The Wildcat
About The Wildcat
Lieutenant Alexis, sent to the snowbound fort of Tossenstein as punishment, leaves a crowd of former lovers and children who call him father. On the sleigh road Rischka, daughter of the bandit Claudius, ambushes him, makes him strip off the uniform, and lets him go in his underwear after he kisses her hand. At the fort the commandant thinks a later raid was a victory and gives Alexis his daughter Lilli. Rischka crashes the party, kisses Alexis, and is locked up until Lilli lets her out. Claudius chains Rischka to the shy thief Pepo. She goes back to Alexis, sees Lilli in tears, behaves so badly that Alexis is disgusted, and returns to Pepo.
Cast & crew
More about The Wildcat
Ernst Lubitsch and Hanns Kräly wrote it. Lubitsch directed. Paul Davidson produced for PAGU. UFA distributed. Theodor Sparkuhl photographed. Ernst Stern designed the costumes and, with Max Gronau, the sets. Shooting began in January 1921 at Tempelhof, with exteriors on the Kreuzeck. The censor card of 9 April 1921, B.01837, carried a youth ban. The premiere was 12 April 1921 at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Berlin. The subtitle is A Grotesque in Four Acts.
Themes
Making
The fort is a studio build at Tempelhof. The snowball, the sleigh, and the bandit wedding in the snow were shot on the Kreuzeck above Garmisch.
Reviews
Film-Kurier said the film's value, if it had any, was that it distracted instead of provoking thought. Fritz Podehl, in Der Film, doubted that calling it a grotesque was the right word.
Look
Theodor Sparkuhl shot the Tempelhof fort and the Kreuzeck exteriors. The 2000 restoration put back intertitles taken from the censor's notes.
Music
Silent in 1921. Marco Dalpane wrote a score in 2000, performed by Ensemble Playground, for the restored print.
Preservation
The Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung restored the film in 2000 from an original negative, with intertitles rebuilt from censor notes. A digital version runs about 86 minutes. Arte showed the restoration on 19 October 2000.
Notes
- Pola Negri plays Rischka. Paul Heidemann is Alexis, Victor Janson the commandant, Edith Meller is Lilli, Wilhelm Diegelmann is Claudius, and Hermann Thimig is Pepo.
- The German title is Die Bergkatze.
- The original length on the books is 1,947 meters, timed at about 85 minutes at 20 frames per second. A later inspection print was 1,818 meters.
- Film-Kurier wrote that if the picture had any value, it was that it cleared the mind of thoughts rather than supplying them.
- A 2000 restoration reconstructed the intertitles from censor notes. Marco Dalpane's score, played by Ensemble Playground, was recorded that year.
Scenes
- Women and a troop of children who call Alexis father see him off to the fort.
- Rischka has him remove the uniform and lets him walk on in his underwear.
- She and the bandits put on stolen clothes and join the fort's victory party.
- Claudius chains her wrist to Pepo's at the wedding, and Pepo later unlocks her.
Also available
- Ernst Lubitsch Collection, six-disc set, Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung and Transit Film (2006)
- Kino Lorber, Lubitsch in Berlin box (2007)
- Eureka Masters of Cinema, Lubitsch in Berlin (2010)
