Max Mack – Die Tango-Königin (1913)

adminOctober 5, 2020

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Quote:
Hanni, the shop girl, comes from a milieu like Zille, from which she is freed, so to speak, by Ferdinand, a wealthy elderly gentleman. The first date turns into a shopping spree, and after the new clothes come a new home. Since we write the year 1913 and at that time the cinema was still chaste, Max Mack saved us the details of the Techtelmechtel. To keep the story going, they both learn the new fashion dance: Tango, which Lieutenant Lulu has tried in vain. A tango competition makes the comedy a mix-up comedy: it wins – who wouldn’t have thought it – Hanni as the tango queen.
(International Forum of Young Films 1984)

In the time of the tango frenzy, when everyone attends tango classes to carry the latest dance into the salons, it is no wonder that the film also takes possession of this graceful dance. One of the funniest and most exuberant film actresses, Hanni Weisse, an extremely fidel Berlin woman, was instructed by Vitascope to let her adorable legs bounce over the film screen in a funny posse. Of course, the standard that should be applied to the structure of the dramas should not be applied to these genres. You shouldn’t do that at all with funny pieces. They are there to pass the time, to stir up a laugh, and Hanni Weisse and the staff of humorous performers assigned to her are happy to do that. The act itself is that a ballroom company will advertise a prize for the best tango dancers and appoint the most delicate dancer to the tango queen in a festive evening. There is now such a young Berliner, whose greatest virtue is the well-knownness of his wallet and who is waving his blue notes around. He has a little friend, the nice Mie, and he wants to dare to win the tango price with him. The attempt fails. Mie fails to try at home, so the couple breaks up to find other partners for this dance. Chance brings Ferdinand together with Hanni Weisse, who is fresh from his youth, and he finds in her a dancer that suits him. Naturally they win the tango price. Hanni is appointed Tango Queen and wins such a great triumph, as even the godly Caesar did not reap in the prime of his work. Of course, there are all kinds of obstacles, mix-ups and disguises. The play offers great entertainment. The Tango Queen is really royal funny.
(Kinematographische Rundschau, November 23, 1913)

The Filmmuseum Munich processed footage from Gosfilmofond in Moscow and created a Viragenplan, on the basis of which the Federal Archives made a film copy using the Desmet color process. This was digitized in 2013 and provided a new music accompaniment by Richard Siedhoff in 2020.
(Stefan Drössler)