Escape from Hell (1960)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The escape from hell |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1960 |
| length | 297 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Hans-Erich Korbschmitt |
| script | Hans-Erich Korbschmitt Hans-Jürgen Brandt Rolf Guddat (scenario) Gottfried Grohmann (scenario) Günter Kaltofen (dramaturgy) |
| production | DEFA on behalf of the German TV broadcaster |
| music | Jean Kurt Forest |
| camera | Erwin Anders |
| cut | Helga Emmrich |
| occupation | |
| |
Escape from Hell is a four-part television film by Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF), which was produced for feature films in DEFA's 1960 studio . The multi-part deals with the fate of a West German foreign legionnaire in the Algerian war and his escape to the GDR; the action time covers the period from approx. 1956 to approx. 1959. The main role of legionnaire Hans Röder was played by Armin Mueller-Stahl .
content
The car mechanic Hans Röder, who lives in Frankfurt am Main , is convinced by his boss Mouchon that a car repair he carried out caused a serious traffic accident. Röder panics and is hired by the Foreign Legion on Mouchon's advice .
In Algeria , Röder takes part in a so-called punitive expedition against the village of Tebessa, whose residents allegedly insidiously killed his superior, Lieutenant Fellier. However, Röder suspects that Fellier was killed by Sergeant Sourand because Fellier wanted to make information about French massacres of the Algerian civilian population available to the public. Sourand works for the secret organization Rote Hand , which is also active in West Germany and liquidates supporters of the Algerian resistance movement Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN). When the villagers are shot, Röder succeeds in helping the resistance fighter Djamila to escape. He himself deserted . With the help of the FLN he managed to find his way to Tunis , where he contacted the consul of the FLN, Mustafa Saadi. The publisher Lemaigre, who is ready to publish Röder's experiences there, is murdered by the Red Hand . In Tunis, Röder also met the West German national Puchmann, who supplied the FLN with weapons.
Röder manages to return to West Germany. He arrives on a ship in Hamburg , where his friend Ilse, who lives in Frankfurt am Main, visits him. Röder contacts the arms dealer Schlüsser, who supplies the FLN with weapons, but is shadowed by members of the Red Hand who threaten Ilse in order to force Röder to give up. Schlüsser is killed with a bomb in his apartment while preparing for a new arms transport by ship . The investigations of the state security department of the Hamburg criminal police are fizzling out, the commissioner apparently has no interest in solving the case.
Back in Frankfurt, Röder learns that Saadi was murdered by the Red Hand . On the way to see Puchmann, who has returned to Germany, the Red Hand carried out an attack on Röder, which failed, but the members of the organization succeeded in murdering Puchmann. Röder saw no other way out than to flee to the GDR and went to West Berlin, where he was arrested as a deserter by the French police under the tolerance of the West Berlin police and was supposed to be transported to France .
With a trick, Röder manages to take his two guards by surprise and jump out of the moving train. In pursuit Röders all three get onto the grounds of a state-owned operation (VEB) where the plant protection arresting the two Frenchmen. Röder is safe.
Narrative structure
The film consists of four parts:
1. The crime of Tebessa
2. The way to Tunis
3. Death has many hands
4. The last chance
The series works with multiple flashbacks . The story begins with Röder's escape from the train. Only in the second part does it become clear why Röder signed up for the Foreign Legion. The film ends with the repetition of the opening sequence.
production
According to the screenwriter Gottfried Grohmann, the multi-part is based on real events. Therefore, the names of some of the protagonists were based on the names of contemporary people: Puchmann to the Frankfurt arms dealer Georg Puchert , Schlüsser to the Hamburg arms dealer Otto Schlüter and Merville to the section head of the Red Hand , Mercier. During the development of the script, former Legion deserters also worked as advisors.
The multi-part was shot in 121 days; for Armin Mueller-Stahl there was no double for the action scenes. All Algerian roles were filled with Algerian students. Some scenes were also shot in West Germany (Hamburg, Frankfurt am Main) and used as a rear projection .
The escape from hell had its television premiere on the DFF from October 18 to November 1, 1960. The individual parts were shown at weekly intervals. A shortened, two-part movie was also assembled from the material , which was released in GDR cinemas on April 6, 1962.
In a report on the multi-part series, Der Spiegel speculated that the scenario was based in every detail on the Spiegel series Death Comes with the Post , which had appeared in the magazine from March 2, 1960.
Lore
In February 2018 Studio Hamburg Enterprises released a DVD edition.
See also
- The Black Battalion ( Černý prapor , CSSR 1958, directed by Vladimír Čech)
- Madeleine and the legionnaire
literature
- The escape from hell. Three people involved talk about the shooting . In: Filmspiegel , Vol. VII, September 23, 1960, pp. 8-9.
- East program. Through the dessert. Television . In: Der Spiegel , No. 44, October 26, 1960 ( online ).
- Death comes in the mail . In: Der Spiegel , No. 10, March 2, 1960 ( online ).