Hotel boy Ed Martin

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Movie
Original title Hotel boy Ed Martin
Country of production GDR
original language German
Publishing year 1955
length 82 minutes
Rod
Director Ernst Kahler
Karlheinz Bieber
script Maximilian Scheer
production DEFA
music Peter Fischer
camera Günter Eisinger
cut Wally cucumber
occupation

Hotelboy Ed Martin is a German feature film from the DEFA studio for feature films by Ernst Kahler and Karlheinz Bieber from 1955 based on Albert Maltz's play Merry-Go-Round from 1932.

action

In the early 1930s, Ed Martin was working as a floor boy in an American hotel and was just starting work when room number 381 lights up on the panel. While Ed Martin goes to the room to inquire about the guest's wishes, a colleague discovers that the hotel has become a playground for gangsters . That will be confirmed immediately, because after Ed has taken the order and wants to leave the hotel room again, a man stands in the door and suddenly shoots the hotel guest, who is immediately dead. Ed also got a graze shot that made him collapse. The shooter goes to the dead guest, takes some papers out of his pocket and disappears.

Ed Martin comes into custody because he has to be questioned as a witness. During the interrogation by the police superintendent, in the presence of the attorney general, Ed claims not to have noticed what was happening because he is afraid that the murderer himself will kill him if he testifies. Only under pressure and with the assurance of being protected does he support the commissioner in his intention to fight the crimes in the city and testify. In a photograph he identifies the crook Zelli as a murderer and those responsible in the city decide to do everything possible to bring him to justice in a public manner. But the gang is already active and sends a letter to Ms. Martin in which Ed is threatened to kill him if he identifies the shooter during the confrontation, which Ed does because he does not know the letter. Then he can go home, where he reads the threat from his wife and also learns that he has been fired from the hotel. So they both decide to leave the city and move to Ed's brother in New York City .

Zelli is arrested and is due to be tried on short notice. But he gets an appointment with Attorney General Anderson to whom he demands that the court date be dropped and that he be released. As leverage, he shows Anderson several copies of papers that can be dangerous for the city's leaders, as they prove their criminal ties to gangsters. His brother brought the copies to the office and it is precisely the papers that were stolen from the dead man in the hotel. This requires a new way of looking at the case and therefore Ed Martin is asked for another interview. Here the mayor tells him that he no longer has to testify as a witness in court, welcomes the Martins' decision to move to another city and promises to write him a recommendation to look for work there. The boss of an overriding municipal organization then receives the brother and girlfriend Zellis together with the mayor, who both demand his immediate release, otherwise the papers will be published. The boss points out that this is not so easy, since the case is already known everywhere, but can be convinced due to the burden of proof. While the girlfriend and brother Zellis leave again, the judge MacMurray enters the room and the boss orders him to acquit Zelli the next day for lack of evidence, which Zelli refuses because it goes against his sense of justice. Therefore he is released and the boss appoints his nephew Lenni as the new judge. This vocation is celebrated in the evening together with the release of Zellis at a big party, at which the mayor is also present. Since the matter has since stirred up a lot of dust, a new murderer must be found and arrested immediately so that the report can get into the morning papers of the next day. The police inspector reluctantly accepts this order, but wants to carry it out. The attorney general's assistant has the idea to charge Ed Martin as a murderer, because he was in the murdered man's room at the time of the crime.

Ed Martin and his wife are packing their things when a postman delivers the mayor's promised assessment. A short time later the doorbell rings again and Ed is picked up at the police headquarters without a reason. Here, during an interrogation, he is beaten until he signs a confession and then passes out. The doctor called has to give him a syringe to stabilize the heart's activity and demands that the patient be admitted to a hospital, otherwise it is not certain whether he will be able to survive the process. The police officer Quinn is ordered to accompany Ed Martin to the hospital and to make sure that no one can get to him. The attending physician Dr. King, who wants to help Ed Martin, finds a way to smuggle the well-known attorney Harry Berger into the hospital room to support Ed by pretending to be a doctor. Ed's fears of not being able to pay a lawyer are dispelled, since Berger's only concern is to fight the criminal machinations of the city leadership, and Ed is immediately ready to revoke his forced confession.

This development poses great danger for the boss and the members of his organization, as elections are imminent which they could lose. So Ed Martin's confession has to be confirmed and the procedure will be determined immediately. Ed, who has now been relocated to his prison cell, is found hanged one morning and this police murder is interpreted as a suicide , which amounts to a confession. The elections are won and the old corrupt leaders stay in power.

Production and publication

Hotelboy Ed Martin was shot as a black and white film and had its double premiere on March 11, 1955 in the Berlin cinemas DEFA-Filmtheater in Kastanienallee and Babylon . The film was broadcast on March 13, 1955 by the Berlin TV Center (Adlershof) .

Reviews

In the Berliner Zeitung , Hans Ulrich Eylau remarked:

“In the record time of sixteen days of shooting - which record is primarily due to the exemplary rehabilitation of the ensemble - a film was made that is not one. One of the most exciting, most up-to-date film material of the last time - because that would have been the "Ed Martin" with proper editing without question - far below its value, even given away. "

The Lexicon of International Films writes that it is a chamber play-like takeover of a production by the Deutsches Theater Berlin, which, however, could not be implemented productively on film.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Berliner Zeitung of March 15, 1955, p. 3
  2. ^ Hotel boy Ed Martin. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 8, 2019 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used