This film is a fascinating showcase for Emil Janning's theatrical play. He's a gentle school teacher who believes in his boys and is easily fooled about all things, while the other town officials want him dismissed. Curiously it's very hard to see what the film is exactly aiming for. Disaster strikes and the lax prof proves to be too far removed of the real problems of the world, on the other hand his enemies are shown in the most unsympathetic, satirical way denouncing the militaristic, bourgeois ideology of the Kaiserreich.
Acting
Jannings weeps, rages, and crumples on cue—Oscar bait before Oscars existed.
Direction
Froelich can't decide if he's making tragedy or satire, commits to both.
Director
Carl Froelich
Emil Jannings
Prof. Niemeyer, gen. Traumulus
Hilde Weissner
Jadwiga, seine Frau
Hans Brausewetter
Rechtsanwalt Falk
Hilde von Stolz
Lydia Link
Harald Paulsen
Niemeyers Sohn
Hans Richter
Primaner Franz Graf von Mettke
Hannes Stelzer
Kurt von Zedtlitz, Gymnasiast
Herbert Hübner
Landrat von Kannewurf
Ernst Waldow
Assessor Mollwein
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released under Goebbels's watch, its ambivalent nostalgia for Kaiserreich values reads differently than intended—survival through obscurity.
Jannings would soon star in Nazi propaganda; this role's crushed idealist haunts retrospectively.
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