The Final Chord

An early work by Douglas Sirk, who at the time was still directing in Germany under the name Detlef Sierck. After committing insurance fraud, Hanna (Maria von Tasnady) and her husband are forced to flee Germany. They find a new home in America. However, during their escape, they leave their child—a little boy named Peter—behind in an orphanage. The uncertainty awaiting them in that distant land was simply too great. After her husband’s death, Hanna returns to her homeland—determined to track down her son. When she learns that he has been taken in as a foster child by the wealthy Garvenberg family, she successfully applies for a position as a nanny there. In the home of Charlotte (Lil Dagover) and Erich Garvenberg (Willy Birgel)—a famous conductor hoping to save his marriage through a child—no one suspects who Hanna really is. Very quickly, she wins over Peter’s heart—and that of the head of the household as well. Detlef Sierck was forced to flee Germany in late 1937 because of his Jewish wife and his political criticism of National Socialism. After his first American film in 1943, he successfully established himself in Hollywood under the name Douglas Sirk. Sirk is considered one of the great directors of the studio system and remains known to this day for his film melodramas of the 1950s. Films with star-studded casts and opulent productions, such as *All That Heaven Allows*, *Written in the Wind*, and *As Long as There Are People*, are considered seminal works for the entire genre. Among Sirk’s body of work, *Final Chord* is regarded as his first melodrama.