TIME MACHINE: Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (1875-1914)

 

TIME MACHINE: ASSASSINATION OF ARCHDUKE FRANZ FERDINAND OF AUSTRIA (1875-1914)

June 28 marked the 100th anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary (present day Bosnia-Herzegovina). Also killed was his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg. Franz Ferdinand was not only an Archduke of Austria-Hungary, but also a Royal Prince of Hungary and Bohemia; and from 1889 until his death, the heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne.

The assassination had been planned by a group of assassins (five Serbs and one Bosnian) coordinated by a Bosnian-Serb named Danilo Ilić. The political objective of the assassination was to break off Austria-Hungary's south-Slav provinces so they could be combined into a Yugoslavia. The assassins' motives were consistent with a movement that will later became known as Young Bosnia. Also involved in the plot were Dragutin Dimitrijević, Chief of Serbian Military Intelligence; his assistant Major Vojislav Tankosić, and a spy named Rade Malobabić.

During a meeting held in January 1914, the group discussed possible Austro-Hungarian targets for assassination that include Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The participants eventually decided to send Mehmed Mehmedbašić to Sarajevo, to kill the Governor of Bosnia, Oskar Potiorek. However, Mehmedbašić ditched his weapons, while traveling from France to Bosnia-Herzegovina via the train, when the police was searching for a thief. Upon his arrival in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Mehmedbašićhe tried to search for new weapons. When his searched delayed the attempt on Potiorek, Ilić summoned Mehmedbašić and on March 26, 1914; informed the latter that the mission to kill Potiorek had been cancelled. The group decided to assassinate Franz Ferdinand, instead. Ilić recruited two Serbian youths, Vaso Čubrilović and Cvjetko Popović on April 19, 1914; to kill Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. Unbeknownst to them, three Serbian youths living in Belgrade – Gavrilo Princip, Trifko Grabež and Nedeljko Čabrinović – expressed an eagerness to carry out an assassination. They approached a fellow Bosnian Serb and former guerrilla fighter to transport arms to Sarajevo and participate in the assassination.

Franz Ferdinand, the Duchess of Hohenberg and their party traveled by train from Ilidža Spa to Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. Governor Oskar Potiorek met the party at Sarajevo station. Six automobiles were waiting. Three local police officers got into the first car with the chief officer of special security. Franz Ferdinand, the Duchess, Governor Potiorek, and Lieutenant Colonel Count Franz von Harrach rode in the third car. The motorcade passed the first assassin, Mehmedbašić, who had failed to act. Vaso Čubrilović armed with a pistol and a bomb, also failed to act. Further along the route Nedeljko Čabrinović, who possessed a bomb, tossed the latter at Franz Ferdinand's car at 10:10 am. However, the bomb bounced off the folded back convertible cover and into the street. The timed detonator caused it to explode under the next car, wounding 16 to 20 people. Čabrinović swallowed his cyanide pill and jumped into the Miljacka River, but his suicide attempt failed. The police dragged Čabrinović out of the river and he was severely beaten by the crowd before being taken into custody. Franz Ferdinand's procession sped away towards the Town Hall.


Franz Ferdinand and the Duchess returned to the motorcade at 10:45 am. and entered the third card. In order to avoid the city center, General Oskar Potiorek decided that the royal car should travel straight along the Appel Quay to the Sarajevo Hospital. The driver, Leopold Lojka, turned right into Franz Josef Street. After learning about the failed assassination attempt, Princip decided to make another attempt on the Archduke's life on the latter's return trip. He moved to a position in front of a delicatessen off Appel Quay. The Archduke's motorcade made the mistake of following the original route. Governor Potiorek, who shared the Imperial couple's vehicle, ordered the driver to reverse and take the Quay to the hospital. Lojka stopped the car close to where Princip was standing. The latter stepped forward and fired two shots from a Belgian-made 9×17mm Fabrique Nationale model 1910 semi-automatic pistol. The first bullet wounded the Archduke in the jugular vein. The second bullet hit the Duchess in her abdomen. Princip was immediately arrested. At his sentencing, Princip stated that his intention had been to kill Governor Potiorek, rather than the Duchess. Both victims remained seated upright, but died on the way to the Governor's residence for medical treatment. As reported by Count Harrach, Franz Ferdinand's last words were "Sophie, Sophie! Don't die! Live for our children!", followed by six or seven utterances of "It is nothing." These mutterings were followed by a long death rattle. Sophie was dead upon arrival at the Governor's residence. Franz Ferdinand died 10 minutes later.

Alfred, 2nd Prince of Montenuovo, Franz Joseph's Chamberlain, hated Franz Ferdinand and Sophie with a passion and with the emperor's connivance, decided to turn the funeral into a massive and vicious snub. He disinvited foreign royalty, the dead couple's three children were excluded from the few public ceremonies and only the immediate Imperial family attended. Even the Austro-Hungarian officer corps was forbidden to salute the funeral train. However, this was nothing in compare to the political aftermath of the assassinations.

Not only was Princip captured, but also his fellow conspirators. They were all tried and convicted by early 1915. Ironically, Princip, who had actually pulled the trigger, was sentenced to 20 years in prison, where he died from malnutrition and disease in 1918. Only three of the conspirators were executed on February 3, 1915 - Danilo Ilić and Veljko Čubrilović. Anti-Serb rioting broke out in Sarajevo and various other places within the Austria-Hungary Empire, hours after the assassination. Country-wide anti-Serb pogroms and demonstrations were also organized throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire by Oskar Potiorek, the Austro-Hungarian governor of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The assassinations produced widespread shock across Europe. There was a great deal of initial sympathy toward Austria. Within two days, Austria-Hungary and its ally, Germany, advised Serbia that it should open an investigation on the assassination, but the Serbian government responded that the incident did not concern them. After conducting its own criminal investigation, Austro-Hungary issued what became known as the July Ultimatum, which listed demands made to Serbia regarding the assassinations within 48 hours. After receiving support from Russia, Serbia agreed to at least two out of ten demands. The government mobilized its troops and transported them by tramp steamers across the Danube River to the Austro-Hungarian at Temes-Kubin. Austro-Hungarian soldiers fired into the air to warn them off. On July 28, 1914; Austria-Hungary and its ally, Germany, declared war on Serbia. Under the Secret Treaty of 1892, Russia and France were obliged to mobilize their armies if any of the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austo-Hungary and Italy) mobilized. Russia's mobilization completed full Austro-Hungarian and German mobilizations. Soon all the Great Powers, except Italy, had chosen sides. World War I had begun.

"RANDOM HARVEST" (1942) Review

 

"RANDOM HARVEST" (1942) Review

Between 1936 and 1942, author James Hilton enjoyed a prolific period of successful collaborations with the Hollywood studios. Some of those collaborations included writing screenplays for a handful of movies. However, three of those collaborations featured the screen adaptions of a handful of his best-selling novels. One of tho latter proved to be his 1941 novel, "Random Harvest".

Like some of Hilton's previous novels, "Random Harvest" proved to a very popular piece of work that became a major best-selling hit. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) purchased the film rights to novel and set an adaptation of it in motion. Mervyn LeRoy served as the movie's director and both Ronald Colman and Greer Garson were cast in the leads.

Unlike Hilton's novel, screenwriters Arthur Wimperis, George Froeschel and Claudine West abandoned the flashback narrative device for "RANDOM HARVEST". Because the novel had kept the duel identities of "Paula Ridgeway"/Margaret Hanson a secret until the very end, the screenwriters had decided to take a different approach, realizing it would have been difficult to maintain such a secret in this particular film, especially since the characters' faces - especially the leading lady's - must be seen. So . . . instead of treating the November 1918 sequence as a flashback, the screenwriters began the movie at that very moment with a British Army officer named "John Smith" confined to an asylum as an unidentified inmate.

On the day the war ends, the asylum's gatekeepers abandon their posts to join the celebration in the nearby Midlands town of Melbridge, and Smith follows him into town. There, he meets a music hall named Paula Ridgeway (stage name). Following a violent encounter with the leader of Paula's traveling theatrical group, she leads Smith away from Melbridge and they end up at a small Devon village. There, the couple fall in love, get married and conceive a son. Two years after they first met, Smith heads to Liverpool for a job interview at a newspaper. After a taxi hits him, while he was crossing the street, Smith regains his memories of his true self - Charles Rainier, the son of a wealthy Midlands businessman. Charles' return occurred on the day of his father's death and within a few years, assume control of the family's business. Unfortunately, Charles has lost his memories of his three years as "John Smith", including his relationship with Paula. The latter eventually discovers his whereabouts after a few years. When Paula - or Margaret Hanson - realizes that he does not remember her, she becomes his executive assistant in the hopes that her presence will jog his memories of those lost three years.

"RANDOM HARVEST" is not a perfect movie. What movie is? However, I can only think of one or two aspects about it that failed to impressed. It is quite clear that most of "RANDOM HARVEST" had been filmed inside a soundstage or on the MGM backlot. I have no general issues with this. In fact, I really admired Cedric Gibbons' art directions and Edwin B. Willis' set designs for the Melbridge street scenes. But there is one particular sequence - "Smith" and Paula's time in Devon - that looked particularly fake to me. I just did not find the Devon countryside featured in this movie convincing. But I really had a problem with the film's costume designs and hairstyles. "RANDOM HARVEST" was set during the years between 1918 and 1935. The movie had been shot and released in 1942. Robert Kalloch's costume designs did not reflect the movie's time period, as shown in the images below:

  

There was nothing about the dresses, suits, gowns, shoes and even the hairstyles that seemed to convey 1918-1919, the 1920s, or the early-to-mid 1930s.

But aside from these quibbles, I must be honest. I really enjoyed "RANDOM HARVEST". I have always enjoyed "RANDOM HARVEST". Between Mervyn LeRoy's direction and the screenplay written by Claudine West, George Froeschel and Arthur Wimperis; MGM released a movie that I believe proved to be one of the best romantic films I have ever seen. But the film's romance was enhanced by World War I's consequences upon Charles Ranier/John Smith's life and memories. "RANDOM HARVEST" not only struck me as a romantic film, but also a melancholic and sometimes, heartbreaking movie. Also, for a movie with a running time of 125 minutes, "RANDOM HARVEST" managed to maintain a steady pace, thanks to Mervyn LeRoy's direction. I found this mind boggling, considering I have found the pacing of many old movies from the 1930s and 1940s to be rather slow . . . almost to the point of dragging the movies to a stop. Thankfully, "RANDOM HARVEST" managed to convey a poignant and melancholy romance without putting me to sleep.

Certain aspects in the film's narrative managed rise "RANDOM HARVEST" above the usual tearjerker. The emotional impact of World War I upon Charles resulted in the creation of the melancholic and sad man struggling to deal with his amnesic state during the film's first half hour or so. Another scene featured Kitty Chilcet's - the stepdaughter of Charles' sister and his fiancee - discovery that he was not in love her. It proved to be one of the film's most haunting and emotionally devasting moments. One fabulous scene featured the revelation of Charles' secretary Margaret Hanson as Paula Ridgeway, the music hall entertainer he had married not long after the war. This revelation had led to a heartbreaking conversation between Margaret and Charles' former analyst and head of the Melridge asylum, Dr. Jonathan Benet, in which he advised her not to force her true identity upon Charles for the sake of his mental health. What made the film's second half even more poignant was Margaret's struggles to remain silent about hers and Charles' past, while stuck in what seemed like an arranged marriage between businessman and secretary.

"RANDOM HARVEST" managed to earn seven Academy Award nominations. Two of them were in the acting category - Best Actor for Ronald Colman and Best Supporting Actress for Susan Peters. For me, the two acting nominations served as a hint of the film's level of acting skills from the cast. There was not a performance that did not trouble me. The movie featured solid performances from Bramwell Fletcher, Rhys Williams, Melville Cooper, Jill Esmond, Alan Rapier, Ivan F. Simpson, Margaret Whycherly and Arthur Margetson. Una O'Connor and Reginald Owen both provided brief, yet entertaining performances as Melbridge citizens that Charles/"Smithy" had encountered on the night he had left the asylum. Henry Travers gave a poignant performance as doctor that the pair had befriended during their stay in Devon. Dutch actor Philip Dorn gave an intelligent, yet surprisingly emotional performance as Dr. Jonathan Benet, the gentle head doctor of the Melbridge asylum, who fell in love with Margaret/Paula years later.

Susan Peters reached the peak of her career in her portrayal of Kitty Chilcet, the step-daughter of Charles' sister. She gave an intelligent, yet lively performance as the charming, yet patient schoolgirl who managed to win Charles' heart. But in one scene in which Kitty realizes that Charles had memories of another love that would lead him to regard her as a stranger, Peters elevated her game and gave a subtle, yet skillful performance that led to an Oscar nomination for her. Of the three main leads, Greer Garson did not receive an acting nomination for her performance in "RANDOM HEART". Which seemed a pity to me, because I believe she really knocked it out of the ballpark as Margaret Hanson/"Paula Ridgeway", the music hall entertainer-turned-secretary who managed to win over Charles with her quiet wit, charm and warmth. Her rendition of the music hall song, "She's Ma Daisy", is something to behold. I believe Garson really shined in the film's second half, as her character struggled to nudge Charles into regaining his memories as "Smithy" and at the same time, keep her emotions and other identity in check during her "marriage of convenience" to him. In the end, Garson ended up being nominated for her performance in "MRS. MINIVER". She won in the end, but I cannot help wishing she had been nominated for her performance in "RANDOM HARVEST". For years, I have always pinpointed Ronald Colman as an actor known for his charm, dash and some acting skills. But in recent years, I have realized that I had underestimated just how skillful an actor he was. I thought he had given a phenomenon performance as a World War I amnesiac, who discovers he is a scion of a wealthy family. In scenes that featured "Smithy"'s confusion during the film's first thirty minutes, his confusion over his growing emotional dependence on Margaret and especially that one moment in which he regarded Kitty as a stranger, when his memories as Smithy returned briefly made me realize what a superb actor Colman truly was. It seemed a pity that he did not win the Best Actor award for that year.

It seems a miracle to me that Hollywood or anyone else has never considered making another serious adaptation of James Hilton's 1941 novel. Granted, that filmmaker or television producer would probably have great difficulty overcoming the ghost of the 1942 adaptation. I might as well say it . . . "RANDOM HARVEST" is excellent adaptation of Hilton's novel. Mervyn LeRoy did an excellent job in maintaining a strong pacing for such a melancholic story. Screenwriters Claudine West, George Froeschel and Arthur Wimperis had made some changes that proved to be very effective for the film's narrative. But without the excellent cast led by superb performances from Ronald Colman and Greer Garson, who knows if "RANDOM HARVEST" would have become the classic it now is.

"RANDOM HARVEST" (1942) Photo Gallery

 

Below are images from "RANDOM HARVEST", the 1942 adaptation of James Hilton's 1941 novel. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy, the movie starred Ronald Colman and Greer Garson:




"RANDOM HARVEST" (1942) Photo Gallery