At the Edge of the World
About At the Edge of the World
A miller lives with his sons Johannes and Michael and his daughter Magda by a border that the opening globe says could be anywhere. A new journeyman, who is a spy, wants Magda and is refused. War starts. Enemy troops take the mill. Johannes is to be shot for resisting. Magda asks the enemy officer, who wants her, for his life, and will not trade herself for it. The spy, jealous because she returns the officer's feeling, betrays his own side. After the fight the mill is burned. The old man looks at the ruin and says, "Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do."
Cast & crew
More about At the Edge of the World
Karl Grune directed and wrote the script with Hans Brennert. Fritz Arno Wagner photographed it. Robert Neppach designed the sets. Shooting ran from January to March 1927 in the UFA studios. The six-act cut of 2,635 meters passed the censor on 30 April 1927 and was cleared for young viewers. After Alfred Hugenberg took control of UFA, the company ordered a recut. That version, 2,429 meters, passed on 18 August 1927. Grune tried to take his name off the credits and attacked the cuts in an open letter.
Themes
Background
UFA changed hands in March 1927, while this film was still in production. Hugenberg's board then had the anti-war picture shortened before release.
Making
The mill on the border was a studio set at Babelsberg, not a location on a real frontier. Grune's quarrel with UFA was public: he said the management had recut the film out from under him.
Look
Fritz Arno Wagner shot the Babelsberg mill and the battle that levels it. The film opens on a turning globe, then comes down to one family.
Music
Giuseppe Becce composed the score used at the premiere.
Preservation
A digital copy circulates under the Internet Archive identifier am-rande-der-welt_1928. The Murnau-Stiftung holds stills.
Notes
- Albert Steinrück plays the miller. Brigitte Helm plays Magda. Wilhelm Dieterle plays Johannes. Imre Ráday plays the second son, Michael.
- Camilla von Hollay plays Johannes's wife. Erwin Faber plays the journeyman spy. Max Schreck plays a peddler who is also a spy.
- Jean Bradin plays the enemy lieutenant and Victor Janson the enemy captain.
- Giuseppe Becce wrote the music played at the premiere.
- The German title is Am Rande der Welt.
Scenes
- The globe spins, and the story starts at a mill that is not pinned to a named country.
- Magda begs the enemy officer for Johannes and refuses his terms.
- The miller stands in front of the burned mill and asks forgiveness for the people who did it.
Also available
- Internet Archive (am-rande-der-welt_1928)
Quotes
Vergib ihnen, Herr, denn sie wissen nicht, was sie tun!
