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Kleists "Zerbrochener Krug" demonstrates that even "classical poets" have written plays that are devilishly funny and remain a joy to watch over hundreds of years. When we had to read it as students in a German high school, it was an exhilarating surprise among the usual fare. We even acted it out in class, with much giggling, even though we certainly did not reach Emil Janning's finesse of the movie, which was made well before our school years. His portrayal of the village judge Adam, ever so sly but not a bad guy, trying to extricate himself from the closing web of personal mishaps, and under the eye of a stern inspector to boot, gives the play its full due. The other actors are all very good too, with the one unfortunate exception of Lina Carstens - not a well-known actress - as Frau Marthe; she talks at a rapid-fire rate on the top of her voice, and is thus hard to understand in the old movie. Elisabeth Flickenschildt as Frau Brigitte shows how it's done right.

When I saw this movie it had no subtitles and I had to guess. I thought it was about a store owner in Holland who was being audited and a customer was trying to get their money back or a replacement of their jug. But the rest of the story was more confusing so I had to look up the story to make clear what I saw.Emil Jannings plays a judge in a small dutch town who wakes up , in the morning, beaten up as he was in a fight. It turns out that the legal inspector is coming in to check the town. It turns out that Lina Carstens is going to court because she accused Paul Dauhlke , her daughter boyfriend, of breaking her jug. Her daughter is convincing her that he didn't do it. She knows who did . But she's afraid to tell . It was Adam the judge .Her boy friend is being drafted to the dutch indie army and Adam knows how to get him out.This was one of the few actual non propaganda that Emil Jannings did and that it was a comedy. It's based on a play created in the 1800's. It was consider a risky experiment to make into a movie to Goebels.Adam as judge fights to conceal the fact that he did it. Lina Carsten accuses Paul for and he argues that he didn't. Until one of the village ladies found his wig. Which every one in court starts to realize who's the culprit. Eva the daughter fearlessly reveals the truth, She saw Adam. The visual shtick is here .The wig showing up is hilarious. How Adam fights to deny it . Whats unusual for a German classic film is that at the end they show the actors who were in it .Visually only. It was shot like a stage play and Lina Carsten was doing some stage type acting. Although it didn't fit the film mode ,it made it more funnier.

Village magistrate Emil Jannings wakens with wounds fore and aft on his head and a severe hangover. On top of that, his clerk tells him that the Inspector General has just suspended the judge in the next town over and is on his way her. Get the sausages out of the court records! Go to the parson's house to borrow his wig! When the IG shows up, he has Jannings conduct court; the case involves a jug supposedly broken by the lady's daughter's fiancee, but matters are darker than that, and as the case proceeds its erratic way, it becomes clear to the audience that the bumbling judge is in it up to his perrukeless, battered skull.

A decade earlier, Jannings had been acclaimed the world over for his movie roles; sound may have driven him back to Germany, but he is wonderful as the bumbling nitwit judge in this movie adapted from a comedy by Heinrich von Kleist. Jannings co-directs with Gustave Ucicky, and for what is basically a one-set play, it's opened up marvelously with a camera nicely handled by Fritz Arno Wagner. All of which is unnecessary; the opening is a perfect silent comedy.