The Sovereign

The Sovereign — Plot

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).

• Release date
• March 17, 1937
• Runtime
• 103 min
• Genres
• Drama
• Director
• Veit Harlan

The Sovereign — 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