Habsburgs Go Hollywood
Film and Discussion Series
Monday | November 10 - Thursday | November 13 | 2008
Imagine Johann Strauss tweaking Emperor Franz Joseph's nose or the same emperor a spokesperson for the revolution. Or how about Franz Joseph comparing the Austrians to snails who would be lost outside their castles and the mutton-chopped ruler playing match-maker?
The series Habsburgs Go Hollywood presents a unique opportunity to trace the celluloid footsteps of Austria's penultimate emperor in films dating from 1928 to 1948. By focusing on Hollywood versions of Austria's imperial past, the Austrian Cultural Forum looks beyond Robert Wise's The Sound of Music to examine films that shaped American perceptions of Austria in the first half of the twentieth century.
Although Emperor Franz Joseph was never in Hollywood, his screen counterpart was well known to the American film-going public. In Josef von Sternberg's musical The King Steps Out (1936) about the legendary meeting and subsequent marriage of Bavarian princess Elisabeth and the emperor, the young emperor is a prisoner of court rules and regulations. In Julien Duvivier's The Great Waltz (1938), a Johann Strauss biopic, he appears as both a preserver of order and a revolutionary leader. In contrast, the older Franz Joseph, who makes his screen appearance in films as varied as Erich von Stroheim's The Wedding March (1928), Edwin L. Marin's Florian (1940), and Billy Wilder's The Emperor Waltz (1948), is a benevolent, fatherly figure. In contrast to the members of his court who are often the epitome of decadence, the long-time ruler is ruled by duty, convention, the desire for peace, and loyalty to his people. While the films provide scanty historical information about the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, they point to the symbolic value the empire assumed for viewers in the United States.
In the twenties and thirties, during Austria's zenith in Hollywood, the otherness of Austria, particularly its aristocracy, provided the possibility of myriad scenarios unavailable in an "American" repertoire. In the continental, i.e. racy, stories, filmmakers explored sexual relationships deemed un-American. In the thirties and forties, stories set in an imperial Austria served in surprising ways as commentary on the political situation in Europe and on the rise of National Socialism in Austria and Germany in particular.
MONDAY NOVEMBER 10
6 PM PANEL DISCUSSION
HABSBURGS GO HOLLYWOOD
moderated by Fatima Naqvi, Rutgers University. With Jacqueline Vansant, University of Michigan-Dearborn, Peter Dusek, ORF, and Richard Koszarski, Rutgers University.
8 PM FILM SCREENING
THE WEDDING MARCH
BY ERICH VON STROHEIM (1928)
With elaborate sets, Stroheim transports his viewers to a pre-World War I Vienna, where he, Fay Wray, and Zazu Pitts star in the drama of love set in a society ruled by strict class differences. The film includes a famous color sequence of the Corpus Christi ceremony at St. Stephen's Cathedral.
TUESDAY NOVEMBER 11
6 PM FILM SCREENING
THE GREAT WALTZ BY JULIEN DUVIVIER (1938)
Exiled Austrian Walter Reisch, along with Samuel Hoffentstein, wrote the screenplay for this luscious biopic of Johann Strauss, Jr., which won an Oscar for cinematography. The musical fiction follows the composer's rise to fame, his marriage to Poldi (Luise Rainer), a baker's daughter, his involvement in the revolution, his brief love affair with the opera singer Carla Donner (Miliza Korjus), and his legendary meeting with Emperor Franz Joseph (Henry Hull) at Schönbrunn at the end of his career. Although set in the 19th century, the contemporary events in Europe at the time of the filming nonetheless play a role in the portrayal of Austria and the Waltz King.
8 PM FILM SCREENING
THE EMPEROR WALTZ BY BILLY WILDER (1948)
In this musical spoof of Hollywood's view of Austria, Wilder inserts a very serious message. The American Phonograph salesman Virgil Smith (Bing Crosby) tries to sell his wares to the Emperor (Richard Haydn). At court, his mongrel dog Buttons scraps with the purebred poodle of the Countess Johanna Franziska von Stolzenberg-Stolzenberg (Joan Fontaine). The ensuing antipathy and subsequent romance between the dogs and the parallel relationship between the owners is predictable. However, cloaked in a comedy about dog breeding and class distinctions in imperial Austria, the filmmaker draws attention to Austria's complicity in the then-recent genocide of European Jewry.
WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 12
PRESENTATION by Peter Dusek
Austrian film-composers in Hollywood:
Max Steiner, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Fritz Jurmann, and Robert Stolz
Hollywood was once very much influenced by Austrian composers. The soundtracks of famous movies like Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, The Adventures of Robin Hood, and San Francisco were all written by composers from the Habsburg Empire. Max Steiner worked in Los Angeles since the late 1920s, initially composing for silent films. He became one of Hollywood's most successful musicians, followed by Korngold and Jurmann in the 1930s and Stolz in the 1940s. In his presentation, Peter Dusek will uncover the hidden connection between Austria and Hollywood.
(Multimedia lecture)
8 PM FILM SCREENING
REUNION IN VIENNA BY SIDNEY FRANKLIN (1933)
The film of Robert Sherwood's successful Broadway play offers a humorous look at post-World War I Austria. Elena Krug (Diana Wynyard), former lover of a deposed archduke (John Barrymore), finds herself pulled between her life with her psychiatrist husband (Frank Morgan) and her former life at court when the a reunion of the old crowd is planned. The former archduke, who is now working as a taxi cab driver, must sneak into Austria to avoid arrest. Insulted by Barrymore's flamboyant portrayal of the fictional archduke, Austrian diplomats called for a boycott of MGM.
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 13
6 PM FILM SCREENING
THE KINGS STEPS OUT BY JOSEF VON STERNBERG (1936)
The film, made long before the German-language Sissy trilogy in the fifties, chronicles the romance of the boisterous Princess Elisabeth (Grace Moore) and the young Emperor Franz Joseph (Franchot Tone). Through song and dance, the audience is treated to the storybook romance.
