The Merry Wives of Windsor (German: Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor) is a 1950 East German musical comedy film directed by Georg Wildhagen. It was based on William Shakespeare's play by the same name.
The Merry Wives of Windsor | |
---|---|
Directed by | Georg Wildhagen |
Written by | Otto Nicolai (opera) Salomon Hermann Mosenthal (opera) William Shakespeare (play) Georg Wildhagen Wolff von Gordon |
Starring | Sonja Ziemann Camilla Spira Paul Esser Ina Halley |
Cinematography | Eugen Klagemann Karl Plintzner |
Music by | Otto Nicolai (opera) |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Progress Film |
Release date | 22 October 1950 |
Running time | 96 minutes |
Country | East Germany |
Language | German |
In Elizabethan England, Sir John Falstaff is embroiled in attempting to have a love affair with several women, which soon turns into a humorous adventure.
The film is an adaptation of the 1849 opera The Merry Wives of Windsor composed by Otto Nicolai with a libretto by Salomon Hermann Mosenthal which was based on William Shakespeare's play of the same title. It was made by the state-owned DEFA studio on a large budget.[1]
The film was highly successful by East German standards,[2] and drew 6,090,329 viewers to the cinemas.[3] Ernst Richter noted that while "the socially critical tone was unmistakably present in the film", it was free of "heavy-handed communist propaganda."[4] Heinz Kersten characterized it as one of the last apolitical entertainment pictures produced by DEFA before the Socialist Unity Party of Germany tightened its control on the national film industry.[5] Albert Wilkening wrote it was "a significant step forward in making movies in the GDR... Wildhagen's directing was quite skillful."[6]