''A Man Astray'' (German: ''Ein Mann auf Abwegen'') is a 1940 German

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term ori ...

adventure film An adventure film is a form of adventure fiction, and is a genre of film. Subgenres of adventure films include swashbuckler films, pirate films, and survival films. Adventure films may also be combined with other film genres such as action, a ...

directed by

Herbert Selpin Herbert Selpin (29 May 1904 – 1 August 1942) was a German film director and screenwriter of light entertainment during the 1930s and 1940s. He is best known for his final film, the partly suppressed ''Titanic'', during the production of which h ...

and starring

Hans Albers Hans Philipp August Albers (22 September 1891 – 24 July 1960) was a German actor and singer. He was the biggest male movie star in Germany between 1930 and 1960 and one of the most popular German actors of the twentieth century. Early life ...

, Charlotte Thiele and Hilde Weissner.Hull p.222 The film is an adaptation of the 1938 novel ''Percy auf Abwegen'' by Hans Zehrer. It was shot at the Halensee Studios in

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

and the

Bavaria Studios Bavaria Studios are film production studios located in Munich, the capital of the region of Bavaria in Germany, and a subsidiary of Bavaria Film. History The studios were constructed in the suburb of Geiselgasteig in 1919 shortly after the Fi ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

Location shooting Location shooting is the shooting of a film or television production in a real-world setting rather than a sound stage or backlot. The location may be interior or exterior. The filming location may be the same in which the story is set (for e ...

took place around

Lake Starnberg Lake Starnberg, or ''Starnberger See'' ) — called Lake Würm, or ''Würmsee'' , until 1962 — is Germany's second-largest body of fresh water, having great depth, and fifth-largest lake by area. It and its surroundings lie in three different Ba ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...

. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Paul Markwitz and

Fritz Maurischat Fritz Maurischat (April 27, 1893 in Berlin – December 11, 1986) was a German production designer. He made his film debut in 1924. Over the next 38 years, he worked on over 70 films, all of them in his native Germany. He earned an Oscar nominati ...

. A financial success, it was produced and distributed by

Tobis Film Tobis Film was a German film production and film distribution company. Founded in the late 1920s as a merger of several companies involved in the switch from silent to sound films, the organisation emerged as a leading German sound studio. Tobis ...

, one of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

's leading film companies.

Synopsis

Percival Pattersson, a wealthy Swedish

industrialist A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...

disappears one morning without warning, and police suspect a crime. However his daughter Ingrid and a

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

both suspect he has deliberately vanished and set out to track him down. Pattersson has in fact been laying low incognito but when his daughter approaches, he flees to

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situ ...

posing as the

chauffeur A chauffeur is a person employed to drive a passenger motor vehicle, especially a luxury vehicle such as a large sedan or limousine. Originally, such drivers were often personal employees of the vehicle owner, but this has changed to specia ...

of the singer Lisaweta who he has fallen in love with.

Cast

as Percival Pattersson * Charlotte Thiele as Ingrid Pattersson * Hilde Weissner as Lisaweta Iwanowna *

Gustav Waldau Gustav Waldau (27 February 1871 – 25 May 1958) was a German actor. He appeared in more than 100 films between 1915 and 1955. Selected filmography * '' The Gentleman Without a Residence'' (1915) * '' In Thrall to the Claw'' (1921) * '' Th ...

as Raymondo Duvallo * Hilde Sessak as Marcella Duvallo *

Werner Fuetterer Werner Fuetterer (10 January 1907 in Barth, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern – 7 February 1991 in Benidorm, Province of Alicante, Spain) was a German film actor. He appeared in nearly 100 films between 1925 and 1967. In his early film career, Fuetterer o ...

as Nils Nilsen * Peter Voß as Sully *

Herbert Hübner Herbert Hübner (6 February 1889 – 27 January 1972) was a German stage and film actor. He appeared in more than 150 films between 1921 and 1966. He was born in Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland) and died in Munich, Germany. Selected fil ...

as Meyers * Werner Scharf as Strakosch, Lisawetas Sekretär *

Gerhard Dammann Gerhard Dammann (30 March 1883 – 21 February 1946) was a German film actor. Selected filmography * ''The Man in the Cellar'' (1914) * '' Under the Lantern'' (1928) * '' Eva in Silk'' (1928) * '' Lemke's Widow'' (1928) * '' When the Mother and ...

as Der Wirt in der Taverne * Charly Berger as Ein Direktionsmitglieder des Patterson-Konzerns * Fritz Draeger as Ein Tänzer in der Bar *

Angelo Ferrari Angelo Ferrari (14 August 1897 – 15 June 1945) was an Italian actor known for his work in German cinema. Selected filmography * '' The Nude Woman'' (1922) * '' The Green Manuela'' (1923) * '' Samson'' (1923) * '' The Faces of Love'' (1924) * ...

as Der italienische Chauffeur *

Harry Hardt Harry Hardt (born Hermann Karl Viktor Klimbacher Edler von Reichswahr, Pula, 4 August 1899 – Vienna, 14 November 1980) was an Austrian actor. The son of a military officer, he initially planned a military career for himself, studying at a mili ...

as Empfangschef im Kasino-Restaurant * Fritz Hinz-Fabricius as Archibald, Patterssons Diener * Heinz Förster-Ludwig as Der Chauffeur bei Percy Pattersson * Christa Dilthey as Die Sekretärin Nils Nilsens * Alfred Karen as Ein Direktionsmitglied des Patterson-Konzerns * Karl Junge-Swinburne as Der Schneidermeister der Chauffeuruniform * Egon Stief as Ein Gast am Eingang der Taverne * Theodor Thony as Ein Völkerbundabgeordneter * Gustl Kreusch as Renée, Köchin *

Arthur Reinhardt Arthur Reinhardt (17 April 1893 – 16 December 1973) was a German actor. Kay Weniger: ''Das große Personenlexikon des Films'', Bd. 6., N - R : Mary Nolan - Meg Ryan, Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf Verlag, Berlin 2001, He appeared in more than sixty ...

as Ein Polizist * Manfred Meurer as Der geohrfeigte Mitarbeiter Nils Nilsens * Werner Schott as Carlsson, Patterssons Sekretär * Friedrich Ulmer as Der Kommissar *

Aruth Wartan Aruth Wartan (or ''Haruth Vartan'', hy, Հարութ Վարդան, 23 June 1880 – 14 April 1945) was a German film actor of Armenian origin who appeared in around ninety films during his career, generally in supporting roles. Life and career ...

as Manula, der Chefkoch im Kasinorestaurant

References

Bibliography

* Giesen, Rolf. ''The Nosferatu Story: The Seminal Horror Film, Its Predecessors and Its Enduring Legacy''. McFarland, 2019. *Hull, David Stewart. ''Film in the Third Reich: Art and Propaganda in Nazi Germany'', Simon & Schuster, 1973. * Rentschler, Eric. ''The Ministry of Illusion: Nazi Cinema and Its Afterlife''. Harvard University Press, 1996.

External links

* 1940 films Films of Nazi Germany German adventure films 1940s adventure films 1940s German-language films Films directed by Herbert Selpin Tobis Film films 1940s German films Films based on German novels Films shot at Halensee Studios Films shot at Bavaria Studios Films shot in Bavaria Films set in Geneva {{1940s-Germany-film-stub