Directed by:
Max OphülsScreenplay:
Carl ZuckmayerComposer:
Oscar StrausCast:
John Lodge, Edwige Feuillère, Aimé Clariond, Jean Debucourt, Gabrielle Dorziat, Marcel André, Jean-Paul Le Chanois, Raymond Aimos, Gilbert Gil, Colette Régis (more)Plots(1)
Director Max Ophuls managed to get three productions before the cameras in 1940, the best of which was De Mayerling a Sarajevo. In his characteristic pageant-like fashion, Ophuls traces the fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire by spiritually linking the tragic 19th century romance of Crown Duke Rudolph and Baroness Maria Veretsa to the 1914 assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and the subsequent outbreak of WW1. According to the film, Ferninand (played by American actor John Lodge) was no slouch in the romantic department himself; but unlike his predecessor Rudolph, the Archduke is permitted to marry his mistress (Edwige Feuilliere), who thereby becomes the Duchess of Hohenberg. Mistrusted by his aristocratic peers because of his progressively democratic notions, Ferdinand seems destined to be martyred at the hands of his enemies, in much the same way that Rudolph's non-royal impulses brought about his demise. One of Ophuls' favorite cinematic devices, the "court dance", is cunningly utilized in De Mayerling a Sarajevo when the lovers are prevented from attending a palace ball, symbolizing the irreparable schism between the modernistic Ferdinand and the hidebound Hapsburgs-and also presaging the deaths of the Archduke and his Duchess. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
John Lodge
USA
Best movies:
The Scarlet Empress (1934)
Little Women (1933)
Murders in the Zoo (1933)
Edwige Feuillère
France
Best movies:
L'Idiot (1946)
When a Woman Meddles (1957)
Behold the Man (1935)
Aimé Clariond
France
Best movies:
Monsieur Vincent (1947)
Royal Affairs in Versailles (1954)
Deadlier Than the Male (1956)
Jean Debucourt
France
Best movies:
Monsieur Vincent (1947)
Maigret Sets a Trap (1958)
Fearless Little Soldier (1952)
Gabrielle Dorziat
France
Best movies:
Monsieur Vincent (1947)
Judgment of the God (1952)
The Spies (1957)
Marcel André
France
Best movies:
La Belle et la Bête (1946)
The Scheming Women (1954)
Hôtel du Nord (1938)
Jean-Paul Le Chanois
France
Best movies:
Agence matrimoniale (1952)
The Case of Dr. Laurent (1957)
Without Leaving an Address (1951)
Raymond Aimos
France
Best movies:
Wooden Crosses (1932)
Port of Shadows (1938)
Mayerling (1936)
Gilbert Gil
France
Best movies:
Le Glaive et la balance (1963)
Royal Affairs in Versailles (1954)
If Paris Were Told to Us (1956)
Colette Régis
France
Best movies:
This Special Friendship (1964)
The Truth (1960)
La Nuit est mon royaume (1951)
Geneviève Morel
France
Best movies:
Agence matrimoniale (1952)
Monsieur Vincent (1947)
Men Think Only of That (1954)
Eddy Debray
France
Best movies:
The Story of the Fox (1930)
Ruy Blas (1948)
La Règle du Jeu (1939)
Henri Bosc
France
Best movies:
If Paris Were Told to Us (1956)
Hôtel du Nord (1938)
Mayerling (1936)
Gaston Dubosc
France
Louis Florencie
France
Best movies:
Les Enfants du Paradis (1945)
La Bandera (1935)
The Murderer Lives at Number 21 (1942)
Sylvain Itkine
France
Best movies:
The Story of the Fox (1930)
Grand Illusion (1937)
The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1936)