Rolf Thiele obviously wanted to make a grotesque and topical satire on social, technical and political changes in the 60's, but neither the grotesque nor the satire came very easy with him. It is a very poor and in the meantime also very dated and talkative satire. Not only the satire is poor, the film is poorly made too; Thiele never had any control. The film never runs smoothly and some trick cinematography is cheaply executed. Married couple Heinz Rühmann and Hertha Feiler are totally at a loss here; this would be their last film together and it is a shame that it had to be this dud.
4 Reviews
Ducks and elephants and Heinz Rühmann
Horst_In_Translation8 December 2016
Warning: Spoilers
"Die Ente klingelt um halb acht", which means basically that the duck is ready at half past seven, is a co-production in color between West Germany and Italy (minor parts are played by Italian actors) that resulted in a German-language movie from 1968, so two more years and this 85-minute film will have its 50th anniversary. The star here is of course Heinz Rühmann, who is closer to 70 already than to 60 and yet it is not one of his latest career efforts. He lived into his 90s. The female lead role is played by Hertha Feiler, Rühmann's wife and for her it is actually her final career performance as she died in 1970 at a relatively early age. Another actor here that I know is Rudolf Schündler. I quite like him, so I was fairly disappointed with how little screen time he had. Eventually, it is really all about Rühmann. And while I like Rühmann too, I must say that this film is a prime example of how a good script is still more important than strong and talented actors. This one here has no good script. You cannot blame director Rolf Thiele, who worked with Rühmann on several occasions at that time, for it, but you have to blame the writers. It's especially shocking this turned out so forgettable as there were so many writers working on the script here.
As for the story, it is almost entirely comedy, nothing too dramatic here or critical about society as we have seen it in some of Rühmann's later films. The title is already a good indicator of how it is really pretty light all the time. But I found it really underwhelming. The weakest moment was probably when they just included some old Rühmann recordings from other films I think and fit them into the context of when the main character (Dr. Alexander) here was younger and what he did several decades ago. These scenes felt almost like the makers were betraying the audience by giving them the film equivalent of recycled food. So yeah, it's one of the weaker Rühmann films I have seen for sure and I'd only recommend it to those who really love the actor and want to complete his body of work as far as they can. Everybody else can skip it and this film is a fairly decent prime example of how forgettable and weak the 1960s were in terms of German cinema, especially those films that did not deal with the years of Nazi Germany. Thumbs-down from me. Watch something else instead.
As for the story, it is almost entirely comedy, nothing too dramatic here or critical about society as we have seen it in some of Rühmann's later films. The title is already a good indicator of how it is really pretty light all the time. But I found it really underwhelming. The weakest moment was probably when they just included some old Rühmann recordings from other films I think and fit them into the context of when the main character (Dr. Alexander) here was younger and what he did several decades ago. These scenes felt almost like the makers were betraying the audience by giving them the film equivalent of recycled food. So yeah, it's one of the weaker Rühmann films I have seen for sure and I'd only recommend it to those who really love the actor and want to complete his body of work as far as they can. Everybody else can skip it and this film is a fairly decent prime example of how forgettable and weak the 1960s were in terms of German cinema, especially those films that did not deal with the years of Nazi Germany. Thumbs-down from me. Watch something else instead.
Classics without acceptance
merlin_petrus14 March 2021
Unusual film with minor weaknesses
professortiki5 January 2005
In my estimate the film isn't as bad as the comment of Jan Onderwater suggests. It has some great moments and colorful details, for instance the set decorations. The crazy director of the mental hospital, cracking matches all the time to get his nervousness under control, is sitting in front of a painting, that instantly makes you laugh: a big red splash like blood on a white canvas. The hallways and rooms of the hospital are equipped with psychedelic and op-art paintings and you ask yourself, whether they decorate the interior of the institution or rather create the madness going on inside it. All in all the film is about the eternal question, who is crazier, the lunatic or the society he lives in. The performances of the actors is not consistent. Sometimes the two stars of the film, Heinz Rühmann and Charles Régnier, act quite brilliantly, sometimes they look kind of misplaced, but obviously owing to a weak director's leading rather than to their own abilities. The weak sides of the film include severe mistakes of timing, for instance in many of the hunt scenes, and a lack of sense for the increase and decrease of dramatic suspense. Still the film is a child of its time in the best sense and therefore has its true value, although it is far from perfect.
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