| The Merry Wives of Windsor | |
|---|---|
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| 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 |
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Running time | 96 minutes |
| Country | East Germany |
| Language | German |
The Merry Wives of Windsor (German:Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor) is a 1950East Germanmusicalcomedy film directed byGeorg Wildhagen. It was based onWilliam Shakespeare'splay by the same name.
InElizabethan England, SirJohn 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 operaThe Merry Wives of Windsor composed byOtto Nicolai with alibretto bySalomon Hermann Mosenthal which was based onWilliam Shakespeare'splay of the same title. It was made by the state-ownedDEFA 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 theSocialist 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]
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