This is the movie, which its director FRANK WYSBAR later remade as STRANGLER OF THE SWAMP, earning him the directorship on such prestige projects as DEVIL BAT’S DAUGHTER. As opposed to many of his compatriots, he never claimed persecution in the old country.

Goebbels simply didn’t like his style. Nor, it would seem, did the American critics.

FÄHRMANN MARIA undoubtedly owed its release to Sybil Schmitz, who carries the movie as the woman willing to sacrifice her life for her loved one. This might easily have turned into the usual histrionics, but is instead underplayed in a way that makes it virtually impossible to take your eyes off the face of the actress.

Nor is there any reason why this would be in any way offensive to the Nazis, the young girl fully accepting the male desire to get yourself killed, at every opportunity intoning the word HEIMAT in a way that makes the swelling violins redundant. As in the inferior DER MÜDE TOD, Death is personified, delayed and finally despatched by the resourceful woman, his short visit to the village, where he plays dice with the terrified squire and engages Sybil in a dizzying dance macabre, being the highpoint of the movie.

The music is mostly delivered by a wandering fiddler as an image of the artist frowned upon by the old ferryman, who dies on the night of having fulfilled his dream of owning his ferry. As will be understood, Sybille takes over, the journey across the river being the main theme of the film, ultimately to the homeland found only in another world.