This Swedish film played a role in 1935 leading to the banning of Jewish citizens from owning movie theaters in Nazi Germany.  

On 12 July 1935 the film premiered at the U.T. am Kurfüstendamm cinema. Amongst the audience were many Jews who frequented the movie theater, which was nearby their businesses and homes. Once the film was underway, there was grumbling then louder remarks and finally shouts from some of these audience members, reacting against the anti–Semitic nature of the film.

This was reported in the daily press, and two days later it was made the lead story in Goebbels’ own paper, Der Angriff. On July 15th, a crowd of Germans, both in civilian clothes and also SA uniforms, gathered in front of the cinema and chased Jewish citizens away, as well as from the cinema itself and surrounding cafés. In the melee people were pushed, a glass window was broken, and some injured, including foreigners. In response to this ‘pogrom’ the Film-Kurier newspaper stated that ‘dark elements’ were involved, which believed that such opportunities existed to exploit and to bring miscredit and tumult to the country and to the Nazi ‘Movement.’ The Gestapo internal report noted that a mysterious automobile from the Russian embassy was seen slowly driving up and down Kurfürstendamm repeatedly.

A new press campaign for Pettersson & Bendel was then launched. In the weekly "Uƒa Tonwoche" newsreel released on August 7th, Goebbels is shown speaking with interposed shots of a parade through Essen, where he said: "Jews dare to protest in Berlin against an anti–semitic film, but now the moment has come when we say: this far and no farther! The foreign press does not govern Germany, we do, and we are only responsible to our own people, not to foreigners. The Führer commands, we follow!"  and then  on 15 August there were massive demonstrations organised in various cities such as Berlin, Hannover and Stuttgart, against jewish ownership of movie theaters.

Then, on 20 August the Film–Kurier newspaper sensationally reported that it was found that prints of the film shown in four Berlin cinemas had been edited and anti–Semitic dialogue removed. These prints were then compared to the official Censorship Board card (which printed all dialogue of the original release) and it was determined that certain cinema owners, two of whom were apparently Jewish, were responsible. These men were expelled from the Reich Film Chamber (which meant that they could no longer hold cinema ownership.)

In September, the infamous Nürnberg Race Laws were proclaimed at the Party Day in that city, and jewish ownership of cinemas was forbidden as one of the consequences of this new legislation.  Pettersson & Bendel was without much doubt a catalyst for this campaign, and a timely coincidence playing into the hands of Dr. Goebbels and the regime.

The short–lived film distribution company Hammer Tonfilm Verleih arranged to bring the film into Germany. Hammer Tonfilm was founded by an "Old Guard" member of the NSDAP who had the Golden Party Badge, Hans Hammer. The first 1935 release in German movie theatres was a sub–titled version, and in late 1938 the film was re–released as a dubbed version. Hammer Tonfilm was financially unstable and entered bankruptcy in 1936.

FILM PUBLICITY MATERIALS IN THE COLLECTION

The poster's imagery came from this film studio still, which was also used, in a variation, on the Swedish handbill for the film distributed by Warner Bros; shown below. Also below a second rare film still.

A second rare original still from the short–lived film studio, Hammer Film:

Also in the Collection is the German edition of the novel, published in Berlin in 1935, with a B&W photo from the film on the cover: