Ave Maria (1953)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Alfred Braun

Writers:

Harald Braun (writer)
Wolf Neumeister (writer)

Release Date:

1957 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Character Name In Title

Cast

Zarah Leander	...	Karin Twerdy aka Maria Talland
Hans Stüwe	...	Dietrich Gontard
Marianne Hold	...	Daniela Twerdy
Hilde Körber	...	Schwester Benedikta
Carl Wery	...	Dr. Melartin
Ingrid Pan	...	Christa Gontard
Hans Henn	...	Thomas Gontard
Hedwig Wangel	...	Die Oberin
Charlotte Scheier-Herold	...	Schwester Luitgard
Béatrice Picard	...	Schwester Ursula
Ernst Stahl-Nachbaur	...	Dr. Rieser
Josef Sieber	...	Conny
Hans Stiebner	...	Hanke
Berta Drews	...	Kerstin Melartin
Elisabeth Wendt	...	Lisa Nilsson

Runtime:

USA:95 min | West Germany:93 min

Country:

West Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Hamburg Harbour, Hamburg, Germany

Company:

Divina-Film

Soundtrack:

Wart' nicht auf die große Liebe

Ave Maria good mother - daughter story

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This classic film , from Germollywood in 1953,is a variation of the Stella Dallas story and would make a good double feature with this pick.Well, the plot is that Karin Twerdy, played by Zara Leander, has a secret. She doesn't let her daughter, Daniella, played by Marianne Hold, know about it. Only her close Friend, Sister Benedicta, knows her secret. She's a night club singer at a sleazy area in Germany, under a false name Marita. It pays for her daughters convent school and a rented mansion,to put up a front, when she's at home from school.The day Karin is picking up her daughter Daniella for vacation, she invite's her best girl friend and her brother ,Thomas Gontard, played by Hans Penn as well as her best friends father,Dietrik Gontard,played by Hans Stuw, for the vacation at her place. What Daniella and her friend's and her friend's father don't know is that it's a front , the house,Well,the film then focuses and daughter Daniella and her best friend's brother a little, they are falling in love with each other.Everything goes so well, it looks. But after the vacation and Karin send's Daniella Back to school, she goes back to the sleazy night club she works in what appears possibly to believe Hamburgs Great Freedom Street number 7?, to pay the bills. Unfortunately Dietrik shows up at the night club and catches her act. He's outraged and confronts her after the show , in her dressing room.He now opposes her daughter and his son's happiness.Karin defends her daughter and her future son in law's happiness as well as her career. She tell's him that she's leaving ,I think for Finland, so that her daughter will never find out how she make's a living. Well, as she's on the train to Finland, a fellow passenger . a women, is telling her woes . She become's suicidal and runs out of the compartment and jumps out of the train killing herself.She leaves her purse and her pass port.Karin take's advantage of this b by switching pass ports to give an impression that she committed suicide to ensure Dietrich won't mess her daughter and his son's happiness. She take's the place of the original women to work as a house keeper in a farm in Sweden. i think,. As Dietrik and her daughter and his son and her best friend are going out on the weekend they pass a circus hi wire act. As they come back some one has stopped them . It seems that the clown doing the hi wire act saw them and remember Dietrich being at the night club being outraged since he was a patron to, and had a accident, fell of the hi wire, and is dying. He tells Dietrich that he saw her recently working as a house cleaner and that she still alive,I think. Dietrik can't believe it. But when an unwanted

pregnancy occurred in poor Daniella, thank's to the catholic church anti birth control attitude, he realizes that Daniella need,s to be with her. He find's her at the farm and apologizes to Karin. She refuses to come back until he tells her the situation. Sister Benedicta don't seem to be bothered by her student having a bastard birth as she tells of her mother being alive, I think. We see Karin singing, Ave Maria, in Latin, at her grand child's baptismal. this is one of Zaras best films although in black n white like her others, it's still colorful. It,s a good mother love story This is an up date from 12/ 07/08. I watched the movie again and Dietrik Gontard own the house not Karin Twerdy. It was Twerdy and Daniella that was invited for the weekend.The pay Twerdy, aka Marita, was being given for the night club job could not even pay for renting a house that big.