Bandits of the Autobahn
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Bandits of the Autobahn |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1955 |
| length | 101.95 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Géza from Cziffra |
| script |
Robert Thoeren , Geza von Cziffra, Wolfgang Neuss |
| production | Arion-Film GmbH, Hamburg ( Otto Meissner , Geza von Cziffra) |
| music | Michael Jary |
| camera | Albert Benitz |
| cut | Alice Ludwig-Rasch |
| occupation | |
| |
Bandits der Autobahn is a German crime drama from 1955 by Géza von Cziffra with Hans-Christian Blech , Eva-Ingeborg Scholz , Paul Hörbiger and Charles Regnier in the leading roles. The film was inspired by real events that had happened in previous years in the Cologne-Düsseldorf area.
action
In the young Federal Republic of Germany, the police are dealing with a new form of crime. Highly criminal gangsters, the eponymous bandits of the autobahn, attack unsuspecting drivers with their car, a fast Opel captain . There are no traces of the perpetrators, because the vehicle used by the gangsters disappears immediately after the attack via the loading ramp in a five-ton, empty truck that is driving along the same route almost at the same time. The heavy truck is disguised as a company car for the transport company "Möller & Co.". The co-owner of the company, Franz Möller, is friends with the police sergeant Willi Kollanski, and he is doing his job on a day that is supposed to change his life forever. This is the starting point for the following story.
The young employee Kurt Heinze is supposed to deliver 5000 D-Marks to a business partner as a messenger on behalf of his boss. Kurt takes his boss's Porsche 356 and lets his girlfriend Eva Berger get in with him for this jaunt. However, they leave the car papers behind at the company. At night on the freeway , Kurt turns off red lights while driving. Since there have been bandits on the autobahn for some time who stop innocent drivers and rob them, he switches off his driving lights and gives full throttle. Little does he know that these red illuminated signs are a police cordon. Riot policeman Willi Kollanski is at the third locking device. The sports car breaks through the first two barriers, then Kollanski sees the car coming towards him, aims his submachine gun at the vehicle and fires a volley. Driver Kurt dies from the police bullets, while his co-driver Eva, who screams “Your murderer!” Survives. Since then, Kollanski can no longer carry out his duties unscathed, as he makes serious self-reproaches, even if his top boss, Kriminalrat Gerber, clearly stands behind him.
The press and the public, however, locate police violence behind the events. Headlines appear in the newspapers: “Murderers in Uniform”, in a cabaret Kollanski hears a vicious chanson by a cabaret singer (“If you have escaped the car bandits, the police will shoot you”), at the hairdresser's he witnesses how the boss to a Swiss customer says: “You have a completely different civil servant material in Switzerland. Who is the police with us? All young badgers, been in the war and learned nothing ... they don't even know what a human life is worth ... What can the brothers do? Shoot and wear a uniform ... with pension entitlement ... “With such reactions, Kollanski is no longer able to make an important decision about life and death during his next mission. When he actually has the real bandits of the Autobahn in front of him when the police are again blocked and they try to escape, his submachine gun remains unused and the criminals escape after these two police officers have shot.
Kollanski then decides to quit the police force and pursue the perpetrators on his own. At the same time, a tender bond develops between him, the police officer, and Eva Berger, who has lost her boyfriend through Kollanski. The gang's boss, Paul Barra, is by no means considering stopping his criminal activity despite the latest incident. He is already planning the next coup, and again a motorcycle that checks the situation as a kind of "advance command" and looks for possible victims on the motorway, the Opel captain, the actual gangster car and the heavy truck are supposed to play the decisive roles. But truck owner Möller no longer wants to participate and breaks away from the gang. This is too dangerous for Barra, and so when he tries to separate himself from his accomplice, he lets Franz Möller run over his own vice and murder him.
Meanwhile, Kollanski has tracked down the gangster. He sees through the trick with the truck and can secretly board it. The police have been informed and follow the lorry as it speeds along. The Opel captain is thrown onto the street by the bandits at full speed, and the chasing patrol car races into the vehicle. There is a scuffle between Willi and one of the gangsters, where Kollanski is shot and falls out of the truck. The five-ton truck winds its way up a serpentine. Willi, who was thrown out, pulls out his revolver and shoots gang leader Barra at the wheel of the truck. The heavy vehicle then skids and falls into the depths. Ex-police officer Kollanski can use his last strength to get to safety from the falling five-tonne truck.
Production notes
The studio of Film Aufbau GmbH in Göttingen served as a studio . The exterior shots of bandits on the Autobahn were made between May 23 and July 13, 1955 on the Cologne-Bonn-Rodenkirchen autobahn and on the highways of North Rhine-Westphalia and in Lüdenscheid . Co-producer Otto Meissner also took over the production management. Albrecht Becker , Hans Stets and Ernst Klose were responsible for the film construction. Günter Haase worked as a simple cameraman to head cameraman Albert Benitz . The film premiered on September 1, 1955 in, depending on the source, Düsseldorf and / or Cologne. The (West) Berlin premiere took place on September 22, 1955.
useful information
Director Cziffra planned to make a film about highway gangsters after reading about the tragic death of the young Helene Nettesheim in the newspaper. The 22-year-old was shot by a riot policeman on November 15, 1954 when her husband, who had no vehicle documents with him, broke a police barriers in a Porsche near Düsseldorf. The director then contacted the Hanseatic city police from his Hamburg office to ask for help. When she did not agree, Cziffra tried the Cologne police. According to a Spiegel report, Cziffra is said to have said, according to a Spiegel report, to the chief of the special commission to combat highway bandits in North Rhine-Westphalia, who was not very enthusiastic about this film material, which also did not want to exclude misconduct by police officers: “The film will definitely be turned. The only question is whether with or without your help. ”This led to a cooperation between the film people and the police.
Reviews
Der Spiegel , which called the film a “gangster magic”, wrote in its July 13th 1955 issue: “With clear parallels to the Nettesheim affair, which is reconstructed in the film with a few modifications, Cziffra ties the story of the film that he is together with the experienced Hollywood author Robert T. Thoeren ('Fanfares of Love'). "
In the lexicon of international films it says: "Well-played, exciting crime film, less successful in trying to achieve psychological depth."
Individual evidence
- ^ Alfred Bauer: German feature film Almanach. Volume 2: 1946-1955 , p. 487 f.
- ↑ Der Spiegel, 29/1955, p. 34
- ↑ Bandits of the Autobahn on Der Spiegel, 29/1955
- ↑ Bandits of the Autobahn. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2019 .
Web links
- Background report in: Der Spiegel
- Bandits highway in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Bandits of the Autobahn at filmportal.de