The youngsters
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The youngsters |
 | |
| Country of production | Federal Republic of Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1956 |
| length | 92 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Georg Tressler |
| script |
Will Tremper , Georg Tressler |
| production | Inter West Film GmbH ( Wenzel Lüdecke ) |
| music | Martin Böttcher |
| camera | Heinz Pehlke |
| cut | Wolfgang Fluff |
| occupation | |
| |
Die Halbstarken is a German film drama from 1956. The screenplay comes from Will Tremper and the director Georg Tressler based on a story by Will Tremper. The black and white film produced by Wenzel Lüdecke was shot in West Berlin in July and August 1956 . The premiere took place on September 27th of the same year in the Ufa-Palast in Essen . In an expert survey from 1995, the film was chosen among the 100 most important German films of all time.
action
A gang of thugs led by nineteen-year-old Freddy Borchert gathered in the indoor swimming pool to test the water resistance of their stolen wristwatches. Freddy smoking a cigarette, he is from a lifeguard rebuked. Then the man is beaten up by Freddy's gang. Freddy meets his brother Jan in the indoor pool, whom he hasn't seen for a while. Freddy, who has already left his parents' house, is friends with the pretty but unscrupulous Sissy. The girl in the flapper age of just sixteen years does not exert good influence on Freddy. His family circumstances are difficult anyway: Father Borchert, a conscientious civil servant , had given his brother-in-law a financial guarantee for 5,000 DM. Since the brother-in-law became insolvent, the father has to pay. Because of the still outstanding 3,000 marks, he tyrannizes the family and makes life especially difficult for the mother of the two brothers. Freddy introduces the gang to his brother and gives him a wrist watch to show that he is a made man. He also wants to buy a Buick the next day at the gas station where he works .
When Jan once again experienced at home during an argument between his parents how much the financial problems were putting a strain on his family, he decided to ask his brother for the 3,000 Marks still to be repaid, which would bring peace back to his mother. Freddy agrees; However, Jan has to take part in the next coup.
There is a tough regime in Freddy's gang: everyone is under his command in criminal activities. Klaus, who is employed as a waiter at an Italian bar, does not want to take part in the next action, which is imminent, because he has no time because of the new opening and does not want to give up his job. Freddy gets a gun and ammunition through a certain Prillinger. After a brazen car theft, the gang members gather. Klaus, who wants to avoid, is intercepted at a bus stop and made compliant with blows and threats. You arrive at a villa. The gang member Mario lives there, whose parents are not there. After everyone there had drunk their courage and Freddy intimidated Klaus with a "mock execution" (he shoots into the floor next to the man who is trembling with fear), the gang has to find out that the car that Mario had promised was not within reach of his parents the garage is locked. This is how you break out in a stolen car late at night. Freddy's gang has planned a mail robbery. The gang robbed a post bus and beat up the post driver. Then the loot (mail bags and a cassette) is stowed in the laundry van belonging to gang member Kudde. Two gang members make their way to the meeting point in the post bus. Klaus has now gone. Now you need the Buick, which Jan picks up at the gas station under a pretext. Despite amateurish preparations (to make matters worse, the two are still involved in a traffic accident in the postbus, but can continue to drive) the boys make it to a boathouse where Sissy is already waiting with other girls and organizing a small robbery party. The disappointment is great when Freddy takes only worthless postal orders from the captured cassette instead of money. Freddy lost face in front of his followers, and when they rebelled, he took up his pistol and only Jan could tame him again. In this situation, Sissy tries to be a femme fatale and first recommends Jan and then Freddy a break-in into the villa of the owner of the recently opened bar Garezzo . Freddy picks up the idea and sets off with the rest of his gang. Jan had stood in his way beforehand and was knocked down. He follows his brother to the crime scene in the van.
When Jan arrives at the villa, he not only sees himself across from Freddy and Sissy, but also from Garezzo's father, who calls the police on the phone. Sissy tries to get Freddy to shoot the defenseless old man, but Freddy can't. Sissy grabs the gun, first fires at old Garezzo and then shoots Freddy in the stomach. In front of the villa, father Borchert, who has arrived with the police, sees his sons, by whom Freddy is just being arrested. The irony of the final scene: a group of passing motorcyclists witnesses the arrest and the drivers call out from their machines: "... look ... again guys ..."
background
Karin Baal applied for this film along with 700 other girls. She got the lead role and a three-year training contract. The two main actors Horst Buchholz and Christian Doermer had already made several films, but the film meant a career boost for both of them. Buchholz in particular became a teenage idol through his role. Some of the young actors, some of whom had never been in front of a camera, were later dubbed by professional actors. Brigitte Grothum spoke for Karin Baal, Lutz Moik for Kalle Gaffkus .
Although the name of the city is not mentioned, the license plates of the cars show that the film was shot in Berlin . The stolen Opel Kapitän has the license plate KB 020-403, the Postbus KB 086-054. You can also see the BVG logo with the Berlin bear on the side on the bus that collides with the Postbus ; When Theo is looking for his Buick, he and Mr. Borchert go to the Wilmersdorf police station ; and the police car has the Berlin license plate: BZ 423. The scenes in the swimming pool were filmed in the Stadtbad Wedding in Richtstrasse in what was then the Wedding district . Director Georg Tressler was an admirer of Italian neorealism and therefore largely refused to shoot in film studios, instead wanting to work in authentic locations in public as far as possible.
Martin Böttcher recorded the soundtrack of the film with Mister Martins Band , which included Horst Fischer , Fatty George , Ernst Mosch , Werner Baumgart , Gerald Weinkopf , Cornelis op ten Zieken, Werner Twardy , Bill Grah , James Last , Siegfried Enderlein and Ralph Ahrens .
The film quickly became a cult film among young people who recognized themselves in it . Repeatedly demolished thugs after the screening the cinemas and harassed guests. The tremendous success of the film led to a whole series of other thugs being shot. In the GDR, the East Berlin version of Die Halbstarken was presented just a year later with Berlin - corner Schönhauser . In the West followed Die Frühhreifen (1957, with Heidi Brühl), Unter Achtzehn (1957), Meine 99 Bräute (1958), Schmutziger Engel (1958), Der Pauker (1958), Endstation Liebe , Der Jugendrichter (1959, with Karin Baal) , On the day the rain came (1959), Crimes after school (1959), At 17 you don't cry (1960), and And something like that is called life (1961, again with Karin Baal). In all of the films, the focus was on young people who had gotten on the wrong track.
In the US the film was shown under the title Teenage Wolfpack . Horst Buchholz was announced as "Henry Bookholt" in the opening credits of the American version, which only had a running time of around 89 minutes, and was marketed as the "new James Dean ".
Reviews
The youngsters were mostly well received by contemporary critics. Die Zeit wrote on November 29, 1956: “Of course, the plot does not quite correspond to the real meaning of the title. But the well-drawn types (Buchholz is excellent here) and the realistic direction suggest some of the real cause of the problem. "
The lexicon of international film wrote several decades apart: "Thanks to the milieu-savvy screenplay by the journalist Tremper and the particular care of the direction and camera work, the film surpasses contemporary mass production." Thomas Kramer said in the lexicon of German films: "Inspired by the successes of American models like Rebel Without a Cause (USA 1955, Ray ; ... because they don't know what they are doing), the film is characterized by recordings at original locations and uncompromising portrayals of the behavior of rebelling young people. None of the following imitations achieved the seriousness and quality of this film, which owes its success to amateur actors such as Karin Baal, which were unknown until then. "
Awards
- 1957: Silver film tape for Georg Tressler as the best young director
Remakes
In 1996 the television film Die Halbstarken by Urs Egger was made with Til Schweiger in the leading role.
literature
- Christa Bandmann and Joe Hembus : Classics of the German sound film 1930–1960. Munich 1980, pages 175-176.
- Robert Buchschwenter / Lukas Maurer (eds.): HALBSTARK. Georg Tressler: Between commission and author . Filmarchiv Austria, Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-901932-16-X .
- Deutsches Filmmuseum Frankfurt am Main: Between yesterday and tomorrow. West German post-war film 1946–1963. Frankfurt am Main 1989, page 387.
- Norbert Grob: "There is no better setting than the street ..." Berlin films by Gerhard Oswald and Georg Tressler in the 1950s . In: Between yesterday and tomorrow. West German post-war film 1946–1963. Frankfurt am Main 1989, pages 206-222.
- Will Tremper: The youngsters . A gripping time novel. With numerous illustrations, script excerpts and a foreword from the publisher (e-book) Kassel: MEDIA Net-Edition 2012. ISBN 978-3-939988-13-7 (E-Pub / Mobi); ISBN 978-3-939988-14-4 (PDF).
- Will Tremper: The youngsters . A gripping time novel. (Audiobook) Kassel: MEDIA Net Edition 2012. ISBN 978-3-939988-12-0 .
- Will Temper ( sic ): The youngsters . The colorful Toxi film novel No. 1. Langhelm, Hannover 1957, p. 54.
Web links
- The rowdies in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The thugs at filmportal.de
- Film program for the thugs at retrografix.de
- The youngsters in the lexicon of international film
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for the youngsters . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , August 2006 (PDF; re-examination with changed youth approval).
- ^ Michael M. Kleinschmidt: The 100 most important German films | MMK - Michael M. Kleinschmidt. May 10, 2009, accessed November 21, 2019 .
- ↑ Hans Günther Pflaum : Georg Tressler dead, director of the "youngsters" . In: The world . January 10, 2007 ( welt.de [accessed February 6, 2018]).
- ↑ See label of the Columbia EP SEGW 21-7819: Film music Die Halbstarken : Original music from the Interwest Union film of the same name
- ↑ New and worth seeing . In: Die Zeit , No. 48/1956
- ↑ The youngsters. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ^ Thomas Kramer: Lexikon des Deutschen Films, page 131
- ↑ Urs Egger: The youngsters. December 21, 1996, accessed February 6, 2018 .