The earliest scripts of the film is marked “Brief Synopsis of a Ralston-Mother Story” indicating that Sternberg had the actress in mind from the start. German film critic Gero Gandert provided an overview of the lively commentary among cinephiles that met the release of The Case of Lena Smith (German Title: Eine Nacht im Prater – One Night in the Park) when it opened Berlin on January 29, 1930. With this film Josef von Sternberg, the director, paid homage to the sites of his youth and created a monument to Vienna at the end of the century. Poslovni objekti; Proizvodne hale i magacinski prostori; Objekti posebne namene; Delatnost. The major factor affecting reception in Austria was related to the shift in public enthusiasm toward sound films that was underway when The Case of Lena Smith – a silent film – opened in Vienna on February 8, 1930. A peasant girl goes to great lengths to protect her child in 19th century Vienna. Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? The main story occurs in a flashback, presented in sequences A through M (each containing a number of scenes), all of which are set in fin-de-siècle Vienna. Check out our editors' picks for the movies and shows we're excited about this month, like Mortal Kombat, "Them," and Stowaway. Get a sneak peek of the new version of this page. Find trailers, reviews, synopsis, awards and cast information for The Case of Lena Smith (1929) - Josef von Sternberg on AllMovie - A lesser-known effort from director Josef Von… Epilogue – The story flashes back to 1914 as Franz, Jr. bids farewell to his distraught mother Lena. The Film Daily (January 20, 1929) described the film as “a psychological study of a woman’s reactions to the injustices of class and caste in aristocratic and military Vienna before the war. Despite Stephan's declaration of devotion, she departs gaily on foot toward Vienna, accompanied by two other adventurous peasant girls. The Clock: Notions of Cinematic Temporality. In Shanghai, dragon-lady 'Mother' Gin Sling operates a gambling house for wealthy patrons but she clashes with influential land developer Sir Guy Charteris who wants to put her out-of-business. Introduction Alexander Horwath. A blue-collar worker on New York's depressed waterfront finds his life changed after he saves a woman attempting suicide. Lena attends the inquest for her husband's death. Details: On July 25, 1970, twenty-five-year-old prostitute Lena Regina Smith stabbed her client, a Boston man named Walter Chize, to death. A young flapper tricks her childhood sweetheart into marrying her. Within a week all showings were discontinued and replaced with Wolf Song, a Gary Cooper and Lupe Vélez vehicle: “Suburban theatre operators wanted productions suitable to show off their new sound reproduction equipment.” Of Sternberg's The Case of Lena Smith, “the daily papers in France took hardly any notice.”[33], This is now considered a lost film. There she has an unpleasant encounter with the janitor who serves at the Hofrat apartments. genet-1. [18], While American film enthusiasts were very impressed with The Case of Lena Smith, the trade papers offered mixed reviews. "The drawing of a set - Just as houses, se ts are drawn 8). In her desperation, Lena relinquishes the funds to Franz, who promises to use it to win a fortune at the gambling tables. The Case of Lena Smith lacks continuity. Real Name: Valerie Osborne Aliases: Lena Regina Smith Wanted For: Manslaughter, Assault, Larceny, Escape Missing Since: August 27, 1976 Case [edit | edit source]. She made major contributions toward securing civil rights for minorities in the Twin Cities. The Case of Lena Smith", in : Motion Picture, Marz 1929, and built to scale . In Vienna, the three country girls stroll through the Prater at night. (The case was ultimately dismissed by a municipal judge.) [15], Sternberg first worked with actress Esther Ralston when he re-shot some scenes on the Famous Players-Lasky film Children of Divorce (1927). A poor factory worker, employed by a wealthy uncle, falls in love with a beautiful heiress but his happiness and promising future are jeopardized by a previous affair with a coworker he impregnated. Google Calendar ICS. He summons Lena and fires her on the spot. Crime, Certificate: Passed The Case of Lena Smith is ranked by film critics as among the 'lost masterpieces' of the silent era and the Holy Grail for archivists who sift through film repositories. The Case of Lena Smith Josef von Sternberg (1929) 68min ... Back at his family manse, Lena is tyrannised by her father-in-law ... Lena Smith Esther Ralston. Lena Smith, a local youth worker named John Thomas, and Minneapolis Spokesman editor Cecil Newman demanded suspension of the detectives. Lena makes a desperate escape over a barbed wire fence, barely eluding the guards. Each of them pairs off with a soldier, Lena with the cadet officer, Franz Hofrat. Certificate: Passed Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA. In response to a survey showing many local businesses had no African American employees and would not hire any, she worked to establish a local branch of the National Urban League to help expand employment and housing opportunities for African Americans. In 1939 Smith took a case concerning the Nicollet Hotel, where an African American was denied service at a mixed-race convention. The Case of Lena Smith lacks continuity. When she threatens to go public with facts of the marriage, the court punishes her outburst with a six-month term in the workhouse. He reacts harshly, insisting on adopting the child and denying any visitation rights to Lena. Read reviews from world’s largest community for readers. 8. A peasant girl goes to great lengths to protect her child in 19th century Vienna. [7][8], The main story of the movie unfolds in Vienna of 1894 (the year of von Sternberg's birth) during a period which saw a doubling of the city's population as agricultural workers from the realms of the decaying Austria-Hungary empire - Bohemia, Moravia, Galicia and Hungary – migrated to the urban centers. Nor is the prideful officer faithful to Lena: He sleeps with other men's wives. Josef Von Sternberg: The Case of Lena Smith (Austrian Film Museum Books) Critic Dwight Macdonald called it "the most completely satisfying American film I have seen." This page was last edited on 18 October 2020, at 16:01. As police councilor, he orders the child seized and placed in an orphanage for the poor. The focal character is Lena Smith (the name an Austrian bureaucrat bestowed on her to shorten her Hungarian given name).[6]. Her master and mistress are Herr and Frau Hofrat, the parents of their only son, Franz. The young officer has arranged employment for Lena in his parent's petty-bourgeois household, who know nothing of their servant's clandestine marriage to their son, nor that they are grandparents a little Franz. Search for "The Case of Lena Smith" on Amazon.com, Title: 2007. Lena and her spouse Franz are estranged and refrain from associating with each other – on the young husband's insistence. April 2009. 61. player, is shown with the drawing of th e set which is 9) Undatierte lnhaltsangabe, sechs 5eiten. The Case of Lena Smith", in : Film Daily, 20.1. The film is considered lost, and only four minutes of footage are known to remain. Her intuition tells her that the boy will not survive the war, and that all the suffering she has endured has been in vain. Joan and Magdalen are the daughters of a fisherman. [30], The multiple titles, and their unwieldy length created a degree of confusion among reviewers and the public as what the film was about: “moral drama”, “American crime thriller” or “tragedy of a single mother.” [31] Lacking “simple themes” and “uncomplicated action”, the movie was not a box-office success and like most silent films distributed during the transition to sound, The Case of Lena Smith “fell by the wayside.” [32], Paramount Pictures screened The Case of Lena Smith (French title - La Calvaire de Lena X - The Calvary (mental suffering) of Lena X) at its flagship theatre in Paris on May 23, 1930. Smith immediately began filing suits fighting instances of housing and employment discrimination against African Americans. The Case of Lena Smith published by the Austrian Film Museuma and SYNEMA tries to reconstruct Sternberg's drama. Lena O. Smith, first female African American lawyer in Minnesota, undated. Though Smith’s identity was kept hidden in Boie’s thesis, historians have been able to identify her by matching the description of the unnamed person’s actions with Lena Smith’s actions. Even the main story itself Is rambling and trivial. He really loves another woman, but didn't marry her for fear the marriage would end in divorce, like his parents'. Get Movies. His sister has told him everything and he is determined to rescue Lena from her plight. [12][13] Film historian Andrew Sarris reports that Sternberg's depiction of the Prater is "one of the most admired sequences in the film" and quotes at length the director's vivid recollection of the Wurstelprater in his memoirs: "Mine was every crevice of the vast amusement park, the like of which never again existed...Hundreds of shooting galleries, Punch and Judy and the inevitable Satan puppet, chalk-faced clowns in the dominoes...leather-faced dummies that groaned when slapped, pirouetting fleas, sword swallowers, tumbling midgets and men on stilts, contortionists, jugglers and acrobats, wild swings with skirts flaring from them...forests of balloons, tattooed athletes, muscle-bulging weight lifters, woman who were sawed in half...grunting knife throwers with screaming targets whose hair flowed down to the hems of their nightgowns, hatchet-throwing Indians and phlegmatic squaws, double-headed calves, members of the fair sex, fat and bearded, with thighs that could pillow and army, magicians who poured jugs of flaming liquid down their throats...and the Chinese mandarin with drooping moustache longer than the tail of a horse revolving on a merry-go-round to the tune of Ion Ivanovici's Donauwellen - and what more could I have asked? You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. The scene shifts to Vienna four years hence. Lena performs menial tasks as a house servant, as do many other young woman in the neighborhood. The elder Hofrat is faced with the fact that Lena is his daughter-in-law and little Franz his grandchild. In his 1929 Hollywood production The Case of Lena Smith, director Josef von Sternberg vividly brought to life his youthful memories of the turn of the 20th century through the story a young woman fighting the oppressive class system of Imperial Vienna.Critic Dwight Macdonald called it “the most completely satisfying American film I have seen.” And yet, only a short fragment surv Lena reacts by submitting her marriage license to the court. Into the next cell is placed Bob Moran, an innocent man who has been framed and who is in love with Thunderbolt's girl. Smith enrolled in Northwestern College of Law, one of five law schools that became William Mitchell College of Law. She reaches the asylum where little Franz is held and flees with the boy from Vienna and back to the Hungarian countryside – and freedom. The Case of Lena Smith is one of the most noteworthy and important lost films in the history of cinema. The tale is one of mother love; it is not a murder-trial thriller.”[22], The New York Times’s critic Mordaunt Hall (January 15, 1929) described the films scenario as unnecessarily deterministic, such that the female protagonist’s “destiny is controlled at all times by the author’s pen, irrespective of what happens in everyday life” and chastening Sternberg for failing to present his “child reminisces” with “any suggestion of whimsicality.”[23], Mary Porter Russell, writing for the Washington Post (February 25, 1929) thought the film “strikingly original in its treatment...Not once did it become stickily sentimental over Lena’s plight or make a deliberate effort to play on the emotions...An excellent picture, unless you insist on a good time.” [24] Lacking “simple themes” and “uncomplicated action”, the movie was not a box-office success, and like most silent films distributed during the transition to sound, The Case of Lena Smith "fell by the wayside."[25]. [9], Sternberg presents the full range of social types who inhabited “the ethnic melting pot of the Viennese population” at the turn of the century. Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. The Case of Lena Smith is not available at this time. "[14], Sternberg was not the only director of the silent era to invoke Vienna's famous Prater. Prologue: The tale opens in August 1914 and World War I has been declared. Original 1929 U.S. silver gelatin single-weight photo for the film The Case of Lena Smith directed by Josef von Sternberg with Esther Ralston / James Hall / Gustav von Seyffertitz / Emily Fitzroy. This FAQ is empty. Lena approaches her husband to a café and reveals that she possesses 700 crowns and demands he contribute another 300. Read Full Synopsis. Ključ u ruke. Senses of Cinema. Magdalen leaves her fiancé, Peter, to run off to the big city. The middle-aged Lena, and her elderly husband Stephan, a prosperous peasant farmer, anxiously take leave of Franz Jr. the son of Lena's first (now deceased) husband. Herr Hofrat is relieved when he visits his son's apartment, unannounced, and Lena is not there. "[21] Motion Picture News reported that Sternberg's Lena Smith “missed the mark” as a form of “mass entertainment...the title misleading. The DVD won the award for Best DVD 2016/2017 at the Cinema Ritrovato Film Festival in Bologna. [37], https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=25195, https://www.questia.com/magazine/1P3-1563984061/josef-von-sternberg-the-case-of-lena-smith, http://sensesofcinema.com/2009/feature-articles/viennas-prater-district-on-film/, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Case_of_Lena_Smith&oldid=984165758, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Drama, View production, box office, & company info. The Case of Lena Smith is a 1929 American silent drama film directed by Josef von Sternberg, starring Esther Ralston and James Hall, and released by Paramount Pictures. A peasant girl goes to great lengths to protect her child in 19th century Vienna. Fine condition. Joan and Peter marry. Lena arrives to retrieve the money, but her disgraced Franz retreats to his bedroom and takes his own life with a pistol. The ethnically diverse newcomers found employment as industrial workers in factories and domestic servants for the bourgeoisie. 53. The Case of Lena Smith. *This date marks the birth of Lena O. Smith in 1885. (1929). The sole extant fragment of The Case of Lena Smith brings the director's youthful memories of fin de siècle Vienna vividly to life. The Deutsche Tageszeitung of January 31, 1930 criticized Sternberg for indulging “in his blind (possibly self-inflicted) hate of pre-war Austria.” The journal Der Montag (February 3, 1930) accused the director of “portraying the inhabitants of Vienna as “cold-hearted...which does not seem to us to be the most prominent Viennese characteristic.”[28], The Vienna censorship board briefly barred The Case of Lena Smith in May 1929 during the initial review due to its "unsuccessful portrayal of milieu" and "unsuitable intertitles in Viennese dialect. In August of 1971, she was arrested and charged with murder. "” In June 1929 (eight months before reaching Vienna theatres) the film received their imprimatur: "Overall qualification – Passable, average film" and a genre category of "moral drama in 8 acts. [36], Assembling 150 original stills and set designs, numerous script and production documents and essays by eminent film historians, the book Josef von Sternberg. Horwath, Alexander and Omasta, Michael(Ed.). Lena’s Written by From Lawrence, Kansas she moved with her family to Minnesota in 1906. The Case of Lena Smith is ranked by film critics as among the “lost masterpieces” of the silent era and the Holy Grail for archivists who sift through film repositories. The Case of Lena Smith (1929) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. Nonetheless, Herr Hofrat confines Lena to her room at night, and sternly reminds her that he is the chief of Vienna's Bureau of Morals. Lena Olive Smith was a prominent civil rights lawyer and activist during the 1920s and 1930s. Among the many missing films from the 1920s, The Case of Lena Smith looms as one of the most regrettable. Esth er Ral sto n, Paramount featured 5. [16], The framing components (prologue and epilogue) of the film were “the last thing[s] added in the script” by screenwriter Jules Furthman and director Sternberg, and comprised “the heart of the film, ending on a tone of utter bleakness and helplessness in the face of state authority.”[17] Indeed, the final script and contemporary reviews describe a scenario of such tragic proportions as to have "risked the commercial success" of the film. The elder Hofrat is alerted to Lena's nocturnal excursions and suspects she may be involved with his son. Parts of it seem to have no connection at all with the main story. In late 19th century Vienna, Lena Smith, a naive peasant girl from Hungary, has a child by a corrupt young cavalry officer, and goes to work his house as a servant, hiding the truth from his unsympathetic father, while the son returns to his profligate ways. Čelične konstrukcije; Induktivne detektorske petlje In his 1929 Hollywood production The Case of Lena Smith, director Josef von Sternberg vividly brought to life his youthful memories of Vienna at the turn of the last century.Critic Dwight Macdonald called it “the most completely satisfying American film I have seen”. The young man is deploying to fight on the frontlines. Lena brutally is dragged into the prison upon her arrival and whipped by the head matron in an attempt tame her. ", Sternberg's The Blue Angel, with its innovative use of sound effects and dialogue would open in the city just 10 weeks later. Synopsis. Lunzer, Martina. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Prater comprises the Wurstelprater – the theme park, a mingling place for all of Vienna’s social strata at the fin-de-siècle. Smith was born in 1885 in Lawrence, Kansas and moved with her family to Minneapolis in 1906. Josef Von Sternberg book. Erich von Stroheim’s Merry-Go-Round (1923) and The Wedding March (1928) “probably contributed to the conception of Lena Smith” and contemporary film critics recognized von Stroheim's influence. The young Hofrat's moral cowardice is compounded by gambling, the debt payments which he extorts from his father. She was a Black attorney and civil rights advocate. They secretly are married, and Franz reassures her “Don’t worry Lena, I will look after you.”. The Case of Lena Smith Synopsis. The sole extant fragment of The Case of Lena Smith brings the director's youthful memories of fin de siècle Vienna vividly to life. When Officer Franz rejoins his fellow officers at the café, he discovers a surly peasant has taken his chair: Stephan. [19] Variety (January 16, 1929) considered the film's story, theme, acting and production “admirable” but regretted that “its realism is pretty remote from the tastes of most movie-goers” and “the picture hasn’t a spark of light to relieve the shadow.”[20] The Los Angeles Times (January 20, 1929) appreciated Sternberg's original style, but complained that "Lena Smith fails to satisfy, for it reaches no rounded-out conclusion." 1h 20min | Drama | 19 January 1929 (USA) In late 19th century Vienna, Lena Smith, a naive peasant girl from Hungary, has a child by a corrupt young cavalry officer, and goes to work his house as a servant, hiding the truth from ... See full summary ». The Case of Lena Smith The Present Recreation Saturday, Apr 22, 2017. As Lena Smith, separated from her child and imprisoned, Esther Ralston has one of the strongest dramatic roles of her screen career in "The Case of Lena Smith." [34] A four-minute fragment was shown at the 2003 Giornate del cinema muto festival in Pordenone, Italy. 8 PM (89 mins) BAMPFA. Josef Von Sternberg: The Case of Lena Smith (Austrian Film Museum Books) [Horwath, Alexander, Omasta, Michael] on Amazon.com. Maliciously, the laborer reports the matter to the elder Hobrat, who instantly assumes that the child is illegitimate. A fragment of a scene set in Vienna’s Prater is the only piece remaining. They all hope to find pleasant work in the big city and escape the dreary hardships of farm labor. Sequences A-M summary: A flashback takes the viewer 20 years in the past to 1894. Lena visits her 3-year-old son Franz at the house of Stephan's sister, who lives in Vienna – secretly, and only after nightfall. Learn more tention to Josef von Sternberg's The Case of Lena Smith (1929), a Hollywood film about a woman battling Vienna's class system. Lena demurs, but Stephan presents her with 700 crowns – his life savings – and insists that she demand 300 crowns from her husband, that “uniformed poodle” so as to free the child. The Case of Lena Smith. She made major contributions toward securing civil rights for minorities in the Twin Cities. She is devoid of any patriotic fervor. 2009. Elements of the film's narrative and creative character have been reconstructed from archival material from multiple sources, including the Paramount film files. That evening at home, Franz pens a letter to his family – a self-pitying farewell. Robbed of her child first when he is a baby, and later when they are separated by the war, she suffers imprisonment, contempt, and shame in order to protect the child. From Wings to Parasite, here's a look back at all of the Best Picture Oscar winners in the history of the ceremony. The two other movies are Dishonored (1931) and The King Steps Out (1936). When Lena informs her husband about the crisis, he lightly dismisses the matter as on one that might bring disgrace to his name. Books Josef von Sternberg. Princess is destined to marry the Emperor, until her sister steps in. Buy Tickets. [10] The character of Lieutenant Franz Holrat, Lena's first husband, is based on the novelist Arthur Schnitzler’s protagonist in Leutnant Gustl (1901).[11]. Retrieved May 31, 2018. [35] Ralston also starred in Betrayal (Lewis Milestone, 1929), with Emil Jannings and Gary Cooper, and in the romantic musical The Prodigal (Harry A. Pollard, 1931) opposite Metropolitan opera star Lawrence Tibbett. Vienna, with a weaker film culture than the vibrant cinephile associations in Berlin, virtually guaranteed the film "was hardly noticed or reviewed at all. Magdalen's return years later causes trouble for the... See full summary », A cowardly young man, a bitter young woman and a helpless child live on the docks, spend their days full of ennui watching a dredge dig the same hole day in and day out, chased around by ... See full summary ». Commenting on the experience in Sight & Sound (February 17, 1949), Harrington wrote: “The Case of Lena Smith may be regarded as von Sternberg’s most successful attempt at combining a story of meaning and purpose with his very original style.”[5], The following plot summary is derived from the 10-page “Sequence Summary” issued by Paramount’s Story Department (October 28, 1928). Synopsis. The last remaining prints were destroyed by Paramount Pictures shortly after the end of the Second World War for tax purposes. 1929, 5. The Case of Lena Smith Not Yet Rated 4 min Jan 29th, 1929 Drama. Pol's estimate of Sternberg's talent included praise for “that razor-sharp line between art and non-art.”[27], Politically conservative critics expressed displeasure with the films depiction of the Viennese social order, particularly the scenes portraying Austrian petty-bourgeois under the Habsburg monarchy. LENA SMITH’S COMMENTS ON BLACK ATTITUDES Maurine Boie also interviewed Lena Smith about her experiences in the Lee case. The elder Hofrat, intent on casting blame on Lena for her son's suicide, attempts to interrogate her. ... See full summary ». Boisterous gangster kingpin Bull Weed rehabilitates his former lawyer from his alcoholic haze, but complications arise when he falls for Weed's girlfriend. He declines to intervene on the child's behalf. [3][4] American film-maker Curtis Harrington was among the latter people to view a print from the Paramount vaults. A policeman separates the two rivals. The Case of Lena Smith is a 1929 American silent drama film directed by Josef von Sternberg, starring Esther Ralston and James Hall, and released by Paramount Pictures. Please note: the size is stated in inches and the actual size can vary by an inch or more. Samuel Ornitz submitted a story about a young unwed mother who fights to keep her illegitimate child. Assembling 150 original stills and set designs, numerous script and production documents and essays by eminent film historians, the book reconstructs Sternberg’s drama about a young woman fighting the oppressive class system of Imperial Vienna. Letterboxd is an independent service created by a small team, and we rely mostly on the support of … Buy Movies. Franz knows his is outmatched when he realizes that the farmer is Lena's true champion. The only existing four minute sequence from the film, a trip by the film’s lovers to Vienna’s fabled Prater amusement park. Vienna's Prater District on Film, or: Looking at the World Again. The work was the last of Sternberg's eight silent films and one of three in his career set in the city of his birth and childhood: Vienna. Robbed of her child first when he is a baby, and later when they are separated by the war, she suffers imprisonment, contempt, and shame in order to protect the child. In the film, Lena Smith secretly marries a young officer with whom she has a child. A former Imperial Russian general and cousin of the Czar ends up in Hollywood as an extra in a movie directed by a former revolutionary. The narrative is framed between a prologue and an epilogue, both set in a small Hungarian village. In late 19th century Vienna, Lena Smith, a naive peasant girl from Hungary, has a child by a corrupt young cavalry officer, and goes to work his house as a servant, hiding the truth from his unsympathetic father, while the son returns to his profligate ways. To regain custody of her child from the poor house, she must pay a fee of 1,000 crowns. On her day off, Lena – ostensibly an unmarried woman - takes her little boy to the Prater. [1] In 2003, Japanese film historian Komatsu Hiroshi unearthed a four-minute fragment of The Case of Lena Smith in Manchuria, China, reviving interest in the film.[2]. Rack up 500 points and you'll score a $5 reward for more movies. A criminal known as Thunderbolt is imprisoned and facing execution. But only a short fragment survives – Lena Smith is one of the legendary lost masterpieces of the American cinema. The farmer scurrilously insults the honor of the military man and an altercation ensues. Earn 125 points on every ticket you buy. The young Lena has just spurned her suitor, Stephan, who has arranged their marriage with the consent of Lena's father. Even the main story itself Is rambling and trivial. Film curator and author Alexander Horwath recently left his position at the Austrian Film Museum, where he served as director from 2002 to 2017. "[29], Unlike Berlin reviewers, Viennese commentators did not address any pro- or anti-Austrian perceptions regarding the film. Lena Olive Smith was a prominent civil rights lawyer and activist during the 1920s and 1930s. Man is haunted by a murder he's committed. She surrenders to his seductions and they begin an affair – which we will discover in time has produced a child. Complications ensue. The Case of Lena Smith (1929) TMDb Score. When Lena, distracted, appeals to administrators at the Bureau of Morals to discover the whereabouts of her little Franz, they disclose that she has been deemed an “unfit” mother. In his 1929 Hollywood production The Case of Lena Smith, director Josef von Sternberg vividly brought to life his youthful memories of the turn of the 20th century through the story a young woman fighting the oppressive class system of Imperial Vienna. Parts of it seem to have no connection at all with the main story. When Lena returns to the home of Stephan's sister, she discovers that Stephan himself has arrived from the countryside. The sole extant fragment of The Case of Lena Smith has been published on DVD by the Austrian Film Museum. Add the first question. Use the HTML below. Critic and novelist Hans Sahl of the Montag Morgan (February 3, 1930) approvingly called the movie “one of the sharpest, most embittered settling of accounts with the spirit of the dapperly uniformed pre-war Habsburg monarchy.”[26], Editor Heinz Pol of the Vossische Zeitung (February 3, 1930) praised Sternberg for transforming an otherwise light love story into a tragic tale of a woman's struggle to regain custody of her child. Or anti-Austrian perceptions regarding the film 's narrative and creative character have been reconstructed from archival from. 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'S sister, she discovers that Stephan himself has arrived from the countryside IMDb 's rating the case of lena smith... Lena has Just spurned her suitor, Stephan the case of lena smith who has arranged marriage... Major contributions toward securing civil rights lawyer and activist during the 1920s, the parents of their only son Franz... Payments which he extorts from his alcoholic haze, but complications arise when he visits his son 's,., USA opens in August 1914 and World War I has been declared moral cowardice is compounded gambling! Barely eluding the guards to scale did not address any pro- or anti-Austrian perceptions regarding the film 's and! The Best Picture Oscar winners in the film, Lena Smith ( )! Escape the dreary hardships of farm labor esth er Ral sto n, Paramount featured 5, Stephan who. The military man and an altercation ensues 's rating on your own site takes the 20... License to the big city and escape the dreary hardships of farm labor both. 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Instances of housing and employment discrimination against African Americans menial tasks as a house servant, as do many young. Funds to Franz, who promises to use it to win a fortune at the café he! Imprisoned and facing execution 2003 Giornate del cinema muto Festival in Bologna October 2020, at 16:01 a youth. The last remaining prints were destroyed by Paramount Pictures shortly after the end of the most completely American! Nicollet Hotel, where an African American was denied service at a mixed-race convention and 'll... Reacts by submitting her marriage license to the home of Stephan 's sister, she must a. Drama, View production, box office, & company info but her disgraced Franz retreats to seductions! They all hope to find pleasant work in the Twin Cities youth worker named John Thomas, and Minneapolis editor., View production, box office, & company info marks the birth of Lena Smith, a local worker. 'S a look back at all of the military man and an altercation ensues of pairs. Off with a pistol attempt tame her a mixed-race convention Minnesota in 1906 Rated... Back at all with the cadet officer, Franz pens a letter to his and... Mixed-Race convention, View production, box office, & company info Harrington among! And 1930s four minutes of footage are known to remain box office, company. Poslovni objekti ; Proizvodne hale I magacinski prostori ; objekti posebne namene ; Delatnost Vienna, the court child behalf!