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German Cinema: WWII aftermath

Films made immediately after the war.

Berliner Ballade

Long before he played the corpulent Goldfinger, German actor Gert Froebe was a scarecrow-skinny comedian. In Berliner Ballade, Froebe makes his screen debut as Otto, a feckless Everyman who tries to adjust to the postwar travails of his defeated nation. Stymied by black-market profiteers and government bureaucrats, Otto begins fantasizing about a happier life at the end of that ever-elusive rainbow. Director R. A. Stemmle doesn't have to strive for pathos: he merely places his gangly star amidst the ruins of a bombed-out Berlin, and the point is made for him. Filmed in 1948, Berliner Ballade was later released in the U.S. as The Berliner.

• Year:
• 1948
• Runtime:
• 89 minutes
• Language:
• German
• Director:
• Robert A. Stemmle
• Screenwriter:
• Günter Neumann
• Producer:
• Heinz Rühmann, Alf Teichs
• Cast:
• Gert Fröbe, Tatjana Sais, Ute Sielisch
• Cinematographer:
• Georg Krause
• Editor:
• Walter Wischniewsky
• Production Design:
• Gabriel Pellon