Change Your Image
MauriceDeSaxe
Reviews
Franziska (1957)
Good, but dated show
If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. That, at the very last, is the warning that the ads should have given to customers as they made their way to this 40-carat weepie. Generous supplies of paper handkerchiefs should also have been freely available.
Carlos Thompson starred as a hard-boiled ace reporter, Ruth Leuwerik was his attractive wife. Their workaday trials and tribulations formed the undemanding content of the sentimental screenplay. En route to the altogether deserved happy-ending, the narrative involved a colourful collection of miscellaneous characters and often touching situations. Fortunately the two star's innate skill combined with a restrained tasteful direction to prevent what could so easily been a mawkish and maudlin wallow.
Die Trapp-Familie in Amerika (1958)
Neither bad nor good, but surely above average
It came as no surprise to anyone that all involved should choose to follow 'Die Trapp Familie', one of the most successful German films of the 50's, with a sequel. The result was 'Die Trapp Familie in Amerika' and it literally began where the earlier film left off.
With Ruth Leuwerik reprising her formidable performance as Baronin von Trapp, the producers clearly hoped their subject's on-going story would help swell the studio's coffers once more - it did! Lavishly produced, director W. Liebeneiner turned every single one of the film's galloping clichés into gold. However, the red meat of the Trapp-saga had already been devoured by audiences in Part One - and all that was left second time around were scraps of plot. Spicing it up and helping to make the most of the least were the gorgeous gowns worn by Miss Leuwerik, who looked a treat!
Die Trapp-Familie (1956)
Huge money-making hit of yesteryears
Just when everybody thought that German post-war cinema was on the downward hill financially, along came this warm, often tender, sometimes touching, colorful hit of gargantuan proportions.
Produced on the lavish side, with Germany's top box-office attraction, regal Ruth Leuwerik in the lead, 'Die Trapp Familie' broke all records, second only to 'Schwarzwaldmaedel' as Germany's most popular Heimatfilm and easily became the biggest hit in Miss Leuwerik's chain of successes.
Largely forgotten today, the pic holds up quite well. The story is not too exciting, there's nothing that might offend blue-noses and all takes place against an pastoral background of green meadows and snow-capped mountains.
Ruth Leuwerik does what she can with the wafer-thin part and her warmth and natural beauty prevent the whole thing form being too syrupy.
Interesting sideline: while 'The Sound of Music', a lavish musical version of the same story, broke box-office records in 1965 all over the world, it flopped miserably in Germany and Austria, still faithful to 'Die Trapp Familie'.
Geliebtes Leben (1953)
Joy and Pain, Sunshine and Rain
Lovely and elegant Ruth Leuwerik is back in the crinoline again in this lavishly produced, sometimes moving story of a woman's ups and downs. Spanning the period from 1890 to 1947 the saga is a beautiful showcase for Miss Leuwerik's considerable talent and she makes the most of it. Critics praised her highly and an enthusiastic public made her the undisputed box-office queen of post-war German cinema.
Mostly cast in weepy melodramas opposite wooden and boring Dieter Borsche (Germany's answer to wooden and boring Georg Brent) and spending most of her few starring years in period costumes, Miss Leuwerik was at her subtle best when cast in snappy modern comedies. Just watch her in the delightful bit of fluff 'Warum muss man sich gleich scheiden lassen?' opposite handsome Hardy Krueger.
Rosen im Herbst (1955)
A poor man's 'Madame Bovary'
'Rosen I'm Herbst', even by 1955 standards, did not contain the freshest of material - in fact, it was hodge-podge of banalities, but it had the fresh, appealing and unique radiance of Ruth Leuwerik; a down-to-earth, human approach; a painstaking direction; a top-notch supporting cast and situations and dialogue that were often tender, touching and true. All involved managed to turn 'Rosen I'm Herbst' into a 1955 smash of major proportions. Critics and public alike praised Miss Leuwerik's fresh, if muted, beauty and her intelligence and radiance as Effie Briest, a woman trapped in a loveless marriage.
Handsomely produced with a lush score that considerably enhanced the sorrow-laden ambiance, 'Rosen I'm Herbst' proved just the ticket for millions of women, who had cultivated an addiction to watching Ruth Leuwerik suffer in that glamorous style for which she had become noted.
Miss Leuwerik, one of Germany's most ladylike heroines in the 50's, was a handsome woman, whose aristocratic beauty graced many such drama. She was also an excellent actress with a stage-trained voice whose timbre enhanced her pictorial image.
Vater braucht eine Frau (1952)
Good-natured fun
Dire prospects had been indicated by the casting of bland Dieter Borsche in one of those find-Dad-a-wife stories. So the warmth of this on surprised critics and delighted audiences. Borsche suddenly acquired a talent for light comedy, the supporting players displayed charming talent and, above all, Borsche and his leading lady Ruth Leuwerik, blended well.
Indeed, their first installment together zoomed into the box-office stratosphere and helped to establish Leuwerik-Borsche as a team of durable value at the box-office.
This was only Miss Leuwerik's second film but she was already well on her way to the top-echelon of stardom. Though her starring years were few and included not classic, this beautiful charmer had a gift for projecting emotional force with minimum visible effort.