Wetterleuchten am Dachstein (1953) Online

Dated, my TV magazine wrote. True. Nevertheless: Provided you want to make a time journey you will experience a quite reliable picture of old times. This movie is serious. It's not simply a dreamworld movie. There is astonishingly much realism in it, a lot of real and precise detail, and the reality of mixed emotions, presented with not too much sentimentality.

Character drives the action. The main character - the imperious lady who runs the big and rich farm - is excellently ambivalent. The less ambivalent three "good" protagonists are charming in a way people might have been two or three generations ago. This difference is what I liked most in this movie. I also liked "Christl" (Marianne Koch). How different female charm was in these ancient times! All in all, it's not a masterpiece, there is too much cliché in this movie, but it might provide better entertainment for reality-addicted people than most of what is popular today.

The story: An imperious young widow, heir of a big and rich farm in the Austria mountains, alienates her lover. Finally she finds out that this young man has been right and that she has been awfully wrong in humiliating him. But now, while she finds this out, and to the surprise of both protagonists, an "unlikely" rival emerges and looks into the eyes of our hero: a poor and low, but pretty female servant works on this farm ... There are two possible ways to finish this story ...