Der Choral von Leuthen (1933) review - Lots of marching and loud flutes

If you are looking for a fast-paced action movie to watch with popcorn on a Friday night, please stay far away from this one. You will absolutely hate it. But if you have a weird obsession with early 1930s European history films or want to see how movies looked right when sound technology was still kind of clumsy, it is actually pretty fascinating.

It is basically about King Frederick the Great of Prussia doing a lot of military stuff. He spends most of the movie looking stressed, looking at maps, and wearing a very dusty hat. 🤠

The King who never smiles

Otto Gebühr plays the king, and apparently, this guy made a whole career out of playing this exact same historical dude. He has this one specific face he makes where he squints his eyes and looks like he just smelled something bad. It is hilarious once you notice it because he does it in almost every scene.

There is a scene where he is sitting by a campfire and some soldier is trying to talk to him. The king just stares into the fire for what feels like three minutes without moving a single muscle. I honestly thought my video had frozen. 🥶

This is not a breezy watch like Day Dreams. It is a heavy, slow march through muddy battlefields and drafty castle rooms.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Der Choral von Leuthen (1933) through its definitive frames.

Some weird things I noticed

Since the movie is from 1933, the audio is super scratchy. Every time the soldiers march, it sounds like someone is shaking a bag of dry beans right next to the microphone.

• The horses look so bored: In the background of one big speech, there is a brown horse that keeps trying to eat a bush and looks completely checked out.
• The flutes are too loud: The marching music has these high-pitched flutes that actually hurt my ears a little bit.
• Uncomfortable eye contact: One actor in the background of the court scene stares directly at the camera for a solid five seconds.

Sometimes the movie gets so quiet and lonely it actually reminds me of A Man There Was. But then some general starts screaming about Prussia again and the quiet mood is totally ruined.

"A soldier must fear his captain more than the enemy!" Or something like that. They say a lot of stuff about duty and honor.

The big singing scene at the end

The whole movie builds up to the Battle of Leuthen, which is supposed to be this massive deal. But because of the budget or maybe just the technology of 1933, the actual battle looks like twenty guys running around in some smoke. It is hard to tell who is winning or what is even happening.

Then they start singing the choral song. It is supposed to be this huge, emotional, tear-jerking moment where everyone is united. But the audio is so distorted it sounds like they are singing underwater. 🌊

I did like the lighting in the church scene though. The shadows on the walls actually looked pretty cool, even if the acting was super stiff.

So yeah. It is a weird relic of a different time. Watch it if you want to travel back to 1933, but maybe keep your hand on the volume remote.