When night falls on the Reeperbahn
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | When night falls on the Reeperbahn |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1967 |
| length | 98 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 (reassessment) |
| Rod | |
| Director | Rolf Olsen |
| script | Rolf Olsen |
| production |
Heinz Willeg for Allianz Filmproduktion (Berlin) and Constantin-Film (Munich) |
| music | Erwin Halletz |
| camera | Franz X. Lederle |
| cut | Renate Willeg |
| occupation | |
| |
When night falls on the Reeperbahn is a German action and crime film from 1967 by Rolf Olsen with Erik Schumann , Fritz Wepper and Konrad Georg in the leading roles.
action
A young woman in torn clothes staggers through the nightly streets of Hamburg as if she were drunk. But Eva Falsacher had fled from a man who wanted to strangle her. When she walks out into the street half-naked and tries to stop the Mercedes-Benz belonging to businessman Hans Henningsen, which is in full swing, the latter cannot brake in time and drives her off. Henningsen then commits a hit and run. The respected affluent citizen has just come from a horizontal rendezvous with the professional whore Wanda, who stole his wallet from him. Your pimp Uwe Wagenknecht immediately takes it and wants to use the stolen wallet to blackmail the oh-so-respectable businessman a little. This is how this story begins about amorality and moral decline in the Hamburg upper class, about slutty youth and drug abuse in the allegedly sinful entertainment district of St. Pauli .
The investigative journalist Danny Sonntag is on the trail of a hot story. Despite clear instructions from his editor-in-chief, he would like to make a report on drug abuse crimes in the Hanseatic city. The head responsible for the LSD production on site is the still very young Till Voss. Out of the sheer boredom of a financially spoiled and morally neglected upper-class kid, and because several high school students like to be seduced by bad boys like Till, the son of a wealthy and influential industrialist got involved with a youthful drug gang led by a guy named Feuer-Hotte . There, too, young upper-class non-users have the say throughout. For these people, Till produces the intoxicants with his chemistry kit. The LSD is used to make young girls, who in turn are stolen from Till's unscrupulous friend Pinky Schön, despondent and to sell them off to wealthy clients in a drug frenzy. As Sunday gets closer and closer, he is messed up by some masked thugs of the drug gang. By chance he is found and saved by Wanda and her Luden Wagenknecht. With a badly damaged face, Danny continues to investigate the case.
After the violent death of the girl Brigitte, the police gradually began to take action and began the investigation under the direction of Commissioner Zinner, an old, incorruptible “criminal” made from real shot. Fearing the two gangs, the drug girls are silent, because Feuer-Hotte makes no secret of the fact that he intends to get rid of anyone who starts to talk. When a girl doesn't feel, she likes to pull her fire hotte straight across her face with his razor. It soon turns out that not only the seedy doctor Dr. Buding also has his fingers in the game, but also one of the city's most respected citizens, Till's father Wilhelm Voss. Thanks to Tills, Pinky's and Feuer-Hotte's activities, he ensures that his aging, well-heeled business friends who are constantly hungry for “fresh meat” are always provided with young, unwilling girls. With the LSD permanently high, the schoolgirls let the sometimes perverse sex with the old men endure them without hesitation. Unexpectedly, Till begins to fall in love with one of the girls, Lottie Norkus. This is extremely displeasing to the dropped Pinky, and she begins to make rabatz. A little later, Pinky is found dead. Feuer-Hotte, who found out that Pinky had arranged to meet Till for a last reconciliation meeting in her grandmother's house, shamelessly exploits this knowledge and blackmailed his drug supplier. Because Till actually wanted to end his "career" as an LSD supplier for Lotti's sake. However, Feuer-Hotte makes it clear to him that the spoiled upper-class villain has to continue to produce the drug for him.
Meanwhile, the dead are piling up, the gay sauna owner Karlchen "Charlie" Dinoke is murdered with a silencer pistol as ice cold. Meanwhile, Till and Lotti are experiencing their "first time" on their father's Voss yacht; meanwhile, the young Margot Pinky's role as the new girl ring boss has taken over. In order to be able to include Lotti in her orgy planning with the wealthy old men, Margot tells her that Till has been unfaithful to her and that she has something with the artist Anita, a long-term friend. To do this, she uses faked, revealing shots from the extensive photo reservoir of the dead Pinky. Drunk with LSD, Lotti then seeks revenge and embarks on the next orgy. One of the old, well-heeled men slips over her. It is Till's father Wilhelm, of all people. When Till joins the orgiastic goings-on, Lotti soon realizes her terrible mistake. She storms into the next bathroom and slashes her wrists. Now Till breaks with Feuer-Hotte and strangles him in battle.
Danny Sonntag is getting closer and closer to the truth about prostitution, drug abuse and girl trafficking and, despite a clear ban by his superior, is determined to dry up this Hamburg swamp. At his side he knows Detective Inspector Zinner and his assistant Paulsen and also the solid Uwe Wagenknecht, who is always good for a proper brawl. The decisive clue about the two gangster rings is provided by Danny's informant Mumps, an old but well-informed man in Hamburg-St. Pauli. But Danny's victory is only half: he underestimates the power of the Hanseatic bourgeoisie - influential business people, powerful politicians and opinion makers like his editor-in-chief, who also belongs to the ring of old men who let willing girls be brought to them. And so there is not a single word to be read about the entanglement of the Hamburg upper class in Danny Sonntag's sensational newspaper article about the drug swamp and the blown up girl trafficking ring.
Production notes
When night falls on the Reeperbahn was shot in the summer of 1967 in Hamburg on St. Pauli (exterior shots) and in the studios of Berlin-Tempelhof . The buildings were designed by Günther Kob, the costumes by Helga Zaar. Gero Erhardt was one of two assistant directors. Konrad Georg is playing here for the second time, after the underworld thriller In Frankfurt, also staged by Rolf Olsen, the nights are hot , a police superintendent in a movie that is heavily influenced by his popular TV series character Kommissar Freytag . The LSD organization scenes are sometimes documented by psychedelic light effects and red filter recordings as well as by blurred wobbly images.
In the opinion of the FSK examiners, the film, presented as a socially critical documentary about the goings-on of drug-addicted teenagers, only served as a pretext for some slippery representations. They had a number of cuts, including "bare bosom" women in all settings. The film passed the FSK exam on September 6, 1967. The German premiere took place on October 13, 1967.
The success of this film brought a wealth of other Reeperbahn and St. Pauli films from 1968 to 1971, including The Doctor of St. Pauli , Auf der Reeperbahn at half past twelve (1969) , The Angels of St. Pauli , The Hour Hotel von St. Pauli , Der Pfarrer von St. Pauli , Jürgen Roland's St. Pauli-Report , Fluchtweg St. Pauli - Big alarm for the Davidswache and Captain Rauhbein from St. Pauli , in the cinemas. Curd Jürgens played the leading role in several of these films, and Rolf Olsen directed the majority of these films.
Reviews
“A morality crime thriller staged based on a journalist factual report with at best hinted at social criticism. In a striking way, he traces the unrestrainedness of the younger generation and the unscrupulousness of the older generation, whereby he suffocates in a mixture of sex and crime that is useful in itself. "
“Approaches to a clichéd social criticism serve as a cloak for the extensive, undisguised representation of vice and crime. Unnecessary."
In Cinema -online it says: “Perverted dignitaries, crazy killers, trips, ladies mud wrestling: lousy, but funny. Conclusion: wonderful Hamburg nostalgia trash "
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jürgen Kniep: “No youth release!” Film censorship in West Germany 1949 - 1990 , Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2010, p. 228 f.
- ↑ When night falls on the Reeperbahn. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 443/1967
- ↑ When night falls, go to cinema-online on the Reeperbahn