Yorck (1931)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Gustav Ucicky

Writers:

Robert Liebmann (writer)
Hans Müller (writer)

Release Date:

23 December 1931 (Germany)

Genre:

Biography | War

Plot:

The story of General Yorck von Wartenburg, a commander in the army of Prussian King Wilhelm, who defied the king's orders for the Prussian army to join Napoleon in his invason of Russia. |

Plot Keywords:

Character Name In Title

Cast

Werner Krauss	...	Gen. Yorck von Wartenberg
Grete Mosheim	...	Barbara
Rudolf Forster	...	King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia
Gustaf Gründgens	...	Karl August Fürst von Hardenberg
Lothar Müthel	...	Gen. von Clausewitz
Friedrich Kayßler	...	Gen. Kleist von Nollendorf
Raoul Aslan	...	Gen. McDonald
Hans Rehmann	...	Lt. Rüdiger Heyking
Walter Janssen	...	Vicomte Noailles
Günther Hadank	...	Seydlitz
Theodor Loos	...	Roeder
Paul Otto	...	Natzmer
Otto Wallburg	...	Field Marshal Graf Diebitsch-Sabalkanskij
Jakob Tiedtke	...	Krause
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Louis V. Arco		(as Lutz Altschul)
Carl Balhaus
Alfred Beierle
Gerhard Bienert
Hans Brausewetter
Carl Goetz
Veit Harlan
Oskar Höcker
William Huch
Arthur Mainzer
Hans-Joachim Moebis
Heinrich Schroth
Fritz Staudte
Jürgen von Alten

Runtime:

Germany:102 min

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Berlin, Germany

Company:

Universum Film (UFA)

Impressive military scenes

Werner Krauss was an important actor in German silent films, and many of his films from that period were well-received in Britain and America. Krauss never received any offers to work in Hollywood ... possibly because he was too similar in type to Emil Jannings, who had a fine Hollywood career in the late silent era. Unfortunately, Krauss's thick accent and his difficulty with English ensured that his early talkie films would get only a very limited release outside of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

In 'Yorck', Krauss plays an historical personage: General Yorck von Wartenburg of Prussia. During the Franco-Prussian Alliance, King Friedrich Wilhelm ordered all his generals and field marshalls to place their armies at the disposal of Napoleon for the invasion of Russia. (The Prussian king was less interested in helping France than in conquering Russia.) Yorck was the only Prussian commander who defied his king, thereby saving the lives of his men when Napoleon's Russian invasion failed. A statesman as well as a strategist, Yorck negotiates a separate peace between Prussia and Russia.

The military scenes in this film are impressive; director Gustav Ucicky deserves to be better known. Theodor Loos is splendid in a supporting role. The pace of the film is compromised by an unnecessary romantic subplot between Yorck's daughter Barbara (the pallid actress Grete Mosheim) and Yorck's lieutenant (Hans Rehmann). I confess that I'm only vaguely familiar with the history involved here, so I can't tell how much of this movie is factual and how much is fictional. I suspect that the subplot is fictional.

I'll rate 'Yorck' 6 points out of 10, and I commend Werner Krauss's performance.