''Circus Renz'' () is a 1943 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

Arthur Maria Rabenalt Arthur Maria Rabenalt (25 June 1905 – 26 February 1993) was an Austrian film director, writer, and author. He directed more than 90 films between 1934 and 1978. His 1958 film ''That Won't Keep a Sailor Down'' was entered into the 1st Moscow In ...

and starring

René Deltgen Renatus Heinrich Deltgen (30 April 1909 in Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg – 29 January 1979 in Cologne, West Germany) was a Luxembourgish stage and film actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who port ...

, Paul Klinger and Angelika Hauff. It is a

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicy ...

film, made as a deliberately escapist release at a time when the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

was starting to turn against Germany and its allies. The film takes its title from the real Circus Renz and is loosely based on the career of its founder Ernst Renz. It premiered at

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 ...

's UFA-Palast am Zoo in September 1943. It was a major commercial success. It was made partly at the

Babelsberg Studios Babelsberg Film Studio () (also known as Studio Babelsberg), located in Potsdam-Babelsberg outside Berlin, Germany, is the oldest large-scale film studio in the world, producing films since 1912. With a total area of about and a studio area of a ...

. 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 ...

Ernst H. Albrecht.

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. When filmmaking professionals refer to shooting "on location", they are ...

took place around Breslau in

Silesia Silesia (see names #Etymology, below) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at 8, ...

Cast

as Ernst Renz * Paul Klinger as Harms * Angelika Hauff as Bettina Althoff * Alice Treff as Frau von Grunau * Fritz Odemar as Herr von Grunau * Herbert Hübner as Circus Master Déjean * Willi Rose as Schwenz * Ernst Waldow as Polizeirat Bastian * Werner Pledath as The King *

Rudolf Schündler Rudolf Ernst Paul Schündler (17 April 1906, in Leipzig – 12 December 1988, in Munich) was a German actor and director. He played "Karl" in ''The Exorcist'' (1973). After finishing the film ''The Nasty Girl'', Schündler died of a heart attac ...

as Litfaß *

Gunnar Möller Gunnar Möller (1 July 1928 – 16 May 2017) was a German television actor, television and film actor. He appeared in over 160 film and television productions between 1940 and 2016. He was most successful as a leading man in German cinema of the 1 ...

as Willi, baker's boy * Charlotte Schultz as Gräfin Ziegenreuth * Lotte Spira as Frau Bastian * Gerhard Dammann as Konstabler Klemke * Adolf Fischer as Artist * Walter Steinweg as Artist * Hildegard Grethe as Gräfin Geiersberg * Kurt Hagen as Dostler, Kammerherr * Hanns Waschatko as Adjutant * Eduard Wenck as Torschreiber * Klaus Pohl as Stefan - Bärenführer * Hermann Pfeiffer as Schwiemel

References

Bibliography

* Bock, Hans-Michael & Bergfelder, Tim. ''The Concise CineGraph. Encyclopedia of German Cinema''. Berghahn Books, 2009. * Moeller, Felix. ''The Film Minister: Goebbels and the Cinema in the Third Reich''. Edition Axel Menges, 2000.

External links

* 1940s historical drama films German historical drama films Films of Nazi Germany Films directed by Arthur Maria Rabenalt Circus films Films set in the 1840s Films set in the 1850s German black-and-white films Terra Film films 1940s German-language films Films shot at Babelsberg Studios Films set in Berlin 1940s German films German-language historical drama films {{1940s-Germany-film-stub