User Reviews

I had gotten the VHS version sometimes back. It was a good print but soft focus transfer. It was transfered from pal version probably brightness turned down to bring out the colors. I later bought the DVD version. It was more sharper and brightness turned up a bit. I had gotten the story wrong I had thought Gisa ,played by Ilsa Werner actress also a singer who had participated in early TV in Nazi Germany also known for her whistling, was Hans brother daughter making her Hans niece but I got it cleared. In this picture she's shows her acting skills. I'm surprises that Kautner did't have a singing scene in this movie for her but shes was totally dramatic. Because of her participation in Wunsckonzert, by force, she was suspended for 1 year from acting in Germallywood. The story, Hans brother, Jan, dies. He promises took look after his girl friend Gisa.He goes to where she works, with her mother, and offers her his benefaction. Bored and wanting to sees St Pauli she takes the offer. He is rather unhappy because he'd like to go back to the sea but he can't.He sings at his girl friends night club call ,the Hypodrome. The Girl friends ,played by Hildt Hildabrandt, the Mae West of German cinema. His ship friends played by Gustav Knuth and Gunther Luthers, come off from the ship they work at the Padua.Well later on as Gisa is buying bear and food for Hans when he comes back from work. A ship mechanic notices her ,played by Hans Sohnker, and becomes interested in her .She later works at a shop selling ties so he makes his introductions to her by buying a tie. Behind Hans back she decides to go out with Wilhelm. Later on Hans finds out and they almost have a fight. They end up confronting each other at the hippodrome and end up in a fist fight. Gisa leaves Hans and a suggestive sex before marriage, after math, is shown. In the U.S.A at the time because of the production code such scene would not been allowed in American films.Hans wants to marry her but later finds out what happens. He ends up going back to the sea to work on the Padua. The Agfa color cinema photography was great. Even though I had trouble understanding what they were talking about the acting was excellent. Why did they have Gustave Knuths hair shaved?He was still lean ,later on he'd put on a few pounds in other movies,like Sissie series, in which he played Romy's father.This would encourage a sequel or what looks like a sequel in the fifties. Recently in Febuary this was shown at a film series in Harvard college,I think, for the first time with American subtitles. This is when i discovered why i was so drawn to the filmmaker Helmut Kautner. He did 2 American films for Universal in the late deifies.One i saw on American Movie Channel ,befor it went down hill. June Allisons last film in which she played a lead,Stranger in my arms, which was not about ordinary people. Available at German war films dot com

"Große Freiheit Nr. 7" (and there are so so many alternate titles in both English and German that I won't mention them) is a German movie from 1944, so this one will have its 75th anniversary soon. And if you read Germany in 1944, you will immediately think of Nazi Germany of course and yes this is where this film was made. But by then the war was (pretty much) lost for the Germans and this is certainly not a propaganda film anymore. It is a story of fiction written and directed by Helmut Käutner fairly early in his career and a while before he went on to become one of Germany's most successful filmmakers. I personally found that this film looked a lot newer than 1944 and this is probably due to the fact that it is in color, like many films during the Nazi reign, and due to the fact that even in the late 1960s there were still German movies in black-and-white. But this is really the only truly progressive aspect about No°7. The best thing about it is probably Hans Albers. I can understand somehow if people say he was too young for the role, but he still shows how talented he is and makes the character his own. Unfortunately, nothing else about this film is on par with one of Albers' career-defining performances. Of course, the role also fits him perfectly with his Hamburg background. Other than him, there is no reason to see this one. The script and plot is really forgettable, it lacks realism on many occasions, the supporting cast is not memorable either in terms of performances. But you have to say in their favor that the characters other than Albers' were also not written interestingly at all. For me, Albers alone cannot carry this film on his shoulders so that I would recommend it. He relies on quality efforts from other people in front of and behind the camera. And these just aren't there. The result is a movie that drags a lot during its overlong 110 minutes. I give it a thumbs-down. watch something else instead.