The stairs (1950)

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Movie
Original title The stairs
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1950
length 78 minutes
Age rating FSK 18 (1950), 16 (1952)
Rod
Director Alfred Braun
script Ralph Lothar
production Hans von Wolzog
Alfred Braun
music Herbert Trantow
camera Georg Bruckbauer
cut Walter Wischniewsky
occupation

The stairs is a German feature film from 1950 by Alfred Braun with an acting ensemble led by Hilde Körber .

action

A tenement house shortly after the end of World War II. The staircase that gives the film its title is the central place in the story, where the residents, a colorful, mixed-up bunch of people stranded here, regularly meet. On this staircase, the tenants talk about all those things that affect them or even burden them during their daily encounters. Real worry and poisonous gossip live close together. At the center of the action is the single widow, Mrs. Weide, who is quickly overwhelmed by her son, the criminal son Willy, who is on the wrong track.

But there is also the young Annelie Weber, who meets her boyfriend for a rendezvous in the granary due to the lack of other available locations and is one day surprised by the greasy caretaker Schwebs and then put under pressure by him. Or the kind old gentleman who everyone just calls "Grandpa" and who has found emergency shelter in the basement. He is the good soul of the apartment building, because "Grandpa" is always ready to help and sometimes turns out to be a "saving angel". But there are also gossiping neighbors and a light-hearted lady, a careless old maid named Fraulein Zärting and a dubious, elegantly dressed gentleman who goes after all women in order to take them off. All the protagonists of this apartment house staircase appear like a colorful kaleidoscope of human abysses in early post-war Germany.

Production notes

The staircase was created from June 20 (until July) 1950 in Wiesbaden (studio and exterior shots) and was premiered on September 14, 1950 in Wiesbaden. The Berlin premiere was on November 1, 1950.

In Austria the strip was sold under the title Das sündige Haus. When it was re-released in Germany in 1952, when the film, which had been shortened by 135 meters, was downgraded from 18 to 16 years of age, The Staircase was given a new title with Verführte Jugend .

Hans-Herbert Ulrich took over the production management, Fritz Maurischat designed the film structures implemented by Paul Markwitz . Herbert Junghanns was the unit manager.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, the film was given the title of “artistically superior”.

Reviews

“Made in the phase of the debris film, Alfred Braun creates the image of a disparate society in transition, marked by war. In the twilight of the stairwell, greed, wickedness and instinct prevail. Expression of collective will to survive? With an openness that is surprising for the Adenauer cinema, the film addresses taboo subjects such as abortion, adultery, prostitution and sexual abuse. The Catholic film service ruled: "We advise against!" - the commercial death sentence for a work that can be considered an outstanding example of cinematic post-war naturalism. "

In the lexicon of the international film it says: “Dark entanglements, for example with the person of a horny old janitor, flatten into a criminal variant: A burglar is chased over the roofs and commits suicide. The film sometimes confuses sadness with realism, but it is somewhat remarkable as an artistically endeavored post-war attempt. "

literature

  • Friedemann Beyer: Downwards: Alfred Braun's The Staircase (1950). A panorama of the rubble fields of the German post-war society. In: Filmblatt, vol. 25 (2020), issue 72, pp. 19–30.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Staudte was involved in the directing unnamed
  2. ^ Review in: Deutsches Historisches Museum , accessed on March 1, 2020
  3. ↑ The stairs. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 1, 2020 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 

Web links