The man who is looking for his murderer
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The man who is looking for his murderer |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1931 |
| length | 98 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Robert Siodmak |
| script |
Ludwig Hirschfeld , Curt Siodmak , Billie Wilder |
| production |
Erich Pommer for UFA |
| music | Friedrich Hollaender |
| camera |
Konstantin Tschet , Otto Baecker |
| cut | Viktor Gertler |
| occupation | |
| |
The man who seeks his murderer is a German comedy film by Robert Siodmak from 1931. It is one of the director's fragmentary films.
action
Hans Herfort wants to shoot himself because he is in debt. Shortly before the shy suicide attempt , however, he surprises the burglar Otto Kuttlapp, who is just entering Hans' apartment. Otto, on the other hand, is quite astonished when Hans, threatened with the gun, tells him to finally shoot him. Otto does not want to become a suicide helper, but consults with his organization "White Weste" about the circumstances under which he could assist with suicide . Since, in the worst case, he faces three years in prison, he wants 5,000 Reichsmarks to be paid every year - Hans agrees and draws up a corresponding contract. However, since Otto is not ready to commit murder so unprepared, he asks himself twelve hours to execute it. During this time he has to murder Hans, but he doesn't know when and where.
Hans goes to a nightclub, where he sees his friends, but remains alone at the bar. The young kitty asks him to dance in order to escape her ungodly admirer, the insurance clerk Adamowski. Otto tries his first assassination attempt with a bomb with a time fuse, which is stolen by a pickpocket. In the taxi, Hans reveals to Kitty that he will be murdered. She is horrified. In the apartment she tries to prevent a possible murder attempt on Hans by closing the blinds and switching off the lights, and in doing so she actually drives Otto, who is lurking outside the window, to despair. Exasperated, he hands over the murder assignment to the professional Jim.
As Hans had his own obituary posted in the newspaper, his four friends hurried to his apartment the next day, where they found him alive. Together they decide to find Otto and dissuade him from the murder. Hans is almost completely masked and transported in the ambulance as a seriously injured person, so that he is not recognizable. Otto, however, who thinks he is being followed by the police, promptly uses the ambulance as an escape vehicle until Hans can numb him with ether and stop the car. Since Otto admits that he has already sold the job to another killer, Hans voluntarily allows the police to arrest him for a minor matter. He promptly ends up in the cell in which his new killer Jim is imprisoned, but does not reveal himself to him. They break out together and Jim rushes to Hans' apartment, since he only has a few minutes left to deal with the murder. Hans reveals himself, but sees through the apartment window that Kitty is kissing a strange man - in reality Adamowski is only trying to calm down Kitty, since he was able to raise money to release Hans from the contract. Five minutes before his death he wants to at least face his rival and Jim understands that.
In the apartment there are hectic scenes, allegations and door slamming, which make the murder impossible for Jim standing in front of the window. He rushes into the apartment, the shot from the pistol misses, a thrown knife gets stuck in the door and while the fuse of the thrown bomb is slowly burning down, Adamowski offers Jim 25,000 Reichsmarks to keep everyone alive. Jim agrees. The bomb only destroys the apartment. A short time later, in the rubble of the apartment, the wedding of Kitty and Hans takes place, which is attended by all the members of the “White Vest”.
production
The man who is looking for his murderer was filmed from the beginning of October to December 1930 in Berlin and the Ufa studios in Neubabelsberg. It had its premiere on February 5, 1931 in the Gloria Palast in Berlin. It was first broadcast on television in 2011 by the Austrian private broadcaster Servus TV .
The version preserved today is only around 50 minutes long with five acts. The original version with nine acts and a total length of 98 minutes has been lost. The film is also known under the titles The Heavenly Candidate and Jim, the Man with the Scar (also the film title of the version received). The latter was also the title of the play by Ernst Neubach on which the film is based , which in turn is based on the novel The Sorrows of a Chinese in China by Jules Verne .
The man who is looking for his murderer is considered the first film in which Heinz Rühmann has the sole leading role. Robert Siodmak not only directed, but also wrote the script with his brother Curt and Billie (later Billy) Wilder, based on a play by Ernst Neubach . The three had previously written the script for People on Sunday .
The film was banned (under the title Jim, the man with the scar ) on October 1, 1937 by the film inspection agency.
Reviews
The lexicon of international films praised The Man Who Is Looking for His Murderer as a “fast-paced, enjoyable mixture of crime burlesque and musical, which parodies the affinity of bourgeoisie and crime with humor and verve.” Prisma describes the film as “black-humored and fast-paced crime film in gloomy pictures ”.
See also
Web links
- The man in search of his murderer in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The man who is looking for his murderer at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Pre- film to 'The man who is looking for his murderer' on ServusTV ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed October 1, 2011.
- ↑ Censorship decision ( Memento of September 3, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 57 kB)
- ↑ The man who is looking for his murderer. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed January 1, 2017 .
- ↑ The man who is looking for his murderer at prisma.de , accessed on January 16, 2017.
