Artisten (aka ''Harry Piel's 100. film'' or ''Prince of the arena'') is a German circus movie from 1934 to 1935 starring Susi Lanner, Hans Junkermann, Hilde Hildebrand and

Harry Piel Heinrich Piel (12 July 1892 – 27 March 1963), known professionally as Harry Piel, was a prolific German actor, film director, screenwriter, and film producer who was involved in over 150 films. Piel became a director in 1912, turning out suc ...

, who also acted as director. The screenplay was written by Max W. Kimmich after the silent movie ''The secret of the circus Barré''.

Plot

The famous artist Harry Peters is working on his new vaudeville act at the "Tivoli" music hall. He is assisted by Hella Stoll, who is his foster daughter since her parents, friends of Harry, died years ago. At the premiere of his new act, Harry surprisingly meets his old friend Franz Hofer from Vienna, an agent who also knew Hella as a child. He recognizes immediately that the little girl from the past has turned into a pretty young lady who is deeply in love with her foster father. Harry himself seems to be quite unaware of that. Instead, he finds himself stalked by beautiful Vera Leander, who follows him everywhere. After much hesitation, Harry is so trapped by her that he not only disregards his job, but also neglects Hella. But after a nearly fatal accident during a dangerous showact, he comes to his senses again and wants to return to Hella. When he recognizes that she has disappeared from the music hall, he suspects she has run away with a magician called Morelli. Furiously, he starts looking for them. He finally finds Morelli backstage, just dyeing his hair. To Harry's surprise, the magician turns out to be a certain Baraloff, the business manager of circus Stoll, the travelling circus that belonged to Hella's parents. He had at that time run away after stealing all the money, and the following alarums and excursions had finally led to the fatal accident of Hella's parents. Now he can be arrested at last. Harry hands him over to the police and goes on looking for his foster daughter. Finally, he finds her at Hofer's flat, where they talk things out and in the end become a couple.

Shooting

The film was produced within three weeks, from 7 December 1934 to the end of the month, by Berlin film company ''Ariel''. Most interiors were shot at the company's studios in Berlin-Johannisthal, while the location shots were produced in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. In Dresden, Harry Peel had rented the giant building of the former circus

Sarrasani Sarrasani is a German circus that reached world fame before World War II and was resident in Dresden, but also became known as the national circus of Argentina during the years of German separation. Sarrasani was founded by ''Hans Stosch'', a c ...

. Parts of the scenes shot there were filmed publicly, and drew a big audience. The money that was collected this way was given to the

Winterhilfswerk The ''Winterhilfswerk des Deutschen Volkes'' (), commonly known by its abbreviated form ''Winterhilfswerk'' (WHW), was an annual donation drive by the National Socialist People's Welfare (, or ''NSV''). Established in 1933, the WHW was a maj ...

. Later on, the shooting was completed at Circus Busch in Berlin. The final movie passed censorship on 1 March 1935 and made its debut on 12 March. It was rated ''"artistically valuable"'' by film censors of the propaganda ministry. In 1963, it was shown on DFF, the TV broadcaster of the

German Democratic Republic East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

. Nine years later, in 1972, another TV version was broadcast by the West German ZDF.

Sources

Klaus, Ulrich J.: German sound films. Encyclopedia of the full-length German speaking feature films, sorted by their first showings. / Ulrich J. Klaus. - Berlin t al. Klaus-archive, 1935

External links

*{{IMDb title, id=0026083, title=Artisten 1935 films 1935 adventure films 1935 romantic drama films 1930s adventure drama films 1930s German films 1930s German-language films Circus films Films directed by Harry Piel Films of Nazi Germany Films scored by Fritz Wenneis German adventure drama films German black-and-white films German romantic drama films German-language adventure drama films German-language romantic drama films