The death of a doppelganger
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The death of a doppelganger |
| Country of production | Germany , Belgium |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1967 |
| length | 90, 92 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 18 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Rolf Thiele |
| script | Rolf Thiele |
| production | Luggi Waldleitner |
| music | Bernd Kampka |
| camera | Wolf Wirth |
| cut | Ingeborg Taschner |
| occupation | |
| |
The Death of a Doppelganger is a 1966 German-Belgian crime film by Rolf Thiele with Jürgen Draeger in the lead role.
action
The story takes place among the “young and savages” of this rebellious time (towards the end of the 1960s) - men who want to enjoy life: pretty girls, a lot of money and quick, mobile pedals: freedom in short. The work-shy Jack is one of them. He, too, the motorcycle fan, dreams of tearing up beautiful, young women and making a lot of money with as little effort as possible and realizing his lifelong dreams. His current flame is the pretty, slim Peggy, who wants to become a photo model, with whom he has left his boring homeland and is leaving for the next big city.
In the Belgian diamond metropolis of Antwerp, the couple met the uptight, blonde cutler, obviously an inhibited bore, as Jack suspects, who is employed by a jeweler. Cutler's new girlfriend is called Margaret. It doesn't take Jack long to find out that Cutler, who is impressed by Jack's brash manner, brings a batch of illegally imported diamonds from Antwerp to Brussels every Friday on behalf of his boss Hoggan. For Jack, this is the hint of fate he has always hoped for: he plans to rob Cutlers on his next business trip in Antwerp and to murder them there.
Everything is well thought out. Jack has dyed his hair blonde, imitates Cutler's walk to the icing on the cake, wears the same suit and also glasses. As Cutler, Jack wants to walk past those later witnesses who saw him running errands every Friday after his death, so that Cutler must have still lived in Antwerp and the police must locate the crime scene in Brussels. He just does everything to cover up all evidence of the crime in the guise of his victim. Every detail of his plan is so perfectly thought out that it just has to go wrong ...
Because Cutler, who, like Jack, is not averse to making great fortune in a quick, criminal way, had a similar plan, only that he intends to rob his boss in his own way. Jeweler Hoggan, who likes men (and especially Cutler), is killed by his subordinate. Immediately after his coup, Cutler booked a flight for himself and his girlfriend in the plane that also has two seats for Jack with Peggy. It comes to the attack of Jack, which Cutler does not survive. Jack is now following in his footsteps as the second Cutler, becoming a double of the murdered man. But in the end, a nasty surprise awaits him. Because not only Peggy is waiting for him at the airport, but also Margaret by her side, who happily waves to her "Cutler". He takes off his glasses ... and Peggy flies into his arms. The police just waited and asked to see his ID. Jack aka "Cutler" reaches into his pocket to show Cutler's passport, but the police assume that the man wanted for the murder of Hoggan wants to use a revolver. A shot is fired ...
Production notes
The death of a doppelganger is one of Thiele's most unknown and almost forgotten productions. The film was made in Brussels and Antwerp in October / November 1966 and opened in German cinemas on January 6, 1967.
Werner Pochath , who was extremely blond for this film , made his film debut here. Udo Jürgens sings the title song "Nobody Knows".
Reviews
“Rolf Thiele… is primarily interested in her psychological background. He confronts the tough, stupid Jack, who has been turned on by his girlfriend, with a sensitive, uptight cutler; he shows how the weights gradually accumulate, how Jack fails in his first attempt at murder, how Cutler now becomes the murderer of his homosexual boss and, ironically, thwarted Jack's plans. (...) One registers a camera (Wolf Wirth), which does not become independent, but apart from a few disturbing games, selflessly serves the things to be photographed (...) Thiele's staging is also ... material; one looks in vain for those arts and crafts effects that made him famous. (...) Draeger turns out to be one of the most talented young actors in German film. (...) Where Pochath exaggerates and deprives himself of his effect, Draeger puts his part on with restraint. "
“A man studies the role of another, eliminates him, takes his place and is arrested in his place because the other has also committed a murder. You don't have to think of Hitchcock straight away to imagine what cinematic expertise can do with such a trivial and worn-out motif. For Rolf Thiele it is just a windy excuse to add a few new pieces - of little rarity - to his anthology of sexual psychological peculiarities. "
“The complex subservient assistant to a perverse jeweler becomes the victim of a doppelganger who planned a perfect crime. A psychologizing psycho thriller crammed with Freudian theories, well photographed in places, but superficial, incoherent and without tension. Every realistic spiritual commitment disappears behind fashionable effects and a slightly disreputable atmosphere. "
"Behind the sophisticated word 'psycho crime' hides an act that is poor in tension and psychology and carried out by extreme or abnormal types."
Web links
- The death of a doppelganger in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The death of a doppelganger at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ The death of a doppelganger in the lexicon of international films
- ↑ Evangelischer Presseverband Munich, Review No. 39/1967.