Docteur Praetorius

Though we may be happy with the film adaptations of Curt Goetz' plays, Goetz himself was not the best choice for director of these films (his 1938 "Napoleon ist an allem Schuld" being the exception) nor probably his own best critic in these endeavours; this first production what-so-ever after his return from exile (before his first stage production in 1950) is good proof.

One can imagine the success with the then German audience of the film, as it portrays a doctor who is looking for the cure to stupidity, the stupidity that causes wars and such-like catastrophes. That is how in general this film always is summarized thereby forgetting that the basic premise if the play is a plea for humanity and human dignity; and it is just this aspect of the play that does not come alive in this adaptation. It is strenuously busy in presenting the play despite the fine acting and the witty dialogue. The films ends with a brilliant performance of Gaudeamus Igitur.

In 1952 Curt Goetz assisted Joseph L. Mankiewicz with his adaptation of the play, which would result in "People Will Talk" (1952), a very good film starring Cary Grant.

A strange movie. Seems like Curt Goetz couldn't quite decide whether to make a comedy or not out of his play because there's a whole lot of melodrama around. In the face of two world wars, Professor Prätorius, a philanthropist and a surgeon, wants to exterminate the one danger to mankind, the microbe of stupidity, as he states in a spontaneous lecture to his male and female students. Later in that speech he utters what great a gift it is to women to have children (enthusiastic acclaim from all listeners). - One of the oddest takes here has Prätorius unnecessarily derobe the corpse of a young woman down to her waist, a seldom-seen example of nudity in early German post-war cinema.

Story proceeds in the same erratic manner, with rather rare swings to the comic side. The parts with the pregnant woman who attempts suicide and the valet who had been sentenced to death before are not funny at all, but serious to the core. They could, in fact, include some unusual statements on abortion, unmarried motherhood and death penalty but that might just as well be way out of the storyline. There is no nightshift stress or professional errors, on the contrary, Prätorius has time enough to conduct a student orchestra (the conducting scenes unfortunately add some self-admiring pathos).

The sound quality is not so good, due to the pic's 50 years of age, but camera work (Fritz Arno Wagner) is very satisfactory. Bruno Hübner is a sight to see as Shunderson, a rôle which might likewise have been played by Fritz Rasp (as it was in the remake fifteen years later). Valérie von Martens (Goetz' real-life wife) and Erich Ponto give proofs of their versatility. (By the way, that's an uncredited Horst Tappert who hands Martens her purchases in a five-second appearance during the surprise photograph of Hübner.)

We have a lot of learned uprightness in the story of "Frauenarzt", generating with a well-off doctor, paired with some funny ideas, but it leaves you unsatisfied: a strange movie.