Husbands or Lovers
About Husbands or Lovers
Nju (Elisabeth Bergner) is married to a rich businessman (Emil Jannings) who adores her and treats her as a pretty possession. She falls in love with a poet (Conrad Veidt) who courts her as the man who understands her, stays in her husband's house, and spends every free hour with the poet. When the husband tries to kill the poet, she leaves and takes a room in a boarding house. The poet soon finds her a burden. By the time he walks out, her husband has already taken another woman.
Cast & crew
More about Husbands or Lovers
Paul Czinner directed and wrote the script from Osip Dymov's play Nju. Elisabeth Bergner and Czinner produced. Dewesti-Verleih distributed it. Axel Graatkjær and Reimar Kuntze photographed it. Bohumil Hes and Paul Rieth designed the sets. Bruno Schulz wrote music used at the Alhambra premiere. Shot in Berlin. Censors passed it on August 20, 1924, with a youth ban (B.08865). The censorship print was six acts and 2,227 meters. The premiere was November 22, 1924, at the Alhambra in Berlin. Wikidata's listed running time is 56 minutes. The German title is Nju - Eine unverstandene Frau. In Austria it was called Einmal kommt der Tag.
Themes
In film history
Bergner's first film role, opposite Jannings and Veidt, in a triangle drawn from Dymov's play.
Making
Czinner cast the three leads and shot them at Staaken and at the EFA studios, with Hes and Rieth's sets standing in for the rich household and the boarding house. Schulz's music was played at the Alhambra opening.
Reviews
Dr. K. M., in Lichtbild-Bühne on November 22, 1924, called the story an everyday adultery treated so that the film rose above other pictures on the same theme, and wrote that Bergner, on screen for the first time, held the eye from the first scene to the last.
Look
Axel Graatkjær and Reimar Kuntze shot the film at the Staaken and EFA studios in Berlin.
Music
Bruno Schulz composed music for the picture, performed at the Alhambra in Berlin for the November 22, 1924 premiere. The film itself is silent, with German intertitles.
Preservation
filmportal.de records the original version as preserved, with master material available. The youth ban of August 20, 1924, is on the censorship card.
Notes
- It is Elisabeth Bergner's first film. She was already a stage star, including with Max Reinhardt's company in Berlin.
- Nils Edwall plays the child. Maria Bard plays the nanny. Margarete Kupfer, Grete Lundt, Aenne Röttgen, Maria Forescu, Karl Platen, Walter Werner, Max Kronert, and Fritz Ley are also credited.
- The husband is billed only as Ehemann, the poet only as the lover, a poet.
- Lichtbild-Bühne reviewed it on the premiere date, November 22, 1924.
- filmportal.de lists master material of the original version as preserved.
Scenes
- Nju keeps living with her husband and spends every free hour with the poet.
- The husband tries to murder the poet, and Nju moves to a boarding house.
- The poet leaves her, and she learns that her husband has already found someone else.
Influenced by
- Nju (Osip Dymov play)