The Sovereign
Overview
Der Herrscher (The Sovereign) was based on Before Sunset, a play by Gerhart Hauptmann. The great Emil Jannings stars as Mathias Clausen, a self-made businessman who is forced to do a great deal of soul-searching when his wife unexpectedly dies. Determining to start life anew, he falls in love with his secretary Inken (Marianne Hoppe) and impulsively takes a vacation to Italy. Clausen's selfish grown children, not wishing to share their father's affections -- nor his money -- with his new wife-to-be, go to court demanding that Clausen be declared mentally incompetent. Upon finding this out, Clausen flies into a rage, leaving the audience to wonder whether or not he really as gone off his trolley. Der Herrscher was directed by Veit Harlan, more famous (or notorious) for his viciously anti-Semitic Jud Suess (1940).
Cast
Emil Jannings
Matthias Clausen
Marianne Hoppe
Inken Peters
Hilde Körber
Bettina Clausen
Käthe Haack
Ottilie Klamroth
Herbert Hübner
Direktor Erich Klamroth
Maria Koppenhöfer
Klothilde Clausen
Paul Bildt
Diener Winter
Heinrich Schroth
Direktor Hofer
Max Gülstorff
Sanitätsrat Geiger
Harald Paulsen
Rechtsanwalt Hanefeld
Paul Wagner
Professor Wolfgang Clausen
Hannes Stelzer
Egert