Life Calls

1944 film

20 December 1944 (1944-12-20)

Running time

77 minutesCountryGermanyLanguageGerman

Life Calls (German: Das Leben ruft) is a 1944 German drama film directed by Arthur Maria Rabenalt and starring Sybille Schmitz, Paul Klinger and Elsa Wagner.^[1] It was based on the 1898 play Mutter Erde by Max Halbe.^[2] It was shot at the Babelsberg Studios in Berlin.^[3] Location shooting took place in Breslau in Silesia. The film's sets were designed by the art director Ernst H. Albrecht.

Synopsis

After inheriting his father's farm estate in West Prussia, Paul Warkentin returns from Berlin to the countryside after many years away along with his wife Hella, to sell it. However he finds the terms of his inheritance do not allow this, while his wife strongly dislikes like the idea of living in the country. Further complications are added by Paul's childhood sweetheart Barbara.

Cast

Sybille Schmitz as Hella Warkentin
Paul Klinger as Paul Warkentin
Gerhild Weber as Barbara Tiedemann
Elsa Wagner as Klara
Paul Henckels as Kallenberg
Arthur Schröder as Reschke
Otto Wernicke as Der Vater
Waltraut Hahne as Regine Tiedemann
Willi Rose as Zindel
Karl Hannemann as Herr Westphal
Wolf Kaiser as Jürgen Tiedemann
Eva Klein-Donath as Auguste Tiedemann
Maria Litto as Eine Magd
Marlise Ludwig as Frau Thiele
Friedrich Petermann as Dr. Bodenstein
Carl Heinz Peters as Herr Thiele
Fred Roland as Knecht Victor
Nico Turoff as Knecht Josef

References

^ Romani p.173
^ Goble p.202
^ Klaus p.75

Bibliography

Bock, Hans-Michael & Bergfelder, Tim. The Concise CineGraph. Encyclopedia of German Cinema. Berghahn Books, 2009.
Goble, Alan. The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Walter de Gruyter, 1999.
Klaus, Ulrich J. Deutsche Tonfilme: Jahrgang 1944. Klaus-Archiv, 2006.
Romani, Cinzia . Tainted Goddesses. Da Capo Press, 1992