The mysterious wreck
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The mysterious wreck |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1954 |
| length | 79 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Herbert Ballmann |
| script | Kurt Bortfeldt |
| production | Eduard Kubat for DEFA |
| music | Joachim Werzlau |
| camera | Götz Neumann |
| cut | Lieselotte Johl |
| occupation | |
| |
The mysterious wreck is a German children's film of the DEFA of Herbert Ballmann from the year 1954. The criminal or spy film based on the story by Gerhard Bengsch , in 1952 in the booklet novel series The New Adventures appeared.
action
The children Peter, Hans, Frieda and Hein are a sworn circle of friends. They often spend their time together in a bunker that has been converted into a ship and blown up on the beach of the Baltic Sea and play deep-sea fishing. Peter is the captain of the "ship" and has a strong imagination - much to the displeasure of his big brother Karl, who as a policeman at the German border police has to warn Peter time and again and calls him a "nut" in front of his friends. When the children Wolfgang and Ilse, relatives of Hans and Frieda, come to the coast from Berlin during the holidays , Peter and Wolfgang become friends. Wolfgang encourages Peter to swim a wreck of a ship lying in the sea not far from the shore, in which both hope to find a compass for their toy boat. In fact, they discover a compass in the wreck, but are warned by their comrades on guard that the police are close. They return to land unsuccessful.
During the night Peter and Wolfgang sneak out of the house and secretly return to the wreck. Here they think they are hearing other men and a short time later they find part of a shoe sole. In fact, there are two men on board who bring incendiary tubes disguised from the wreck as a baking aroma. On land, one of them falls over the roof into the children's boat and loses a tube inside without being noticed. Wolfgang and Peter find it, but consider it a baking ingredient. However, they go looking for the man with the broken sole, but only Frieda makes them aware that Comrade Liebscher is wearing a broken shoe. The children report to the police that Liebscher was apparently on the shipwreck the night before. The police, on the other hand, repeatedly discovered strange ships in their waters the night before, but were never able to circle them in time because of the fog banks. Obviously the wreck is the target of the ships, which formerly belonged to the Baron von Bleich. Von Bleich used to be the large landowner in the region, was expropriated and now lives in West Germany.
A short time later, the worker Schmudde was arrested by the police when he tried to smuggle two boxes full of margarine . He had received this order from Liebscher in the inn from Egon Schmalz, who is to smuggle dynamite into the GDR on behalf of the baron . Then weapons should follow. The dynamite is said to be used to carry out explosive attacks on the houses of the so-called new farmers, who now own the baron's former land. These attacks are intended to bring down the political system of the GDR and prepare the baron's return. The baron was formerly an SS-Standartenführer , Liebscher an SS man under his command. Schmudde, who has now been arrested, has a tube of baking aroma with him, which the police identify as a fire tube. Wolfgang and Peter rush to their ship in which they have found a similar tube and want to bring it to the police. Not far, they see a rubber dinghy on the beach that apparently wants to leave for the wreck. Both boys are overwhelmed by the Baron, Liebscher and Egon Schmalz and brought to the wreck. When the police approached, everyone got on board one of the baron's speedboats and flee from the police boats. Wolfgang and Peter manage to overpower Liebscher and get on deck. Since the situation of the speedboat seems hopeless in view of several police ships, the baron lit the dynamite on board and escapes with Schmalz and others on a dinghy. Wolfgang and Peter throw the burning dynamite overboard.
The dinghy is found by the police and the men arrested. During interrogation, however, they pretend to have drifted into the waters of the GDR in the fog and to have waited for help in the dinghy after an unfortunate loss of the ship. In the meantime, however, the ship with the boys on board was found by the police and brought ashore. When the baron realizes that he has been convicted, he wants to flee and is overwhelmed by the police. Karl, in turn, is proud of his little brother Peter and promises him never to call him a weirdo again.
production
The mysterious wreck was based on the story of the same name by Kurt Bortfeldt, who also wrote the screenplay for the film. The film was shot in December 1953 in the Babelsberg studio , on the island of Rügen and on the Baltic coast. Artur Günther created the buildings, Eduard Kubat was production manager. It was the first DEFA children's film by the DEFA children's and youth film production group.
The film premiered on June 4, 1954 in the Babylon cinema in Berlin and in the DEFA film theater Kastanienallee. With over 4 million viewers, it is one of the successful DEFA films. It first ran on DFF 1 on July 2, 1954, and was released on DVD by Icestorm in March 2012.
Artur Günther designed the film structures . Hans Neie, who played Bruno Schulz, represented the GDR in competitions as a cyclist at a young age and later moved to the Federal Republic, where he earned his living as a businessman.
criticism
The GDR's contemporary criticism emphasized the didactic aspect of the film: “What will our children learn from this film? You will learn about the responsible work of our People's Police. Their often hard service is done for them too, for the children. They are the children's friends. There are enemies of the GDR who are trying to disrupt the development and peaceful life in our villages and cities. You have to be on your guard against them ... "
For the lexicon of international films , The Mysterious Wreck was "[p] olitisch unambiguous entertainment with a clearly structured plot, in which the willingness of the East German border organs to fight is made understandable for children as well as the dangerousness of the West." Die Zeit called Das Mysterious Wrack 1954 one "Refined inflammatory film against the western world [...] here the totalitarian state propaganda, supported by a dramatic film plot, is supposed to affect the young audience."
In retrospect, Ralf Schenk remarked that Herbert Ballmann's children's film debut “became a song of praise for the work of the People's Police on the Baltic coast; there, with the help of vigilant minors, western agents are put down. "
literature
- F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 199-200 .
Web links
- The mysterious wreck in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The mysterious wreck at filmportal.de
- The mysterious wreck at the DEFA Foundation
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cf. progress-film.de ( Memento from September 6, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
- ↑ Neue Filmwelt , No. 11, 1954.
- ↑ The mysterious wreck. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 8, 2018 .
- ↑ Horst Zeiler: The wise Kremlin raven. Political film business with children . In: Die Zeit , No. 32, August 12, 1954, p. 20.
- ^ Ralf Schenk (Red.), Filmmuseum Potsdam (Hrsg.): The second life of the film city Babelsberg. DEFA feature films 1946–1992 . Henschel, Berlin 1994, pp. 111, 113.