Black velvet

Movie
Original title	Black velvet
Country of production	GDR
original language	German
Publishing year	1964
length	80 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	Heinz Thiel
script	Gerhard Bengsch Joachim Plötner (Dramaturgy)
production	DEFA , KAG "Heinrich Greif"
music	Helmut Nier
camera	Horst E. Brandt
cut	Anneliese Hinze-Sokolow
occupation
Erich Gerberding : Captain Jensen Rudolf Ulrich : First Lieutenant Wohlfahrt Fred Delmare : Alexander Berg Günther Simon : Manfred Sibelka Christa Gottschalk : Helma Sibelka Christine Laszar : Vera Gorm Herbert Köfer : Dr. Kosel Christoph Engel : Pitt Steffens Vera Oelschlegel : Karin Sommer Hans Lucke : Employee of the MfS Manfred Zetzsche : Employee of the MfS Rolf Ripperger : Employee of the MfS Trude Bechmann : Mrs. Igelfink Georg-Michael Wagner : Gwendoleit Winfried Wagner : Archenbeau Werner Godemann : Monument porter Hans Maikowski : Hartwig Sigmar Schramm : Schrön Ernst Balke : Police Council Klaus Fiedler : Hotel boy

Black Velvet is a German crime film of the DEFA of Heinz Thiel from the year 1964th

action

The state security arrests the photographer Gwendoleit, who as a courier was supposed to bring forged papers and license plates to Leipzig and was also supposed to be active there as a photographer. Since the Stasi neither knows who Gwendoleit should meet in Leipzig nor what the photo is, the security officer Alexander Berg assumes Gwendoleit's identity, even if he actually wanted to go to Oberhof on his winter vacation .

In Leipzig, Helma Sibelka gets on and gives Alexander a deposit for the passports and license plates. Berg refuses to hand over the passports, which she would only receive after paying the full amount. Helma goes to her husband, the engineer Manfred, in the pension, where she meets him with the secretary Vera Gorm. The marriage is over for Manfred, he has long been planning his coup without his wife.

Alexander, who takes his base at the Hotel Astoria , has few clues as to what the affair could be about. The Leipzig trade fair starts in a few days . He also receives an encrypted letter in which he is asked by a “Dora” to remind his “business partner” of a delivery of “black velvet”. It soon becomes clear that behind “Dora” there is a certain Dr. Oranke hides. The security officers identify “black velvet” with the required “snapshot”, which Manfred speaks of at a meeting. In fact, Manfred soon asks Alexander to take the snapshot - from his study, from which a blind controlled crane can be seen, which is supposed to be the sensation at the Leipzig trade fair. Crane operator Manfred manipulates the machine so that the monitors fail and the test run becomes a disaster. Alexander records this with his camera. Soon the connections are clear: Manfred has from the in Hamburg living Dr. Oranke were offered a job. Before that, however, it is supposed to cause lasting damage to its business and, through the increased attention given at the fair, to the economic reputation of the GDR. The security officers still want to play for time to find out who Manfred wants to take with him to the West on the second requested passport, since it will not be his wife. A little later, Alexander finds Manfred slain.

He is asked by an unknown person to come to Manfred's office. Here he meets Vera Gorm, who is actually one of the masterminds behind the action. She reveals to Alexander that Manfred was actually supposed to work the crane with acid and thus bring it to collapse on the day the fair opened, but that he wanted to pinch. You had to kill him. The acid, in turn, was transported in a box labeled “Black Velvet”. Alexander becomes suspicious because he does not know certain facts and is exposed by Vera. She has an accomplice take him to the basement of the building while she tampered with acid on the crane. Here it is provided by Alexander's men and Alexander, who was able to render the accomplice harmless, appears. The case is solved.

A little later, Alexander is finally sitting on the train to Oberhof. A passenger sprays perfume - the “Black Velvet” brand.

production

The Hotel Astoria, where Alexander lived in the film during the investigation

Schwarzer Velvet was filmed in and around Leipzig in 1963. Filming locations included the Hotel Astoria , where Alexander Berg lived during his investigation, and the Völkerschlachtdenkmal , where the scene of the meeting of Alexander and Manfred was created.

The film premiered on February 27, 1964 in the Babylon cinema in Berlin . The script is based on motifs from the novel The Scarlet Domino by Fred Unger .

criticism

Contemporary critics rated the film critically. “For the sake of external tension, internal logic is sometimes dispensed with; the agents seem to put obstacles in their own way by making their plans overly complicated, ”said one critic. Renate Holland-Moritz criticized the fact that in the film "a Superman [is] served again, who solves the difficult case almost single-handedly."

The lexicon of international films called black velvet "exciting entertainment that satirizes the James Bond myth as far as possible."

literature

• Black velvet . In: Frank-Burkhard Habel: The large lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 523-524.

Web links

• Black Velvet in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Black velvet at filmportal.de
• Black velvet at the DEFA Foundation

Individual evidence

1. ^ HU: slogan "Black Velvet" . In: Neue Zeit from March 6, 1964.
2. ↑ Renate Holland-Moritz in: Eulenspiegel , April 1964, ISSN  0423-5975 .
3. ↑ Black velvet. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 2, 2018 .