The green monster (film)

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Movie
Original title The green monster
Country of production GDR
original language German
Publishing year 1962
length 371 minutes
Rod
Director Rudi Kurz
script Paul Herbert Freyer
Rudi Kurz
Werner Fehlig (Dramaturgy)
production DEFA , KAG “concrete”
for German television broadcasting
music Wolfgang Hohensee
camera Hartwig Strobel
cut Thea Richter
occupation

The green monster is a German television five-part of the DFF of Rudi Kurz from the year 1962. It is based on Wolfgang Schreyer 's novel from 1959. Background The action is set in 1954 by the CIA organized the overthrow of Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz under the Operation Success or Operation PBSUCCESS .

action

The protagonist, who was a non-commissioned officer in the German Air Force during World War II , falls into a trap in Savannah, Georgia . While on the run from the police, he finds help from an old friend, Steve Baxter, whom he knows from Augsburg from the post-war period, where they both worked in the black market business. Steve establishes contact with Don Miguel, a dubious businessman, who gives the narrator a forged Mexican passport in the name of "Antonio Morena". "Morena" is hired as a pilot at Don Miguel. As it quickly turns out, "Morena" now works for the gang The Green Monster , the United Fruit Company (UFCO), which controls large parts of Central America directly or indirectly.

“Morena's” mission is to kidnap the Guatemalan left-liberal journalist Luis Guerra and his daughter Isabel, known as Chabelita. As a result, during the attack on Guatemala, the commander of the port of Puerto Barrios , Major Guerra, Guerra's brother, is to be forced to surrender the city to the invaders . But because of the conversations with Guerra and Chabelita, “Morena” begins to reconsider his participation in the coup . He escapes through the fronts with Chabelita, but is arrested at the border as a supposed enemy of Guatemala because of his uniform. He can be saved by a friend and ends up in the capital, Guatemala City . But now the Arbenz government has overthrown due to the machinations of the UFCO. The attempt to get asylum in the Mexican embassy fails for “Moreno”, but Chabelita and Guerra, who also fled, are given protection in the embassy. In the end, "Morena" manages to smuggle Chabelita and her father to the air force base and flee to Mexico in a hijacked plane. From there they move to Cuba, where Guerra founded a progressive newspaper in which "Morena", who married Chabelita, is now working.

Difference to the novel

The actual story from 1954 is integrated into a framework plot in the cinematic present, i.e. 1962. The events in Guatemala are "told" as flashbacks. The storyline is narrated by a Czechoslovak journalist reporting from Cuba . This reporter is a fictional character that is also built into the original story: He saves “Morena” and Chabelita as boys in Chiquimula from an execution squad of the government troops - a scene that does not even appear in the book. It is unclear why this additional character was added to the scenario or the script and why it comes from the ČSSR. Another small, ideologically tinged change takes place in the fifth part of the film: Suddenly there is an underground communist group that “Morena” contacts and that helps him and his companions to escape from Guatemala.

production

A large part of the outdoor shots was shot in Bulgaria , partly in the Danube Delta , to create an exotic backdrop . The studio recordings were made in the DEFA studio for feature films in Potsdam-Babelsberg . Willi Teichmann was in charge of production , Ernst-Rudolf Pech created the film structures, and Elli-Charlotte Löffler created the costumes .

With Jürgen Frohriep and Erik S. Klein , two young actors had been found for the most important roles, who had already played an extremely contradicting duo of two Wehrmacht soldiers in the DEFA feature film Stars in 1959 . The role of Joan was occupied by Eva-Maria Hagen , Nina Hagen's mother .

The green monster was shown for the first time on DFF 1 on German television from December 16 to 23, 1962 . In addition, it was evaluated for the cinema: The five-part series was shortened to a two-part series and shown in cinemas for the first time on April 26, 1963 (Part 1) and May 3, 1963 (Part 2). In September 2011, the first five-part series on GDR television was released on DVD along with the DFF two-part series Feuerdrachen and contributions to the history of production.

criticism

The film-dienst called the green monster a "staged unbalanced film that offers exciting entertainment, but mainly derives its effect from overemphasized sensational effects and neglects the drawing of characters." "Outrageous: overly long 'political tease'", summed up TV feature film together.

Lore

DVD editions of the series were released in 2011 and 2013. The 2013 edition was published by Studio Hamburg Enterprises and has been digitally revised.

See also

literature

  • Rudi Kurz: The green and other monsters: theater, television and lifetime . Heinen, Böklund 2008, ISBN 978-3-939828-24-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The green monster. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ↑ See tvspielfilm.de