Based on a very long and dense 1942 novel by Ernst Lothar, 'Der Engel mit der Posaune' was originally filmed in Austria in 1948 by Karl Hartl, who is credited as the producer on this somewhat disjointed English-language remake.
Although most of the cast are now British, crowd scenes and exteriors from the German-language original have visibly been recycled, as well as Willi Schmidt-Gentner's noisy score, while extremely youthful Maria Schell and Oskar Werner reprise their parts in smaller roles (along with Anton Edthofer, who briefly reappears from the original, presumably dubbed, as Franz Josef).
Eileen Herlie brings a strong presence to this rare big screen lead as half-Jewish Henrietta Stein, who we are expected to believe it was over her rather than Marie Vetsera that Crown Prince Rudolf shot himself at Mayerling in 1889. Already thirty when the film was made and looking it, she thereafter ages extremely unconvincingly over the next five decades, although in a better film her performance would doubtless have been more impressive.
Although most of the cast are now British, crowd scenes and exteriors from the German-language original have visibly been recycled, as well as Willi Schmidt-Gentner's noisy score, while extremely youthful Maria Schell and Oskar Werner reprise their parts in smaller roles (along with Anton Edthofer, who briefly reappears from the original, presumably dubbed, as Franz Josef).
Eileen Herlie brings a strong presence to this rare big screen lead as half-Jewish Henrietta Stein, who we are expected to believe it was over her rather than Marie Vetsera that Crown Prince Rudolf shot himself at Mayerling in 1889. Already thirty when the film was made and looking it, she thereafter ages extremely unconvincingly over the next five decades, although in a better film her performance would doubtless have been more impressive.