Moon of Israel
Encyclopedia
The Moon of Israel is an Austrian
epic film
of 1924
.
It was directed
by Mihaly Kertész
(later Michael Curtiz). The script was written by Ladislaus Vajda
, based on H. Rider Haggard
's novel The Moon of Israel, which in its turn was inspired by the Biblical
story of the Exodus
.
It was this film that brought Kertész to the attention of the studio head Jack Warner
, who invited him to Hollywood in 1926, where he rapidly became Michael Curtiz and made a career with the Warner Studios
.
Shooting took place in Vienna
with about 5,000 extras, in the studios of Sascha-Film
, and outdoors on the Laaer Berg. The premiere was on 24 October 1924. The restored complete edition of the film, which was entirely lost for many years, was first shown on 26 February 2005 in the Wiener Metro Kino.
s are in slavery in Egypt
. At this difficult time the Jewish slave-girl Merapi falls in love with Prince Seti, son of the Pharaoh Menapta. This socially inappropriate love leads to numerous problems, which can nevertheless be resolved. At the end of the film Moses
leads his people through the Red Sea
and into freedom.
was being made, which also featured the parting of the Red Sea, the Viennese team took extraordinary care over this scene out of fear of superior American special effects technology. In the final version, thanks to subsequent trick editing, the gigantic wooden construction, designed to release 100 cubic metres of water from both sides at once, is unrecognisable. The water poured into a closed wooden trough 8 metres square and 1 metre deep on the Laaer Berg in Vienna. The walls of water to either side were modelled out of plaster, which looked completely realistic on black-and-white film. One single take could now depict both the parting and the closing of the sea: for the former the shot was simply spliced into the film in reverse.
The actors were filmed in the dry and overwhelmed by the "sea" later, during the editing. When, a few weeks after the Sklavenkönigin opened, the competing film was also in the cinemas, it came as a surprise that the parting of the Red Sea was considerably more realistic in the Austrian production. It was not only the Viennese critics who noted this: even Hollywood colleagues expressed their amazement that in this regard the Laaer Berg had outdone Hollywood.
The director of Sascha-Film, Arnold Pressburger, assisted the film director Michael Kertész as artistic director. The assistant director was Arthur Gottlein. The cameramen Max Nekut, Gustav Ucicky
and Hans Theyer were supported by Sascha Kolowrat-Krakowsky, the film's producer, as technical director.
The film is supposed to have cost 1.5 billion Kronen
. The true value of the sum is admittedly relativised by the constant high inflation that raged until the mid-1920s, but nevertheless it is one of the highest outlays ever for an Austrian film. Sascha-Film was only able to obtain credit from their bank against the personal security provided by Sascha Kolowrat-Krakowsky. The reason for this was partly the high production costs, but also the film's very risky economic prospects - many Austrian film production companies, after several boom years, had gone bankrupt. Austrian production companies were less and less able to stand up to the strong competition of cheap foreign imports, particularly from the United States. Additionally inflation was receding, which made Austrian films more expensive abroad, after a period in which the film export had flourished, thanks to the weak currency. Besides, the high period of the epic film
was gradually passing - the sensation value of the enormous crowd scenes and of scantily clad actresses was falling.
and Emil Stepanek
, who already had experience of monumental epics, having worked on the greatest film structure in Austrian film history
, the Tower of Babel in Sodom und Gomorrha of 1922. The costumes were by Remigius Geyling. The great majority of the cast were very simply dressed, but the palace residents and the priests had some of the most imaginative and creative costumes of the silent fim period.
. The female lead, for once, was not the director's wife, as in most of Michael Kertész's previous films: Lucy Doraine
was by this time divorced from him, and so the starring role went to María Corda
, the wife of his competitor Alexander Korda
, who was also making epics in Vienna at this time.
The premiere took place in the Eos-Kino, in which Sascha-Film had an interest. For the occasion the cinema was done up in Ancient Egyptian style and decorated with pictures of gods and statues of warriors.
In 2005, using a positive print on a nitrate base of the English
edition from the British Film Institute
, the film was restored and re-copied by the Filmarchiv Austria
, thus re-creating a print of excellent quality with English inter-titles which was used for the reconstruction of the German
version, with added music by the leading Austrian silent film pianist Gerhard Gruber
.
Cinema of Austria
Austria has had an active cinema industry since the early 20th century. Sascha Kolowrat-Krakowsky was among the Austrian pioneers of this art. Several Austrians pursued a career in pre-Nazi Germany and later in the United States, among them Fritz Lang, Josef von Sternberg, Billy Wilder, Fred...
epic film
Epic film
An epic is a genre of film that emphasizes human drama on a grand scale. Epics are more ambitious in scope than other film genres, and their ambitious nature helps to differentiate them from similar genres such as the period piece or adventure film...
of 1924
1924 in film
-Events:* Entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer Pictures to create Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer...
.
It was directed
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
by Mihaly Kertész
Michael Curtiz
Michael Curtiz was an Academy award winning Hungarian-American film director. He had early creditsas Mihály Kertész and Michael Kertész...
(later Michael Curtiz). The script was written by Ladislaus Vajda
Ladislaus Vajda
Ladislaus Vajda was a Hungarian screenwriter. He wrote for 40 films in Hungary, Austria and Germany between 1916 and 1932.He was born in Eger, Northern Hungary and died in Berlin, Germany...
, based on H. Rider Haggard
H. Rider Haggard
Sir Henry Rider Haggard, KBE was an English writer of adventure novels set in exotic locations, predominantly Africa, and a founder of the Lost World literary genre. He was also involved in agricultural reform around the British Empire...
's novel The Moon of Israel, which in its turn was inspired by the Biblical
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
story of the Exodus
The Exodus
The Exodus is the story of the departure of the Israelites from ancient Egypt described in the Hebrew Bible.Narrowly defined, the term refers only to the departure from Egypt described in the Book of Exodus; more widely, it takes in the subsequent law-givings and wanderings in the wilderness...
.
It was this film that brought Kertész to the attention of the studio head Jack Warner
Jack Warner
Jack Leonard "J. L." Warner , born Jacob Warner in London, Ontario, was a Canadian American film executive who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California...
, who invited him to Hollywood in 1926, where he rapidly became Michael Curtiz and made a career with the Warner Studios
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
.
Shooting took place in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
with about 5,000 extras, in the studios of Sascha-Film
Sascha-Film
Sascha-Film, in full Sascha-Filmindustrie AG and from 1933 Tobis-Sascha-Filmindustrie AG, was the largest Austrian film production company of the silent film and early sound film period.-History:...
, and outdoors on the Laaer Berg. The premiere was on 24 October 1924. The restored complete edition of the film, which was entirely lost for many years, was first shown on 26 February 2005 in the Wiener Metro Kino.
Story
In about the year 1230 BC the IsraeliteIsraelite
According to the Bible the Israelites were a Hebrew-speaking people of the Ancient Near East who inhabited the Land of Canaan during the monarchic period .The word "Israelite" derives from the Biblical Hebrew ישראל...
s are in slavery in Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
. At this difficult time the Jewish slave-girl Merapi falls in love with Prince Seti, son of the Pharaoh Menapta. This socially inappropriate love leads to numerous problems, which can nevertheless be resolved. At the end of the film Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
leads his people through the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
and into freedom.
Production
One of the most outstanding scenes is the parting of the Red Sea by Moses (Hans Marr). Since at the same time the American film The Ten CommandmentsThe Ten Commandments (1923 film)
The Ten Commandments is a 1923 American epic silent film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Theodore Roberts as Moses, Charles de Rochefort as Pharaoh Ramesses, Estelle Taylor as Miriam the sister of Moses, and James Neill as Aaron, the brother of Moses...
was being made, which also featured the parting of the Red Sea, the Viennese team took extraordinary care over this scene out of fear of superior American special effects technology. In the final version, thanks to subsequent trick editing, the gigantic wooden construction, designed to release 100 cubic metres of water from both sides at once, is unrecognisable. The water poured into a closed wooden trough 8 metres square and 1 metre deep on the Laaer Berg in Vienna. The walls of water to either side were modelled out of plaster, which looked completely realistic on black-and-white film. One single take could now depict both the parting and the closing of the sea: for the former the shot was simply spliced into the film in reverse.
The actors were filmed in the dry and overwhelmed by the "sea" later, during the editing. When, a few weeks after the Sklavenkönigin opened, the competing film was also in the cinemas, it came as a surprise that the parting of the Red Sea was considerably more realistic in the Austrian production. It was not only the Viennese critics who noted this: even Hollywood colleagues expressed their amazement that in this regard the Laaer Berg had outdone Hollywood.
The director of Sascha-Film, Arnold Pressburger, assisted the film director Michael Kertész as artistic director. The assistant director was Arthur Gottlein. The cameramen Max Nekut, Gustav Ucicky
Gustav Ucicky
Gustav Ucicky was an acclaimed Austrian film director, screenwriter and cinematographer. He was one of the more successful and acclaimed directors in Austria and Germany from the 1930s through to the early 1960s...
and Hans Theyer were supported by Sascha Kolowrat-Krakowsky, the film's producer, as technical director.
The film is supposed to have cost 1.5 billion Kronen
Austro-Hungarian krone
The Krone or korona was the official currency of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1892 until the dissolution of the empire in 1918...
. The true value of the sum is admittedly relativised by the constant high inflation that raged until the mid-1920s, but nevertheless it is one of the highest outlays ever for an Austrian film. Sascha-Film was only able to obtain credit from their bank against the personal security provided by Sascha Kolowrat-Krakowsky. The reason for this was partly the high production costs, but also the film's very risky economic prospects - many Austrian film production companies, after several boom years, had gone bankrupt. Austrian production companies were less and less able to stand up to the strong competition of cheap foreign imports, particularly from the United States. Additionally inflation was receding, which made Austrian films more expensive abroad, after a period in which the film export had flourished, thanks to the weak currency. Besides, the high period of the epic film
Epic film
An epic is a genre of film that emphasizes human drama on a grand scale. Epics are more ambitious in scope than other film genres, and their ambitious nature helps to differentiate them from similar genres such as the period piece or adventure film...
was gradually passing - the sensation value of the enormous crowd scenes and of scantily clad actresses was falling.
Cast
- María CordaMaría CordaMaría Corda was a Hungarian actress and a star of the silent film era in Germany and Austria....
: Merapi, The Moon of Israel - Adelqui MigliarAdelqui MigliarAdelqui Migliar , also known als Adelqui Millar, was a Chilean film actor, director, writer and producer. He appeared in 31 silent films between 1916 and 1928. He also directed 24 films between 1922 and 1954....
(as Adelqui Millar): Prinz Seti - Arlette MarchalArlette MarchalArlette Marchal was a French film actress. She appeared in 41 films between 1922 and 1951. She was born and died in Paris.-Selected filmography:* Die Sklavenkönigin * Madame Sans-Gene...
: Userti - Ferdinand Bonn: Ana
- Oskar Beregi Sr.: Amenmeses
- Adolf Weisse: Pharaoh Menapta
- Hans Marr: Moses
- Reinhold Häussermann: Pampasa
- Georges Haryton: Laban
- Emil Heise: Khi, the High Priest
- Boris Baranoff: Merapi's father
- Hans ThimigHans ThimigHans Emil Thimig, pseudonym: Hans Werner was an Austrian actor, film director and stage director.- Life :...
Sets and costumes
The sets and buildings were created by Artur BergerArtur Berger
Artur Semyonovich Berger was an Austrian-Soviet film architect and set designer. He was active in Austria between 1920 and 1936, during which time he worked on about 30 feature films...
and Emil Stepanek
Emil Stepanek
Emil Stepanek was an Austrian set designer and film architect.-Biography:Stepanek was born in Vienna, the son of a carpenter, and received a training in stage set construction, in which he worked for several years. Between 1916 and 1918 he had to perform military service...
, who already had experience of monumental epics, having worked on the greatest film structure in Austrian film history
Cinema of Austria
Austria has had an active cinema industry since the early 20th century. Sascha Kolowrat-Krakowsky was among the Austrian pioneers of this art. Several Austrians pursued a career in pre-Nazi Germany and later in the United States, among them Fritz Lang, Josef von Sternberg, Billy Wilder, Fred...
, the Tower of Babel in Sodom und Gomorrha of 1922. The costumes were by Remigius Geyling. The great majority of the cast were very simply dressed, but the palace residents and the priests had some of the most imaginative and creative costumes of the silent fim period.
Background
Like other films of the period the Die Sklavenkönigin was inspired by the Egyptomania that was sweeping the world after the discovery of the intact tomb and treasures of the Pharaoh TutankhamunTutankhamun
Tutankhamun , Egyptian , ; approx. 1341 BC – 1323 BC) was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty , during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom...
. The female lead, for once, was not the director's wife, as in most of Michael Kertész's previous films: Lucy Doraine
Lucy Doraine
Lucy Doraine was a Hungarian film actress of the silent era.Born as Ilona Kovács in Budapest, she appeared in 24 films between 1918 and 1931...
was by this time divorced from him, and so the starring role went to María Corda
María Corda
María Corda was a Hungarian actress and a star of the silent film era in Germany and Austria....
, the wife of his competitor Alexander Korda
Alexander Korda
Sir Alexander Korda was a Hungarian-born British producer and film director. He was a leading figure in the British film industry, the founder of London Films and the owner of British Lion Films, a film distributing company.-Life and career:The elder brother of filmmakers Zoltán Korda and Vincent...
, who was also making epics in Vienna at this time.
The premiere took place in the Eos-Kino, in which Sascha-Film had an interest. For the occasion the cinema was done up in Ancient Egyptian style and decorated with pictures of gods and statues of warriors.
Versions
The black-and-white silent 35 mm film, 2,300 metres long, had a sound track added in 1932 by the Selenophon Licht- und Tonbildgesellschaft; without the inter-titles it was only 2,074 metres long.In 2005, using a positive print on a nitrate base of the English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
edition from the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
, the film was restored and re-copied by the Filmarchiv Austria
Filmarchiv Austria
The Filmarchiv Austria is an organisation for the discovery, reconstruction and preservation of Austrian film record material: films themselves, literature about film and cinema, or film-related periodicals...
, thus re-creating a print of excellent quality with English inter-titles which was used for the reconstruction of the German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
version, with added music by the leading Austrian silent film pianist Gerhard Gruber
Gerhard Gruber
Gerhard Gruber is an Austrian composer and piano player. As accompanist for silent movies he has become the leading authority in Austria since 1988....
.
Critics
- Paimann's Filmlisten, October 1924: "In the foreground is the lavish and totally successful composition of the image, its impressive crowd scenes and the impressive structures which are made real by a photography beyond all reproach. The subject is dramatically effective, with many beautiful moments, while the direction is not exhausting in tempo."
- Paimann's Filmlisten gave another, indirect, critique in its edition of 11 September 1925 while discussing the US epic The Ten CommandmentsThe Ten Commandments (1923 film)The Ten Commandments is a 1923 American epic silent film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Theodore Roberts as Moses, Charles de Rochefort as Pharaoh Ramesses, Estelle Taylor as Miriam the sister of Moses, and James Neill as Aaron, the brother of Moses...
: "the technical execution, particularly in the coloured scenes, is highly praiseworthy, although we have already seen the Crossing of Red Sea done better in a Viennese film."
- The New York Times, 29 June 1927: "There is naturally much that is mindful of Cecil B. DeMille’s Film The Ten Commandments in The Moon Of Israel, but Mr. Curtiz fortunately has no modern story to tack on to his Egyptian passages. This is an excellent production."