''The Burning Secret'' () is a 1933 Austrian-German

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. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Robert Siodmak Robert Siodmak (; 8 August 1900 – 10 March 1973) was a German Jewish film director. His career spanned some 40 years, working extensively in the United States and France, as well as in his native country. Though he worked in many genres, he was ...

and starring

Alfred Abel Alfred Peter Abel (12 March 1879 – 12 December 1937) was a German film actor, director, and producer. He appeared in more than 140 silent and sound films between 1913 and 1938. His best-known performance was as Joh Fredersen in Fritz Lang' ...

Hilde Wagener Hilde Wagener (26 September 1904 – 26 December 1992) was a German-born actress who settled in Austria. Primarily a stage actress, she also appeared in several films, such as ''The Burning Secret'' (1933), generally in supporting roles.Goble p.519 ...

and

Hans Joachim Schaufuß Hans Joachim Schaufuß (transliterated: Schaufuss) (28 December 1918 – 27 October 1941) was a German actor. Schaufuß began as a child actor, appearing in ''Emil and the Detectives'' (1931) and ''The White Demon'' (1932). From the mid-1930s he b ...

. It was based on the 1913 novella of the same title by

Stefan Zweig Stefan Zweig ( ; ; 28 November 1881 – 22 February 1942) was an Austrian writer. At the height of his literary career, in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most widely translated and popular writers in the world. Zweig was raised in V ...

. It was released by the German branch of

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

. It was shot at the

EFA Studios The EFA Studios or Halensee Studios were film studios located in the Berlin suburb of Halensee. They were a prominent centre of film production in the silent and early sound era. Constructed in 1919 after the First World War, they were part of a ...

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 ...

and on location around

Ascona 300px, Ascona Ascona ( ) is a municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. It is located on the shore of Lake Maggiore. The town is a popular tourist destination and holds the yearly Ascona Jazz Festival. ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

Robert A. Dietrich Robert A. Dietrich (28 March 1889 – 8 September 1947) was a German art director.Scheunemann p.277 He designed the sets for more than a hundred films during his career. Selected filmography * ''The Student of Prague (1913 film), The Student of P ...

. Because of its theme of

adultery Adultery is extramarital sex that is considered objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds. Although the sexual activities that constitute adultery vary, as well as the social, religious, and legal consequences, the concept ...

, the film was attacked by

Joseph Goebbels Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and philologist who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief Propaganda in Nazi Germany, propagandist for the Nazi Party, and ...

, the Nazi Propaganda Minister.Reimer & Reimer p. 275

Cast

as Der Mann *

as Die Frau *

as Edgar *

Lucie Höflich Lucie Höflich (born Helene Lucie von Holwede; 20 February 1883 – 9 October 1956) was a German actress, teacher and head of the Staatliche Schauspielschule (State Drama School) in Berlin.

as Mutter der Frau *

Willi Forst Willi Forst, born Wilhelm Anton Frohs (7 April 1903 – 11 August 1980) was an Austrian actor, screenwriter, film director, film producer and singer. As a debonair actor he was a darling of the German language, German-speaking film audiences, as ...

as Herr von Haller, Rennfahrer *

Ernst Dumcke Ernst Dumcke (13 November 1887 – 21 June 1940) was a German film actor. Ernst Dumcke was married to the actress Traute Carlsen from 1913 to 1915. In 1932 he married the Jewish woman Lise-Lotte Koopmann. Landesarchiv Berlin, Heiratsregister Stand ...

as Baron Tosse *

Alfred Beierle Alfred Beierle (4 June 1885 – 16 March 1950) was a German stage actor, stage and film actor.Alpi p.346 Selected filmography * ''The League of Three'' (1929) * ''The Flute Concert of Sanssouci'' (1930) * ''The Tiger Murder Case'' (1930) * ''Oh T ...

as Müller, Hoteldetektiv * Hans Richter as Fritz, Page *

Rina Marsa Rina Marsa (1904–?) was a Russian-born actress. She appeared in a number of German and Austrian films during the late 1920s and early 1930s in a mixture of lead and supporting roles. She was briefly married to Emilio Genís Varela, a Spanish Ban ...

as Fräulein de la Roche *

Heinz Berghaus The Kraft Heinz Foods Company, formerly the H. J. Heinz Company and commonly known as Heinz (), is an American food processing company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded by Henry J. Heinz in 1869 ...

as Hotelportier *

Lotte Stein Lotte Stein (1894–1982) was a German actress of the stage and screen. Of Jewish descent, she fled to the United States via Czechoslovakia and Portugal, and arrived at the Port of New York on board the SS ''Mouzinho'' in June 1941. Selected fi ...

as Frau Klappholz

Production

''The Burning Secret'' was the last film

, who was Jewish, directed before the Nazi seizure of power. The film was based on the story by

that was previously adapted as a

silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

. The cinematography was done by

Richard Angst Richard Angst (23 July 1905 – 24 July 1984) was a Swiss cinematographer who worked on more than ninety films during his career, most of them in Germany. Angst emerged as a leading photographer of mountain films during the silent era. He often w ...

Release

The film was released in Berlin on 29 March 1933, but was shown without the credits for director, composer, lyricist, and original author.

attacked Siodmak as a "corrupter of the German family" in ''

Völkischer Beobachter The ''Völkischer Beobachter'' (; "'' Völkisch'' Observer") was the newspaper of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) from 25 December 1920. It first appeared weekly, then daily from 8 February 1923. For twenty-four years it formed part of the official pub ...

''. Siodmak and his brother later left Germany for France and then the United States.

References

Works cited

Bibliography

* Alpi, Deborah Lazaroff. ''Robert Siodmak: A Biography, with Critical Analyses of His Films Noirs and a Filmography of All His Works''. McFarland, 1998. * Hake, Sabine. ''Popular Cinema of the Third Reich''. University of Texas Press, 2001. * Klaus, Ulrich J. ''Deutsche Tonfilme: Jahrgang 1933''. Klaus-Archiv, 1988. * Reimer, Robert C. & Reimer, Carol J. ''The A to Z of German Cinema''. Scarecrow Press, 2010.

External links

* 1933 films 1933 drama films Austrian drama films German drama films Films of the Weimar Republic 1930s German-language films Films directed by Robert Siodmak Films based on short fiction Films based on works by Stefan Zweig Remakes of German films Sound film remakes of silent films Films set in hotels Films about adultery Universal Pictures films German black-and-white films Austrian black-and-white films 1930s German films Films shot at Halensee Studios Films shot in Switzerland German-language drama films {{1930s-Germany-film-stub