'Baron von Richter'
Can anyone shed any light on why Curd Jurgens' character - presumably von Ribbentrop - is differently named? I can't think that the character in the movie refers to anyone else.
shareI always assumed that he was the German ambassador to Switzerland, who had been recalled to Berlin for instructions on what to say to his British opposite number. Hence his interaction with the British ambassador's wife; as members of the diplomatic community in Switzerland naturally they would have known each other socially. But you may be right that he was supposed to be Ribbentrop.
shareFrom what I read recently, he may have been based on someone else; Prince Max Eugen zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg. I found this in Derek Robinson's book "Invasion 1940". Although the meeting seems to have been less hostile in real life than it was in the movie, there seem to be some parallels:
https://books.google.com.au/books?id=QPGC7PCwgRgC&pg=PA165&lpg =PA165&dq=Sir+David+Kelly+Prince+Max+Eugen+zu+Hohenlohe-Langenburg &source=bl&ots=16xy0P8Qr9&sig=eIMfhPiHUOe8H6rcmohaNJylMuk& amp;hl=en&sa=X&ei=ngOYVMWILs6A8QX0l4L4BQ&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v =onepage&q=Sir%20David%20Kelly%20Prince%20Max%20Eugen%20zu%20Hohen lohe-Langenburg&f=false
But I guess in most people's minds, he's still meant to be Ribbentrop. I'm just unsure as to why they changed his name. I guess nobody had ever heard of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.
Other than the principal main leaders most names were changed or were broadly based on real people- eg Falke on Galland, Robert Shaw's skipper on Sailor Malan, etc.
I assumed too that he was the German Ambassador to Switzerland, not Ribbontrop, and it was as in the script mainly to make a few plot points- basically exposition, and to include a few great lines!
Trust me. I know what I'm doing.
Yeah, I didn't think they'd do that with the politicians but you're probably right.
shareWell, see it from a scriptwriter's point of view; if you're introducing a minor character who will be in a single scene, it just isn't worth taxing the audience's ears with a mouthful like 'Prince Max Eugen zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg' - especially since, as you say, the scene isn't even a true representation of the Prince's meeting with Kelly. It was a fictional meeting meant to convey the essence of German/British diplomatic exchanges at that time, so they conjured up a fictional German diplomat with the kind of name and title that a typical German diplomat might have.
shareYes, of course. Scriptwriters often combine several characters into one anyway.
share