With being very keen on taking a look at a German Crime film after recently re-watching the ruthless 1972 title Bloody Friday,I was thrilled to recently see a fellow IMDb'er mention a wonderfully tough sounding German Crime movie,which led to me getting ready to see Henry Silva in action for the first time.
The plot:
Arriving to Hamburg from New York with his family and his 'other' family,leading gangster Luca Messina discovers that the city's underworld is controlled by a man called Otto Westermann.Desperate to knock Westermann's empire down,Messina orders his gang to show Westermann that there is a new mob in town.
Feeling that there is a serious risk to him losing his empire,Westermann tells his gang that they must 'play nice',so that Messina and his gang let there guard down.Arranging a meeting between each other,Messina and Westermann begin discussing methods which will allow them to run an underground 'coalition' empire.Unknown to both of them,Westermann's son and Messina's daughter begin to have a secret relationship,which will lead to Westermann and Messina fighting it out to become the ultimate godfather of Hamburg's underworld.
View on the film:
Despite my DVD player doing its best to take the charms of the film away, (thanks to it 'pausing' every 2 minutes!)the screenplay by August Rieger and Werner Jorg Luddecke, (who in 1959,wrote what would become Fritz Lang's 'Indian epic')keeps away from making this a brutally hard- nosed German Crime title,by giving the movie a wonderfully refreshing wry sense of Black Comedy,with Luddecke and Rieger making Messina and Westermann's feud be one that goes from sending an 'explosive' weeding reef,to accidentally placing a bomb in their son and daughter's car.
Keeping up with the writer's sense of style,director Jurgen Roland takes a wonderfully wild,fast-paced approach with the film,thanks to Roland making the gangs battles to be far from normal by including everything from Kung-Fu fighters to a terrific,action-filled final chase which leads to the film ending on a surprisingly cynical Film Noir note.
Barking orders to his gang the moment he sets foot in Hamburg,Henry Silva gives a great brittle performance as Luca Messina,with Silva showing Luca to be someone who always aims to work fast & furious in his attacks,and is also not afraid of giving people a false sense of security.Facing off against Silva,Herbet Fleischmann gives a strong stern performance as Otto Westermann,with Fleischmann showing that whilst Luca may have speed and age on his side,Westermann still has his razor sharp wits,which he will use to win the match,in the battle of the godfathers.
The plot:
Arriving to Hamburg from New York with his family and his 'other' family,leading gangster Luca Messina discovers that the city's underworld is controlled by a man called Otto Westermann.Desperate to knock Westermann's empire down,Messina orders his gang to show Westermann that there is a new mob in town.
Feeling that there is a serious risk to him losing his empire,Westermann tells his gang that they must 'play nice',so that Messina and his gang let there guard down.Arranging a meeting between each other,Messina and Westermann begin discussing methods which will allow them to run an underground 'coalition' empire.Unknown to both of them,Westermann's son and Messina's daughter begin to have a secret relationship,which will lead to Westermann and Messina fighting it out to become the ultimate godfather of Hamburg's underworld.
View on the film:
Despite my DVD player doing its best to take the charms of the film away, (thanks to it 'pausing' every 2 minutes!)the screenplay by August Rieger and Werner Jorg Luddecke, (who in 1959,wrote what would become Fritz Lang's 'Indian epic')keeps away from making this a brutally hard- nosed German Crime title,by giving the movie a wonderfully refreshing wry sense of Black Comedy,with Luddecke and Rieger making Messina and Westermann's feud be one that goes from sending an 'explosive' weeding reef,to accidentally placing a bomb in their son and daughter's car.
Keeping up with the writer's sense of style,director Jurgen Roland takes a wonderfully wild,fast-paced approach with the film,thanks to Roland making the gangs battles to be far from normal by including everything from Kung-Fu fighters to a terrific,action-filled final chase which leads to the film ending on a surprisingly cynical Film Noir note.
Barking orders to his gang the moment he sets foot in Hamburg,Henry Silva gives a great brittle performance as Luca Messina,with Silva showing Luca to be someone who always aims to work fast & furious in his attacks,and is also not afraid of giving people a false sense of security.Facing off against Silva,Herbet Fleischmann gives a strong stern performance as Otto Westermann,with Fleischmann showing that whilst Luca may have speed and age on his side,Westermann still has his razor sharp wits,which he will use to win the match,in the battle of the godfathers.