User Reviews

This is the second film version of John Knittel's 1934 novel of the same title, a German TV series was to follow in the 1980s. All versions seem to differ from the original story in a lot of aspects.

The 1961 film is very typical for the light entertainment films of German speaking countries in this era, the escapist genre 'Heimatfilm' became immensely popular after the end of WWII and peaked in the 1950s.

It looks like a bleaker version of a Heimatfilm but still with all the stereotypes, fairy tale elements and with an oversimplified view of the world. In case you are not familiar with that genre I encourage you to look it up because it is an essential key to understanding German society (I cannot say much for Switzerland and Austria).

The action takes place in a valley in Graubünden, a part of Switzerland. Needless to say that the landscape is breathtakingly beautiful and these images are in fact highlights of the film.

All of the indoor scenes look like they were filmed in a studio with visible lighting which gives the film a cheap B-movie look from my point of view. I am not certain how common it was for its time but I have seen a lot of other films where I did not find it as distracting and which had a more natural or realistic feel.

The serious topic of domestic violence and abusive toxic relationships within families is handled superficially with no further insight. We have a tyrannic father (played by Gert Fröbe) who is a heavy drinker and seems to mishandle everyone near him in every possible way. He cheats on his wife and spends the money earned by his hardworking family on his lover. The viewer is never given any explanation or even a hint why the man is like this. We get the impression that alcohol is merely a fuel but even when sober he is essentially the same: A vile human being with sadistic character traits. It is pointed out that he does not believe in divine beings and forbids that his wife practices her religion.

The family includes two daughters and a son (two sons in the novel btw), none of them is really able to escape the volatile behaviour of their father. The younger daughter (played by Christine Kaufmann) is portrayed like an angelic being, very beautiful with long blonde hair and with every possible admirable character trait. Because of this she does not only inherit a huge amount of money by an aged admirer but she also attracts the attention of another rich older man who wants to marry her. This prince does not arrive riding a white horse but comes along in an open-top sports car which looks very anachronistic in this rural poor surrounding. The original story took place in the 1920s and a large part of the film could easily have taken place in that era.

From today's point of view it is disturbing to see how that soon-to-be-husband forces himself on his young inexperienced bride: Several times he enforces kisses and even stalks her. His behaviour is, of course, portrayed as acceptable romantic flirting behaviour, a 'bit of playful fun' and he wins her over in the end. In parallel the exploitative behaviour of the father towards his older daughter is shown. The situation at the family home gets even worse when it comes apparent that the father is completely unchanged by his prison time and alcohol absence. The hope for change was in vain. Unable to find any other solution there is at last a plan to kill the abuser and to get rid of his tyranny.

From that part of the film onward it loses every logic left over. It would seem that it cannot be too difficult to stage an accident when the victim is always heavily intoxicated anyhow. But they completely mess it up and throw his dead body bundled up into the river. So if the body was ever to be found it would be evident that the man did not die of natural causes.

The mother gets wind of what has happened and seems to be overcome by horror and feelings of guilt. In the end she takes the blame to save her children who are suspected and writes in a confessing letter that it was she who poisoned her own husband. Nobody asks any questions about how she managed to get rid of the heavy dead body all by herself. I won't even start to list everything else which is completely illogical in this film. There are some implied questions of moral and justice which could have been interesting topics if told in a more convincing way.

There really are more interesting films about domestic violence which can give you a better understanding of what it does to people ('Nil By Mouth' to name just one), so many films which are better crafted in general worthy of your time and attention. Even a versatile and fascinating actor like Gert Fröbe can only do so much with this kind of script and directing.