Waterloo (1929)

Waterloo is a German made movie that depicts the soldiers of Belgium + The Netherlands; Brunswick; England, Ireland, Scotland + Wales; Hanover; Nassau; and Prussia's victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

Director:

Karl Grune

Writers:

Max Ferner, Bobby E. Lüthge (as B.E. Lüthge)

Stars:

Charles Willy Kayser, Charles Vanel, Otto Gebühr

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Charles Willy Kayser	...	König Friedrich Wilhelm III.
Charles Vanel	...	Napoleon
Otto Gebühr	...	'Der alte Fritz' & Feldmarschall Blücher
Auguste Prasch-Grevenberg	...	Blüchers Frau
Friedrich Ulmer	...	Gneisenau (as Fritz Ulmer)
Georg Henrich	...	Hardenberg
Karl Graumann	...	Fürst Metternich
Humberston Wright	...	Herzog Wellington
Carl de Vogt	...	Marshall Ney
Helmuth Renar	...	Talleyrand
Vera Malinovskaya	...	Gräfin Tarnowska
Camilla von Hollay	...	Ihre Zofe
Oscar Marion	...	Leutnant Reutlingen, Blüchers Adjutant
Betty Bird	...	Rieke, seine Braut
Fred Immler	...	Erster Grenadier

Storyline

Waterloo is a German made movie that depicts the soldiers of Belgium + The Netherlands; Brunswick; England, Ireland, Scotland + Wales; Hanover; Nassau; and Prussia's victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Release Date:

1929 (Austria)

Also Known As:

Waterloo - Napoleon und die 100 Tage

Filming Locations:

Bavaria Studios, Bavariafilmplatz 7, Geiselgasteig, Grünwald, Bavaria, Germany

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bavaria Film,Münchner Lichtspielkunst AG (Emelka)

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Version of Waterloo (1970)

User Reviews

Interesting, pro-German take on the Napoleonic Wars

Quite an interesting movie, though I saw it without the benefit of a musical score, making it all too easy to riff. My husband is a big Napoleon fan, and was continually exclaiming that the extremely pro-German slant of the film was completely contrary to the actual history. But he did admit that it hit a lot of historical plot points correctly, only in a rearranged order, or with some compression of time, which is not unusual in a movie. The Battle of Ligny in particular is not often portrayed on film. One problem with the movie is the question of time; it's almost impossible to know how much time is elapsing between events. We go from the Congress of Vienna to Napoleon on Elba, to Napoleon returning to France, to a panicky call- up of allied forces, to scenes of Napoleon advancing through France (entirely on foot, it appears). How long did all this take? A week? Three months? We're never told. I suppose that the original audience must have learned this history in school, and it wasn't thought necessary to spell out the details, just as a modern American film assumes that the audience has some knowledge of American geography, and doesn't find it necessary to explicitly state the distance between, say, Washington and New York. It's just assumed that the audience will roughly know where they are on the map.

Naturally, the real hero of the story is the Prussian commander, Blucher. Napoleon is a menacing, though intermittent, presence in the first half hour, and then disappears entirely for the next hour. Wellington has even less screen time until we get to the actual battle of Waterloo, and despite his nickname of "The Iron Duke", we see him on the verge of cracking under the pressure until a message from Blucher FINALLY makes it to him, and steels him to hold out until rescue comes. The scenes of the Prussians creeping through the woods towards the battlefield remind me of "Siegfried" - the Germans really did love those shots of tall trees with shafts of hazy light slanting down; it's only proper that this image should be evoked again to portray another German hero.