Wet asphalt
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Wet asphalt |
 | |
| Country of production | Federal Republic of Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1958 |
| length | 85 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Frank Wisbar |
| script | Will Tremper , Frank Wisbar |
| production | Wenzel Lüdecke |
| music | Hans-Martin Majewski |
| camera | Helmut Ashley |
| cut | Klaus Dudenhöfer |
| occupation | |
| |
Nasser Asphalt is a German feature film directed by Frank Wisbar from 1958 . He processes the newspaper duck that came into circulation in 1951 about the "Bunker people of Gdynia".
action
The young reporter Greg Bachmann is released early from prison after three months. He had illegally smuggled himself into the war crimes prison and was able to conduct interviews with several Nazi war criminals. He was sentenced to six months in prison. He owes his release to the star reporter Cesar Boyd, who has him picked up from prison and hired as a reporter. He prints his war criminal story and lets him report on international events. Greg's articles always appear under Boyd's name, which begins to bother Greg after a year.
One day Greg has to pick up his ward Bettina, the daughter of a deceased friend, from the airport for Boyd who is unable to attend. To Greg's delight, Bettina, who wants to study in Berlin, turns out to be a beautiful young woman. Boyd is also taken with her and spends more time with her than Greg would like. Regarding the events surrounding Bettina, Greg and Boyd forget that, like every Friday, they have to deliver a sensational article for the weekend edition of a Paris newspaper. Items Greg has in stock do not fit. Boyd's chauffeur Jupp tells his boss that at the end of the Second World War he and his comrades discovered a bunker in Poland , in which canned food had been stored for years. They came out of the bunker through a side exit after the main entrance had been blown up. From Jupp's story, Boyd develops a sensational article without Greg's knowledge about five Wehrmacht soldiers who were locked in the bunker at the end of the war. Two of these soldiers had survived in the bunker for the last six years and, to the astonishment of the population, had now reached daylight. One died of shock, but the other survived blindly and was hospitalized. The news goes to the Pariser Zeitung and becomes a sensation. Even the American press knew about the “ Bunker Tragedy of Gdynia ” in a very short time and commissioned its correspondent Jimmy Donnagan in Warsaw to investigate.
Although Donnagan doubts the story, he applies for a travel permit to the bunker in Gdynia. He is denied it: Nobody knows that the Soviet Union is conducting missile tests not far from Gdynia and that the bunker is in the restricted area. The Soviet Army has soldiers stationed at the bunker within a very short time . Donnagan secretly goes to the bunker and sees the soldiers on site. He also witnessed a fellow journalist being arrested and taken away by soldiers. Now he believes the story of the bunker people is true. The US newspaper is printing the story, and newspapers around the world will soon want more information from Boyd. He pretends to have to talk to his contact on the phone in a bar in front of Greg and then gives further facts. The blind man is from Berlin, 30 years old and calls for his mother. In addition, the Polish government did not provide any information and imposed an absolute blackout on the case.
A little later a newspaper prints a photo of the blind man. During his research into the author, Greg unmasked the head of the picture department, who had taken the photo with a colleague. The photo, however, leads to a rush at the Red Cross tracing service. Many mothers and parents believe that they recognized the man in the photo as their husband or son. A woman dies of a heart attack. Deeply moved by the events, Greg writes an appeal to the Polish government to name the blind man and to release him. Mass protests in front of the Polish military mission followed with the aim of releasing the blind man. Greg finds out about it in the bar and wants to call Boyd. The cleaning lady tells him that the phone was dismantled four weeks ago. Greg hesitates when Boyd allegedly called his informant on that phone a week ago and then announced new details about the blind man. He realizes that the story was only made up and tries to educate people about the hoax in front of the Polish military mission. He is swallowed by the crowd that is eventually dispersed by the police with water cannons.
Bettina turns away from her guardian, disappointed. Greg confronts Boyd, but he weighs it down and doesn't admit the story was made up. Shortly afterwards, a truck driver rings Boyd's doorbell, who brings the supposed blind man to him. He rescued him from a Polish wagon in Frankfurt an der Oder . Angry, Greg leaves the house and goes to the editorial office of Merkur . The day before it printed its appeal to the Polish government and sold the edition in a very short time. When Greg told editor-in-chief Dr. Wolf now reports of the dizziness, he is appalled and skeptical. Greg announces that he wants to force Boyd to present the blind man in public. The next morning the assembled press appears at Boyd's, who just before had dictated details of the blind man's fate. Boyd had accused the blind man of lying the night before. When the man told Boyd that he had written everything himself, Boyd realized that his truth can become general truth. Now he sees that Greg wants to destroy him and changes his tactics. He says that the blind man is a liar. Greg just left his house too early to find out the day before. The journalists are leaving. Dr. Wolf realizes that Boyd wants to sacrifice Greg in order to save himself and announces Greg that he will have his revelation story about the hoax printed. Bettina now finally knows that Boyd was playing wrong, as she was there when Boyd dictated new revelations from the life of the supposedly real blind man just a few minutes ago. Boyd now admits to Greg that he lied. He wants to keep him working for him and offers him a raise. Greg leaves, however. When Boyd points out that he was like a father to him, Greg replies that he doesn't want Boyd as a father.
production
Wet asphalt is based on a true story, as the introductory text of the film makes clear. In June 1951, the American news agency Associated Press reported on two Wehrmacht soldiers who had survived in Gdynia for six years in a bunker filled with food. As in the film, several soldiers had died in the bunker over the years; one of the two survivors died a short time later. As a result, the story spread rapidly and was also processed in poems, plays and short stories. However, there was no confirmation of the report from the Polish side. In the character of Greg, screenwriter Will Tremper also processed his own experiences as a journalistic ghostwriter for Curt Riess .
The shooting took place in Berlin and in January 1958 in the studio in Hamburg-Wandsbek . Helga Reuter created the costumes. The film structures are by Herbert Kirchhoff and Albrecht Becker . The assistant director was Eva Ebner . Wet asphalt was shown in German cinemas on April 3, 1958. On July 28, 1965, it was broadcast on television for the first time on ZDF . In 2007 the film was released on DVD.
Reviews
"The film attacks certain forms of asphalt journalism and shows how it was possible in the tense East-West atmosphere to circulate false news," wrote film producer Wenzel Lüdecke in 1958. "The false report, reprinted hundreds of times, seemed [...] Wenzel Lüdecke to be able to demonstrate the negligent and dangerous misleading indiscriminate masses by the tabloids, which are eager for sensation at any price. The result, however, is little more than a laborious and threadbare reportage about an atypical case ”, wrote Der Spiegel in 1958. The magazine called the film a“ lame work ”, with Maria Perschy corresponding to“ the pallor of her role ”.
"Wisbar's film is captivating, aptly cast and formally above average, but the intended criticism of the time is weakened by colportage elements and bad melodrama," wrote the film-dienst . Other critics found that the film “tries to attack modern sensational journalism with the hoax with the 'bunker people' of Gdynia. Well staffed, formally not negligible, but not exemplary enough in terms of content. "
Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz wrote briefly “Held and Buchholz in considerable roles; enthralling staged ”and awarded the rating 2 stars (= average).
Frank Wisbar staged realistic, nuanced and powerful, but less robust than Billy Wilder in " Reporter des Satans ". The film is not free of lengths ... Wisbar does not paint black or white. He shows that there are many sinners, big and small, among the few righteous (plump and genuine Gert Fröbe as Boyd's devoted chauffeur, who inadvertently delivers the story to him and lies along with it for lack of moral courage ). A good film because, by asking the question of conscience about journalistic truthfulness, it wants to bring about the good and maybe even really does it by suggestively appealing to the public to be less cowardly, indolent, fearful, less trusting and more vigilant.
Erika Müller: Wet asphalt. The cavemen of Gedingen - film satire on sensational reporters , in: Die Zeit No. 15 of April 10, 1958.
Awards
The Wiesbaden film evaluation agency awarded the production the title valuable .
In 1958, Hans-Martin Majewski received the film tape in silver for Nasser Asphalt in the category “ Best Film Music ” . In 1958 , Horst Buchholz was nominated for a Bambi as best actor .
Web links
- Wet asphalt in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Wet asphalt at filmportal.de
- Erika Müller: Wet asphalt. The cavemen of Gedingen - film satire on sensational reporters , in: Die Zeit No. 15 of April 10, 1958
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b The Legend of Babie Doly . In: Der Spiegel . No. 5 , 1958, pp. 44-45 ( online ).
- ↑ New in Germany: Wet asphalt . In: Der Spiegel . No. 16 , 1958, pp. 51 ( online ).
- ↑ Wet asphalt. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ 6000 films. Critical notes from the cinema years 1945 to 1958 . Handbook V of the Catholic film criticism, 3rd edition, Verlag Haus Altenberg, Düsseldorf 1963, p. 321.
- ↑ Adolf Heinzlmeier, Berndt Schulz in: Lexicon "Films on TV" (extended new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 602.