Maedchen in Uniform

The Brattle has resurrected another museum piece, this time in the form of a German film made in 1931. Maedchen in Uniform does have some antique interest. As the Museum of Modern Art introduction says, its photography does have a bit of the modern freedom, but the "during" shots are easily recognized: they are used over and over again. Maedchen's musical background is also interesting, largely because it occurs so rarely. Unless one is a connoisseur of the development of the movie industry, however, he will find Maedchen only moderately absorbing, for the plot is a little lacking in intensity. The acting, at any rate, unlike that in many old movies, never seems ridiculous; in fact, it is very good.

The story of the struggle for love and sympathy amid the discipline of a German girls' school, Maedchen has all the characters one would expect. At one extreme, there is the headmistress, who is the essence of rigidity, both in attitude and in bearing (she appears to be slightly rheumatic). At the other, there are the repressed girls, led by one especially revolutionary gamin. Between them are the two figures who bear the main stress of the struggle, the sensitive orphan who needs sympathy and the teacher who must endanger her position to give the girl the love she needs. This plot has the makings of a very moving drama, but its potential is never realized, for the two leading characters are not developed enough to make one feel intimately the urgency of their problem. Because the film focuses so much on the school as a whole, one never sees how the teacher thinks, and it is difficult to become involved in her problem. With this sort of treatment, neither of the two main characters becomes vibrantly human; the teacher's choice seems too obvious, and the girl merely represents the need for sympathy in the school as a whole.

Within the limitations of this plot, the acting is superb. The teacher, played by Dorothea Wieck, is effective because she acts with amazing restraint. Hertha Thiele, as the tear-stained orphan, is occasionally coy, but she is usually anemic, thus revealing her psychological state. Director Leontine Sagan, however, pushes her a little too far in the last scene, where she becomes a sort of warmed-over Ophelia. Luckily, the acting is not generally so melodramatic, and the cast as a whole is very good. Maedchen is, perhaps worth seeing, if only for the sake of proving to oneself that the acting style of twenty-five years ago is not always ludicrous.