This is the German-language version of 1929's "The Sacred Flame", from the W. Somerset Maugham play, shot by Warner Bros. in Hollywood with a German-speaking cast.
In the last years of his life, Bavarian king Ludwig II (1845 – 1886) devotes himself to ambitious architectural projects, which strain the state coffers to the extreme. The monarch, who is afraid of people, also withdraws more and more into a dream world at his various castles. His brother is already in a psychiatric institute and Ludwig is also eventually put under the care of psychiatrist Bernhard von Gudden. The king attempts to get out from under this guardianship at Starnberg lake…
Agnes Günther’s heart-rending fairy tale dazzled turn-of-the-century German audiences and sold hundreds of thousands of copies before being adapted into this tale of timeless passion, the beautiful The Saint and the Fool. The unapologetically sentimental classic was directed by Wilhelm Dieterle, who launched a successful career in Weimar cinema before becoming known for romantic, lush melodramas and technicolor extravaganzas, including 1945′s Marlene Dietrich unforgettable Love Letters. The dashing Dieterle himself plays Harrogate, Earl of Torstein, whose star-crossed love for the luminous Rosemarie of Brauneck (Lien Deyers, discovered by Fritz Lang) is further doomed by royal heroes and villains, the requisite evil stepmother, and fantastical elements that channel the intoxicating romance of Camille through the magic of the Brothers Grimm.
