Once upon the time in the early 1920s in the beautiful city of Aachen, when Max Ophüls was still an actor engaged at the city's Stadttheater, there came the great Albert Bassermann. He was touring the land with a production of Gerhart Hauptmann's "Kollege Crampton" with him in the lead and local actors taking the minor parts. All Bassermann actually did was to instruct his fellow actors how to (re-)act beforehand. Thus he told Max Ophüls : "Young man, there will be this scene when my character gets sacked in front of all the others. I will take it the hard way and you will pat me on the shoulder." Comes the performance and the beforementioned scene, Bassermann is standing there with his back(!) turned to the audience facing Ophüls. At that moment Ophüls gets struck by awe and surprise, for there are real tears streaming down Bassermann's face and for a moment he cannot even move, when he hears a very low voice besides him: "Now, young man pat me on the shoulder!" ;-)
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