Dance on Saturday - murder?

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Movie
Original title Dance on Saturday - murder?
Country of production GDR
original language German
Publishing year 1962
length 86 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Heinz Thiel
script Lothar Creutz
Carl Andrießen
production DEFA , KAG "Heinrich Greif"
music Helmut Nier
camera Horst E. Brandt
cut Wally cucumber
occupation

Dance on Saturday - murder? is a German crime film of the DEFA of Heinz Thiel from the year 1962 .

action

On February 20, 1960, the evening dance in the Dorfkrug in Mühlbach was abruptly interrupted: Farmer Paul Gäbler's barn was on fire, and in front of it the enthusiastic pyromaniac Günter Ferch stood and marveled at the flames. Soon, however, a second fact makes the rounds: Paul Gäbler himself is hanging in the barn, he has apparently committed suicide. During the extinguishing work, the extinguishing pipe is blocked by an object in the pond that is carelessly thrown aside.

Lieutenant Schneider is soon in the village, investigating Paul's death. First, the young Günter is interviewed. The simple-minded man is considered the prime suspect of having started the fire. He cannot remember anything as he was brought to his room very drunk from the village dance. Fritz Gäbler, Paul's brother, even hit him when he wasn't making good headway. Günter cannot remember starting the fire, but he does not rule it out either. He is taken into custody. Walter Neumann, who used to work for Paul Gäbler, also has to be remanded because he is caught up in contradictions about where he was on the night of Paul's death. It turns out, however, that he cheated on the wife of an LPG man that night .

In general, the LPG is a topic of conversation, as Paul joined the LPG the day before his death. Rumor has it in the village that he was forced. Paul had only recently returned to his farm from pre-trial detention. An anonymous caller had reported him to the police because his stable had weapons from the Second World War. Günter also knew about the weapons, but two machine guns that Günter had seen there were missing when the weapons depot was excavated. However, Paul could not be proven that he knew about the weapons hiding place and he was released after a short time.

The object that blocked the pipe during the fire fighting turns out to be a pistol. It was wrapped in a newspaper to which Bauer Wilhelm Züllich was the only one in town to subscribe. The police obtained a house search warrant, but the weapon is a relic from Nazi times. There is also a picture of Hitler in the house, as well as the two submachine guns that Günter mentioned. He now also knows that he received the slap from Paul when he was already in bed and was sleeping. Lieutenant Schneider has since found out that the rope Paul used to hang himself is too short for him to strangle himself. In addition, Paul was at least passed out during the strangulation, as violence on his head could be determined. Schneider has all the suspects in the village come together in a barn similar to that of farmer Paul. He has prepared a rope and asks Fritz to put his head in the noose. However, it hangs far too high and Fritz, who tries in vain to reach the noose, finally wants to flee and is arrested.

Schneider now dissolves everything in front of the village community. Fritz hid the weapons in his older brother's yard shortly after 1945. He has started an affair with his wife Erna and, because he is always worried about money, repeatedly siphoned off money from his brother. He, in turn, wanted to divorce his wife because she was cheating on him with Fritz anyway. When Paul tried to leave the room, Erna blocked his way. He was violent and Fritz intervened. He hit his brother so badly that he passed out. Together, they eventually faked a suicide that benefited both of them.

production

Dance on Saturday - murder? was filmed under the working title Tanz am Saturday . Shortly before the publication, the title was supplemented in order not to arouse false expectations in the audience. The film premiered on January 18, 1962 in the Berlin Film Theater am Friedrichshain and was shown in GDR cinemas the following day. On January 3, 1963, the film was shown on DFF 1 for the first time on East German television.

The film service called Dance on Saturday - Murder? the “only DEFA film that consistently shows the Saxon dialect.” The contemporary critics wrote that the use of the dialect contributed “to the characterization of the milieu and its people”, even if “the supposedly universal Saxon dialect by no means by all Performers is evenly mastered. "

criticism

The contemporary criticism was impressed: "What is impressive is the accuracy of the milieu, the almost loving immersion into details, the cautiousness and sensitivity with which a person's character and reactions are built from the external environment, the life circle of a person," says the newspaper Tomorrow 1962.

The film service found that "the socio-political conflict [...] is offered as a very exciting entertainment, albeit with a stereotype characterization of the characters involved".

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ F.-B. Habel : The great lexicon of DEFA feature films . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-349-7 , pp. 598 .
  2. ↑ See defa.de
  3. ↑ a b Dance on Saturday - Murder? in the lexicon of international filmTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used
  4. ↑ Hans-Ulrich Eylau: Film template and solid crime thriller. The DEFA films “Doctors” and “Tanz am Sonnabend” . In: Sunday , No. 7, 1962.
  5. ↑ Christoph Funke in: Morgen , January 17, 1962. Quoted from Habel, p. 598.