Les piliers de la société

Many German and French people know "Feurwek" (1954) starring Romy Schneider ,which,while not giving any credits to Ibsen and Sirk's writers,stole its main subject from it: a bourgeois notable sees his brother-in-law come back:he works in a circus.Shame and scandal in the family."Feuerwerk is a lite watered-down (and rather bland) version of "Stützen der Gesellschaft"

Made in Hitlerian Germany ,"Stützen der Gesellschaft " is the follow-up to "Das Mädchen vom Moorhof" .If the latter was sometimes hard on the greedy hypocrite peasants ,"Stützen" is an uncompromising put down of the bourgeoisie vitriolic style.The wealthy father,an abominable man treats his brother-in-law like a scapegoat and intends to marry his illegitimate daughter ,the Cinderella of the house ,to a less-than-handsome rich man.His wife is a hateful snub silly goose who despises his brother.So when the man of the circus comes to town ,it's only natural that the bourgeois's little boy and him (and the girl) hook up together.The storm (impressive for the time) becomes a transparent metaphor for the wreck of those so-called values which do not even respect the human being (the fishermen's plight).