Blown bars
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Blown bars |
| Original title | panic |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1953 |
| length | 102 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Harry Piel |
| script |
Erwin Biswanger , Erwin Kreker , Alexander Lix based on an idea by Harry Piel and Erwin Biswanger |
| production | Harry Piel (overall management) for FDF, Berlin |
| music |
Nico Dostal (1940–43), Fritz Wenneis (1953), Ernst Leenen (1953) |
| camera |
Karl Puth (1940–43), Klaus von Rautenfeld (1940–43), Willi Peter Block (1952/53) |
| cut | Harry Piel, Horst Wenneis |
| occupation | |
and in small roles: Elfriede Haase , Margareta Henning-Roth , Karl Hellmer , Maria Hofen , Eva Klein-Donath , Michl Lang , Karl-Heinz Peters , Rudolf Vogel | |
Panik (title 1943) or Explosive Grid (title 1953) is a German feature film by and with Harry Piel , which was mainly shot from 1940 to 1943. The first performance took place ten years later.
action
The film is set in East Africa in the summer of 1939, a few weeks before the outbreak of World War II .
The main character Peter Volker works as an animal catcher on a large scale for the German zoo in Ulmenau. The animals mean everything to him, among humans he only counts Fritz Kröger among his friends. He is adored by the young farmer's daughter Christa, but does not notice it. When the war breaks out, he manages to transfer his animals from Tanzania to Germany at the last moment . While fleeing from the British colonial soldiers, Peter and Fritz come under fire. Fritz is killed while Peter is badly wounded but is able to flee.
After returning home via detours to Germany, Peter finally arrives at the Ulmenau zoo. He spends his first night with the former working elephant Shari, who he delivered. Zoo director Hans Thiele is happy to see Peter again. He found out that his former lover became Hella Thiele's wife during his absence. While Peter and Hella are secretly speaking out, Christa Brinkmann has also arrived from Africa. She takes on the post of animal keeper in Ulmenau. After a few arguments between the two of them, they become a couple.
There is confusion due to an actually harmless kiss between Hella and Peter. A conflict between the two women seems inevitable. Before this dispute can be openly resolved, a far worse calamity will arise. The first bombs fall after an air raid. The wild animals panic, Schari tears himself free from his chains and tramples everything that gets in his way. Other elephants join him. Soon animals that have broken out of their enclosures are roaming free everywhere. The main gate overturns, Peter can no longer restrain Schari, who once followed him so faithfully and obediently. There is a fire everywhere, the air is full of smoke.
A shooting order has been issued for the animals should they leave the zoo. Peter wants to prevent that. He succeeds in climbing onto Shari's back and thereby regaining his trust. Together they can keep the other animals on the zoo grounds. After the excitement has subsided, Hella and Christa speak out. Peter and Christa decide to go back to Africa.
Production notes, backgrounds, interesting facts
Blasted grids had a long and complicated history. The film began on September 16, 1940 under the title Panik . The first outdoor shoots in Hellabrunn Zoo lasted until the beginning of November 1940. From July 10 to September 1941, the film was shot again there. The first studio shots were taken between November 27th and 30th, 1941, others from December 7th, 1941 to January 2nd, 1942. Filming in Italy followed from March 13th to April 17th, 1942 . Finally, the film was shot again in Hellabrunn from May 1st to October 1942. After the post-shots at the same location in January and February 1943, the film was finally finished.
As the heavy bombing of large German cities and especially Berlin increased sharply in the course of 1943, the chances of getting a performance of Panik in view of its subject matter from the censors dwindled from time to time . Piel's idea of animals in turmoil, developed in 1940, had long since been overtaken by reality: The Berlin zoo was also hit in bombing raids, and many animals perished or roamed the streets in a panic. Piel's cinematic realism made Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels come to the conclusion that the film should be banned completely. Goebbels informed Piel of his decision on his birthday on July 12, 1943. The official ban by the film censorship finally took place in October 1943.
This meant that one of the most complex German film projects without a degree came to an end. The result: three years of shooting time, around 84,000 meters of exposed film material, mostly consisting of exterior shots, costs of around 4 million RM with a cost estimate of around 800,000 RM.
At the end of the war, Panic's raw material was considered lost. It was not until 1952 that the film rolls were found again in the GDR and returned to Piel under pressure from the Soviet Union. He then shot a few more scenes with the cameraman Willi Peter Block and cut all the material into a finished film, which finally made it to German cinemas as the Blown Grids . The premiere took place on October 13, 1953 in Frankfurt am Main , three days later the film was shown for the first time in Berlin. In some places the film was also called The Elephants Are Going .
The film structures come from Max Knaake , Erich Grave and Hans Minzloff . During the war, Hans von Wolzüge was the production manager, Willi Wiesner and Conrad Flockner the production management.
Ruth Eweler , who played Piel's Queen of Hearts in Busted Lattice , had been dead for six years at the premiere.
Reviews
In 1953, Der Spiegel said in a nutshell: "Funny, dramatic animal shots, primitive, confused human scenes."
The Lexicon of International Films writes: “With this 106th film, Harry Piel, who has proven himself to be an entertaining animal sensation specialist in the context of the poor plot, had a lot of bad luck. After a long period of shooting (since 1940), his film was finally banned by the Nazi censors in October 1943 because the audience should not be reminded of the daily air raids during the war. "
The Protestant film observer came to a positive verdict : “The focus of the film is the rescue of animals in a zoo during a bomb attack. Exciting entertainment for young animal lovers and other young people from 12. "
Web links
- Elephant Fury in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Burnt bars at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Shooting dates according to Ulrich J. Klaus: German films, 12th year 1942/43, Berlin 2001, pp. 201 f., 053.43
- ↑ logbuchliteratur.de ( Memento of the original from June 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ panic. In: filmportal.de . German Film Institute , accessed on September 26, 2016 .
- ↑ cf. ibid., Klaus p. 202
- ↑ Broken bars in Der Spiegel
- ^ Blasted Grids in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed November 25, 2013.
- ↑ Evangelischer Presseverband Munich, Review No. 701/1953
