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Der 90. Geburtstag oder Dinner for One (1963)
OK comedy turned into tradition
The poster who compared "Dinner For One" to the candies yams on Thanksgiving comes very close to the truth of the success of "Dinner For One". The other poster who brags about the sophisticated British sense of humor doesn't seem to know that bragging with one's own sense of humor only shows that person's lack of it. Watching "Dinner For One" on New Year's Eve in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and some more European countries is a tradition and at least in Germany you have lots of dialect versions and parodies of it. "Dinner For One" may not be the greatest comedy piece on earth but it surely has its qualities, mostly butler James's absolute loyalty toward Miss Sophie which causes him year after year to act as her four late friends which seem quite different characters. This elderly man seems fully aware of the consequences of his part in this story from the very start and he hates it. His loyalty and his being caught in this tradition ("Same procedure as every year") make him a kind of tragic figure, especially when in the end you get aware that poor old James, who's already dead drunk, after dinner in Miss Sophie's bedroom may have to do the work of four men again ("Well, I'll do my very best").
I give it 7 and next year I'll watch it again.
Westward the Women (1951)
My favorite girl's fight
I've seen this film two or three times. I loved to see these courageous and valiant women fighting their way through the West (crossing mountains and deserts and fighting off hostile Indians). One of my favorite moments is the fight between two girls, after one has broken the other's glasses. No rolling on the floor screaming, scratching and pulling each others hair - no, THESE girls use their fists and give each other many a punch in the mouth. Hope Emerson does a great job, too. Oh yes, and Robert Taylor was also in it! O.K., that was a joke, Taylor is quite good as the Scout, who has to guide the women to California, but these women are the real stars of this film!
Thunder Road (1958)
Great Little Movie!
I just saw "Thunder Road" for the first time on TV this morning a 3:00 a.m. (an appropriate time of day to watch this one). For years I had been longing to watch it and I surely wasn't disappointed at all - that is, I missed "The Ballad Of Thunder Road" sung by Mitchum. Most Germans - if they have any love for America at all - dig new York City or California but I was alway haunted by the West and later by the South. Sure, I hate racist reactionary rednecks, but I love freedom-loving stubborn individualists who are doing things their own way. And Mitchum's Lucas Doolin ist a perfect example of this kind. Technically being far from perfect - this exciting little "Hillbilly Noir" movie to me is the greatest homage to the South and its people and culture! No Civil War epic can match this. Sixties movies like "To Kill A Mockingbird" or "In The Heat Of The Night" also have a great Southern feel, but they concentrate on what was wrong with the South - mainly the widespread racism. "Thunder Road" instead celebrates Southern virtues - individualism, dedication and integrity. Besides that, it shows rural life in the 50s, including rockin' teenagers and those beautiful American cars. This is an out-and-out Robert Mitchum film, he wrote the story, produced the film, played the main role and even co-wrote the music! Mitchum is not the Happy End type of guy, but he is as cool an actor as there ever was. 14 hours after seeing "Thunder Road" for the first time, I can say that alongside "Out Of The Past" and "Blood On The Moon" it is is my favorite Mitchum movie.
King Creole (1958)
Simply Elvis' Greatest Movie!
About a year and a half ago I bout the DVD for about 2 Euros and I don't remember just how often I've seen this film ever since! It simply makes you an addict, and that's because it's not an Elvis film but a serious film with Elvis in the lead role. It has the King and his music, but it has so much more - the New Orleans set, the great cast (you'll simply have to love Carolyn Jones! And you'll simply love to hate Vic Morrow - nearly as great as in "The Blackboard Jungle" - and Walter Matthau as the mob boss!). The whole atmosphere is dark and gritty thanks to Michael Curtiz' noir direction. And finally the plot - an adaptation of Harold Robbins' novel "A Stone for Danny Fisher" - is dramatic and exciting! There are more films whith great performances by Elvis - "Jailhouse Rock", "Flaming Star" or "Viva Las Vegas" - but this one really is the cream of the crop! My favorite line - a comment on the Elvis character - is Vic Morrow's: "Good boy! Fights real dirty!"
Die Halbstarken (1956)
The German JD Classic that Made Buchholz a Star
Most of German and Austrian mainstream cinema of the fifties was light musical comedy, sentimental drama or "Heimatfilm" (escapist love stories, set on the countryside - the Alps, Black Forest or Lüneburger Heide - glorifying natural environment, folklore and the "virtues" of the plain and simple country folk). There was hardly a realistic view of (West-)German society during the years of the "Economic Miracle". Young author Will Tremper did not like that sentimental stuff. Obviously influenced by Hollywood teen dramas ("The Wild One", "The Blackboard Jungle", "Rebel Without a Cause") he and director Georg Tressler in 1956 realized Germany's first look on juvenile delinquency, a film that is now regarded a classic of German post-war cinema. This one is hard, raw and realistic, omitting any false sentimentality or romanticism. Out of all German film made in the fifties it is my personal number one! The cast is fantastic, above all the lead triangle: Horst Buchholz as Freddy the leader of the pack, barely 16-year-old Karin Baal as "Sissy", a teenage "femme fatale" (Don't mind her name, she has absolutely nothing in common with the Romy Schneider character!) and Christian Doermer as Freddy's ambivalent younger brother Jan. The rest of the gang are roughly characterized and do a great job as well. Paul Wagner and Viktoria von Ballasko as Freddy's and Jan's parents as well as Stanislaw Ledinek as the Italian running an ice-cream parlor also give great performances. The storyline is as follows - In an indoor swimming pool Jan meets his brother Freddy who had moved out after a quarrel with his father, an embittered tyrant. Jan knows that his parents need 3,000 Deutschmarks (quite a lot in those days) to pay their debts. Jan asks Freddy who pretends to have a good job if he could help them. Freddy says yes, while preparing a mail car robbery that would not only allow him to help his parents but to fulfill his dream - buying a Buick Cabriolet. Jan, who seems to smell something fishy, nevertheless accompanies his brother... No spoilers, but young Baal has a great scene as the "bad girl". The film was shot on location in West Berlin and has nearly everything you are longing for - dark alleys, petticoats, leather jackets, American cars, dances, sex and crime. The only thing missing is Rock 'n' Roll. The jukebox only plays conventional jazz music. But all in all this is of minor importance. In 1957 "Die Halbstarken" could be seen - in a dubbed version, titled "Teenage Wolfpack" - in Britain and the US as well. After "Die Halbstarken" Tressler made many films and TV productions until the 1990s. Tremper continued as a screenwriter and director of nonconformist films. He passed away in 1998. While Buchholz became an international Star and died in 2003, Baal and Doermer have made their own careers in German Film and Television. They are still (2006) around and can frequently be seen on TV.
Die Landärztin vom Tegernsee (1958)
Cheryl Benard
I've seen this movie several times and last time I did I caught the name of New Orleans born Austrian Cheryl Benard playing little "Hannerl". Meanwhile she has changed from child actress to feminist writer (mostly with co-author Edith Schlaffer). Could it be that this prototype-feminist film from 1958 influenced then five year old Cheryl to later writing feminist theory? Anyway this film is much above the usual "Heimatfilm" level, dealing - in an entertaining way - with social progress (acceptance of a woman as a doctor in a small Bavarian town). Compare that to the "blood and soil" attitude of almost every other "Heimatfilm"! Also routine "Heimatfilm" characters Prack, Vogel and Haagen as well as Cologne comedian Millowitsch are doing a good job.