''Shoulder Arms'' (German: ''Das Gewehr über'') is a 1939 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 Jürgen von Alten and starring F.W. Schröder-Schrom, Rolf Moebius and Rudi Godden. It was based on a novel by Wolfgang Marken. The film's German title refers to a word of command in the German drill book. A German emigrant to Australia becomes concerned that his son has been too strongly influenced by the democratic, permissive attitudes of the country and decides to send him back to Germany for military service. While his son at first resents and resists his new lifestyle, he is eventually converted to the cause of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

.Richards p.325 The film was made as a piece of propaganda to support the policies of the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

regime. It was one of a growing number of films of the late 1930s that were disparaging of life in the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

on the eve of the Second World War.

Plot

Cast

* F.W. Schröder-Schrom Hartwig sen. * Rolf Möbius as Paul Hartwig * Rudi Godden as Gestütaufseher Charlie Kühne * Carsta Löck as Lotte * Hilde Schneider as Hühnerfarmbesitzerin Trude Schmidt * Wolfgang Staudte as Unteroffizier Schmidt *

Georg H. Schnell Georg Heinrich Schnell (11 April 1878 – 31 March 1951) was a German actor who remains perhaps best-known for his role as shipowner Harding in ''Nosferatu, Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens'' (1922). Georg appeared in over one hundred fi ...

as Großkaufmann Thomson * Charlott Daudert as Evelyne Thomson * Leopold von Ledebur as General A. D. Henning * Wilhelm Althaus as Hauptmann Wehnert * Ernst Bader as Leutnant Stolle * Walter Bechmann as Sekretär Schmitz * Horst Birr as Schütze Jupp Derksen * Adolf Fischer as Unteroffizier Schmidt * Walter Gross as Reporter des 'Blankenheimer Tageblatt' * Hans Jöckel as Schütze Hermann Lutz * Hans Reinhard Knitsch as Gefreiter Hellermann * Franz Kossak as Oberfeldwebel Grosse * Viktor Carter * Bernhard Caspar * Gerdi Gerdt * Käthe Jöken-König * Erwin Laurenz * Trude Lehmann * Benno Mueller * Hellmuth Passarge * Klaus Pohl * Martin Rickelt * Bert Schmidt-Maris * Hans Schneider * Waldemar Tenscher * Georg Völkel * Herbert Asmis * Heinz Berghaus

Production

''Shoulder Arms'' was directed by Jürgen von Alten and produced by Germania-Film.

Release

It was banned from being shown in Germany by the

Allied High Commission The Allied High Commission (also known as the High Commission for Occupied Germany, HICOG; in German ''Alliierte Hohe Kommission'', ''AHK'') was established by the United States, the United Kingdom, and France after the 1948 breakdown of the Alli ...

after

World War II 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 ...

References

Works cited

External links

*
''Shoulder Arms'' at AllMovie
1939 films German comedy-drama films 1939 comedy-drama films 1930s German-language films Films directed by Jürgen von Alten Films set in Australia Films set in Germany Films based on German novels German black-and-white films 1930s German films Nazi propaganda films Films scored by Hanson Milde-Meissner {{1930s-Germany-comedy-film-stub