This is "Kehraus", a West German 90-minute movie from 1938, so it is already easily over 30 years old. And in terms of its success with the German Film Awards and other awards bodies, it is probably the most known work by writer and director Hanns Christian Müller and writer and lead actor Gerhard Polt, who also worked together on some more occasions. The biggest strength of the movie is probably the satire aspect. It is about a man who ends up signing up to several insurances that he actually does not need at all. When he realizes this and wants to end the contract right away, the insurer makes it virtually impossible for him to talk to the people in charge that could accept his request. I must say the more I see from Polt, the more likable I find him. I think he has even better range than he shows us here (and in some of his other films) because he always appears in films that rely so heavily on writing and story-telling and not really on acting.
The female lead is Gisela Schneeberger, who also worked with Polt on several occasions. The reason her performances received strong praise too probably has to do with the fact that her character has the biggest transformation in the film from being an irrelevant part of the whole machinery into a real and authentic character who helps our hero in his difficult endeavor. She did a good job and I like her as an actress, in here and in other projects. She is on par with Polt. I think the acting in here was generally pretty good and cast members like Hildebrandt and Busse are still very known today to German audiences. Everybody contributes his share, in front of and behind the camera and I even ended up liking a Höhner song here (closing credits), which is a huge achievement. One of Germany's better films from the 1980s. Go check it out.
The female lead is Gisela Schneeberger, who also worked with Polt on several occasions. The reason her performances received strong praise too probably has to do with the fact that her character has the biggest transformation in the film from being an irrelevant part of the whole machinery into a real and authentic character who helps our hero in his difficult endeavor. She did a good job and I like her as an actress, in here and in other projects. She is on par with Polt. I think the acting in here was generally pretty good and cast members like Hildebrandt and Busse are still very known today to German audiences. Everybody contributes his share, in front of and behind the camera and I even ended up liking a Höhner song here (closing credits), which is a huge achievement. One of Germany's better films from the 1980s. Go check it out.
