''Tatort''. Esser was born in Gel ...

as Sir John Falstaff * Ina Halley as Anna Reich * Eckart Dux as Fenton *

Alexander Engel Alexander Engel, birth name: Kurt Engel (4 June 1902 – 25 July 1968) was a German film actor. He appeared in more than 70 films between 1932 and 1968. He was born in Berlin, Germany and died in Saarbrücken, West Germany. He chose the sta ...

as Innkeeper Reich * Claus Holm as Mr. Fluth * Joachim Teege as Mr. Spärlich * Gerd Frickhöffer as Dr. Cajus *

Rita Streich Rita Streich (18 December 192020 March 1987) was one of the most admired and recorded lyric coloratura sopranos of the post-war period. Biography Rita Streich was born in Barnaul, southern Siberia, in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Repu ...

as Mrs. Fluth (singing voice) * Martha Mödl as Mrs. Gretchen Reich (singing voice) * Sonja Schöner as Anna Reich (singing voice) *

Helmut Krebs Helmut is a German name. Variants include Hellmut, Helmuth, and Hellmuth. From old German, the first element deriving from either ''heil'' ("healthy") or ''hiltja'' ("battle"), and the second from ''muot'' ("spirit, mind, mood"). Helmut may ref ...

as Fenton (voice) * Hans Kramer as Sir John Falstaff (voice) * Willi Heyer-Kraemer as Innkeeper Reich (singing voice) * Herbert Brauer as Mr. Fluth (singing voice)

Production

The film is an adaptation of the 1849 opera '' The Merry Wives of Windsor'' composed by Otto Nicolai with a libretto by

Salomon Hermann Mosenthal Salomon Hermann Mosenthal (14 January 1821 in Kassel – 17 February 1877 in Vienna) was a writer, dramatist, and poet of German-Jewish descent who spent much of his life in Austria. He was also known for his opera libretti. His name is also ...

which was based on

's play of the same title. It was made by the state-owned DEFA studio on a large budget.

Reception

The film was highly successful by East German standards, and drew 6,090,329 viewers to the cinemas. Ernst Richter noted that while "the socially critical tone was unmistakably present in the film", it was free of "heavy-handed communist propaganda." Heinz Kersten characterized it as one of the last apolitical entertainment pictures produced by DEFA before the

Socialist Unity Party of Germany The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (german: Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, ; SED, ), often known in English as the East German Communist Party, was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (GDR; East German ...

tightened its control on the national film industry. Albert Wilkening wrote it was "a significant step forward in making movies in the GDR... Wildhagen's directing was quite skillful."Wilkening. p. 165.

References

Bibliography

*Sabine Hake, John Davidson (editors). ''Framing the Fifties: Cinema in a Divided Germany''. Berghahn Books (2007). . *Ernst Richert. ''Agitation und Propaganda : das System der publizistischen Massenführung in der Sowjetzone''. Institut für politische Wissenschaft (1958). OCLC 185953805. *Heinz Kersten. ''Das Filmwesen in der Sowjetischen Besatzungszone Deutschlands''. Bundesministerium für Gesamtdeutsche Fragen (1963). ASIN B0000BK48Q. *Albert Wilkening. ''Film''. VEB Bibliographisches Institut (1966). OCLC 7216389.

External links

* *
Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor
' on DEFA Sternstunden. {{DEFAULTSORT:Merry Wives of Windsor 1950 films Films set in Windsor, Berkshire 1950s historical musical films German historical musical films East German films 1950s German-language films Films directed by Georg Wildhagen Films based on operas Films based on The Merry Wives of Windsor Films set in England German films based on plays Opera films German black-and-white films 1950s German films