Review of Wet Asphalt

In Berlin, when the journalist Greg Bachmann (Horst Buchholz) is released from prison six months before the end of his sentence, there is a driver named Jupp (Gert Fröbe) waiting for him. Soon he learns that the famous journalist Cesar Boyd (Martin Held) was the responsible for the shorter sentence. Cesar offers a position of his assistant to Greg; in return, Boyd would write his story about his interviews to war criminals and Greg would help him in other matters. Meanwhile Boyd welcomes the daughter of a deceased friend, Bettina (Maria Perschy), and he becomes her guardian. Greg and Bettina feels immediately attracted by each other but Boyd is also interested in Bettina. When Boyd needs to send an article to a newspaper in Paris, he fabricates a story of a group of five German soldiers that have lived in a bunker in Poland for six years. In the end, one blind soldier would have survived and was sent to a Polish hospital. The story becomes a great sensation, affecting the governments of Poland, Russia and Germany and their inhabitants. When Greg discovers the big lie of his boss and mentor, he has to take an attitude; but Boyd is an old fox.

"Nasser Asphalt", a.k.a. "Wet Asphalt", is a dramatic thriller based on a true story that shows the effect of a swindle in the press. The character Greg Bachmann is too brave and does not accept to sell his soul to the powerful Cesar Boyd and prefers to expose his former boss to the press, in a rare example of integrity and ethic. Unfortunately the DVD released in Brazil is dubbed in English. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Asfalto Molhado" ("Wet Asphalt")