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So Ends Our Night (1941)
German political refugee in 1937 Vienna plays poker with Austrian coins
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The 1941 film "So Ends Our Night" is a film about refugees from Nazi Germany who, having no passports
or documentation, move from country to country in Europe.
The film is based on the 1939 novel Flotsam by Erich Maria Remarque.
In 1937, Josef Steiner, a German resistance leader, escapes from a Nazi concentration camp and is living
in Vienna, Austria. He meets Ludwig Kern, a German Jew and also a refugee.
Later Ludwig meets Ruth Holland, an Austrian Jew who has lost her job, and they fall in love.
Early in the film, Steiner plays poker with some other refugees. They use an unusual European card deck.
Austrian paper money and coins are shown on a table, the coins are an Austrian silver 1 Schilling coin of
a type minted in 1925 and 1926.
1. Title
The film opens with a Foreword:
When the present rulers of Germany came into power, thousands of people, compelled to take
refuge in neighbouring countries, found themselves in the most fantastic dilemma of our times.
For they had no passports, those all-important papers which enable a person to enter and remain
in a country other than his own.
Without passports, these refugees had no legal right to live anywhere. They were forced to keep
on the march --- an endless march interrupted only by arrest and imprisonment for illegal entry,
then deportation into another country where the same fate awaited them.
This is a story of the people without passports. It begins in Vienna in 1937, before the German
occupation of Austria.
Josef Steiner and Ludwig Kern meet in an Austrian jail.
2. Josef Steiner and Ludwig Kern
Josef Steiner, an anti-Nazi German, is questioned by a visiting Gestapo officer, Colonel Brenner,
who asks him for the names of other dissidents and offers him a German passport. Steiner refuses.
Steiner's wife Marie is still in Germany and is being watched by the Gestapo.
Ludwig Kern is a 20 year old German Jew whose family was deprived of their German
citizenship due to their race.
The two men are released from jail and Steiner meets some other refugees for a poker game.
3. Steiner plays cards
They are using a European card deck with ornate figures for the face cards.
A player places his hand with four kings on a table where there is money.
4. The cards and Austrian bills and coins
There are three Austrian 1 Schilling coin reverses on the table.
These coins were minted in 1925 and 1926.
An Austrian 1 Schilling 1925:
5. Austria 1 Schilling 1925
Silver, 25.0 mm, 6.06 gm
Back to the film:
A hand with four kings is on the table and Steiner then places his hand on the table.
6. Four aces
Steiner takes the money and leaves the game.
He later visits two men who make counterfeit passports.
7. Steiner buys a fake passport
A pretty blonde woman, Elvira, is also in the room.
8. Elvira
Elvira takes a fancy to Steiner but he refuses her and leaves.
Ludwig Kern is staying in an apartment and meets Ruth Holland, also a Jewish refugee.
9. Ludwig Kern and Ruth Holland
At first she doesn't believe that refugees should fall in love but later they become a couple.
Steiner gets a job at Vienna's Prater amusement park as a carnival "barker" or announcer
for the "Potzloch's Telepathie Theatre."
10. Steiner at the attraction
Ruth leaves Ludwig to visit a school friend in Zurich and later Ludwig joins her.
11. Ludwig and Ruth
Ruth's friend has a nice place and they stay there for a while.
They return to Vienna and Steiner arranges a position for Ludwig at a shooting gallery.
A woman named Lilo runs the gallery.
The Nazis take over Austria and Gestapo men are sent to look for Steiner.
Two Gestapo men visit Lilo's shooting gallery but she refuses to answer their questions.
12. Lilo backs up her refusal
Steiner and Ludwig leave Austria and head for France where they get laboring jobs in Paris
at a construction site.
13. Steiner and Ludwig in Paris
Steiner receives a note that his wife Marie is in a Munich hospital with a short time to live.
14. Showing the money
Steiner shows Ludwig some French money which looks real.
Steiner leaves for Munich to visit his wife and Ludwig is arrested as an illegal immigrant.
Ruth has another man interested in her and she goes to see his wealthy uncle.
15. Ruth approaches the uncle
Ruth asks the uncle to use his wealth and influence to get her and Ludwig passports and tells
him that otherwise she will marry his nephew which, she being an illegal immigrant and a Jew,
will bring disgrace upon the family. The uncle agrees to her demand.
Steiner leaves some money with a man as a gift for Ludwig and Ruth and travels to Munich.
There he is arrested by the Gestapo and questioned by Colonel Brenner.
Steiner tells Brenner that he will give him the names he wants if he can see his wife.
16. Brenner makes a deal
Steiner is taken to the hospital to see his dying wife Marie.
17. Steiner sees his wife
Marie dies and Steiner joins Colonel Brenner and some other Nazis.
Steiner then pushes Brenner through a window and follows him several stories down to the street.
18. Steiner takes care of Brenner
In France, Ludwig and Ruth receive their French papers, passports, and the money Steiner
left for them. They are travelling on a train but now with passports.
19. Ruth and Ludwig discuss their future
A suggestion is made that they leave Europe.
Cast, Directors, Writers:
Fredric March as Josef Steiner
Margaret Sullavan as Ruth Holland
Frances Dee as Marie Steiner
Glenn Ford as Ludwig Kern
Erich von Stroheim as Colonel Brenner (Gestapo)
Anna Sten as Lilo (Shooting gallery)
Gerta Rozan as Elvira (Blonde)
Director: John Cromwell
Writers: Talbot Jennings, Erich Maria Remarque (novel Flotsam)
Margaret Sullavan as Ruth Holland
Frances Dee as Marie Steiner
Glenn Ford as Ludwig Kern
Erich von Stroheim as Colonel Brenner (Gestapo)
Anna Sten as Lilo (Shooting gallery)
Gerta Rozan as Elvira (Blonde)
Writers: Talbot Jennings, Erich Maria Remarque (novel Flotsam)
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