"Reise ins Ehebett" or "Journey into the Nuptial Bed" is an East German movie from 1966, so this one is already way over half a century old, which sadly means that the majority of people who worked on this one are deceased already. And no matter if dead or alive, I genuinely hope their other works had better quality than this one here. Or had quality at all, I could also say. This 85-minute film really lacks from almost every perspective. Like I said in the title of my review: The actors here were pretty attractive/handsome and Hollywood did not offer hotter chicks and studs in terms of both men and women (obviously), but range be it in terms of their delivery as actors or singers is missing entirely First things first: The director here is Joachim Hasler and he is also one of the writers. However, even if he was certainly not a rookie by any definition, his most prolific area of expertise when it comes to film was his work as a cinematographer. He had already directed several films before this one here and you can say that his earlier works were of a more seriious and dramatic nature, while his later efforts were much lighter in terms of the plot. This one here really has zero drama. It is a mix between comedy and musical, the latter being a genre that was really popular back then. Now I am generally hesitant to give really old films a really low rating because what people liked back then was considerably different than what they liked today, so maybe often I am just unable to make a connection because I live in a different era. However, this one here feels really shoddy altogether and time cannot explain this mess of a movie. The songs are all pretty bad to be honest, the slightly more romantic song towards the end was admittedly not as much of a failure as everything before that, the duet I mean. Still all these lighter songs, especially the 1 or 2 that is/are played on several occasions, including the main theme, are just really really bad. People say that the GDR's biggest strength was fairytales in terms of movies and I sort of agree. At least this one here is evidence of how comedies and musicals definitely weren't it.
If there is any reason to watch this DEFA movie now in the 2020s, then maybe it is that Nina Hagen''s mother Eva-Maria plays one of the two female characters in the center of the movie. I always thought her daughter was more famous than she should be, also because she is not a good singer, just different, but looking at this one here I think it is safe to say that her mother does/did not exactly possess a lot of talent either. She is as weak as everybody else. Also in terms of acting. It must be said that the screenplay here (how can this really be the result by several writers, they really all must suck) did not exactly do any favors to the cast, but the way how they went all ham and over the top, made the ridiculous story even worse. And that is quite an "achievement" looking at how bad it already is. Sadly, it is not bad in a way where you would say it has guilty pleasure potential. It is just bad. That's all. The poster here on imdb with the anchor shows you already how amateurish this project turned out to be. At least hagen was somewhhat easy on the eye and Prucnal was actually fairly attractive, although I wonder wwhat was going on with her accent. It was the actress' real accent right? Did they not even care? I mean Eva does not sound foreign. Maybe I missed something. Honestly it's possible with how boring I found this film. So this is the story of a sailor, who, just like they say, has a different girl at eacch port. But his employer is not too happy about that and tries to trick him into falling for one special girl, so the short-lived romantic adventures come to an ende. This would be too easy though and another female character intervenes. And when finally the sailor made his choice, the other girl just ends up as a love interest for one of the many other man on board of the ship. Oh well, that was the easy way out for sure and pretty uninspired. I found it difficult to believe though that the sailor was really such a casanova looking at how he falls relatively quickly for the one he wants and I would have expected that as well with at least one of his affairs. Oh well, maybe it is just me. Let me just say say that the banter between the other couple was pretty difficult to take and again Hagen showed there that she is not a good actress. So yeah, it's really easy to come up with all kinds of negative stuff from this film that proves that the talent just wasn't there. Not even for an underwhelming movie. This one is not underwhelming or below-average, it is just plain bad. One of the worst 1960s films I have seen. Now it was not the most glorious decade for German films (West Germany or East Germany), but luckily there are many that are far superior to this one here, not that this would require something. What is maybe the most disappointing aspect is that even with all these seemingly uplifting songs, it all feels staged and for the sake of it and real joy just isn't there, apart from the pretty shoddy editing that makes it even difficult to appreciate how the movie jumps from one song to a scene without music and quickly to the next song. Yeah well, it just isn't working whatsoever. Massive thumbs-down. Also pretty strange how back then it was apparently not too unusual that your employer does not only know what your lovelife looks like, but even tries to steer it into a certain direction. Unthinkable today. Thank God.
If there is any reason to watch this DEFA movie now in the 2020s, then maybe it is that Nina Hagen''s mother Eva-Maria plays one of the two female characters in the center of the movie. I always thought her daughter was more famous than she should be, also because she is not a good singer, just different, but looking at this one here I think it is safe to say that her mother does/did not exactly possess a lot of talent either. She is as weak as everybody else. Also in terms of acting. It must be said that the screenplay here (how can this really be the result by several writers, they really all must suck) did not exactly do any favors to the cast, but the way how they went all ham and over the top, made the ridiculous story even worse. And that is quite an "achievement" looking at how bad it already is. Sadly, it is not bad in a way where you would say it has guilty pleasure potential. It is just bad. That's all. The poster here on imdb with the anchor shows you already how amateurish this project turned out to be. At least hagen was somewhhat easy on the eye and Prucnal was actually fairly attractive, although I wonder wwhat was going on with her accent. It was the actress' real accent right? Did they not even care? I mean Eva does not sound foreign. Maybe I missed something. Honestly it's possible with how boring I found this film. So this is the story of a sailor, who, just like they say, has a different girl at eacch port. But his employer is not too happy about that and tries to trick him into falling for one special girl, so the short-lived romantic adventures come to an ende. This would be too easy though and another female character intervenes. And when finally the sailor made his choice, the other girl just ends up as a love interest for one of the many other man on board of the ship. Oh well, that was the easy way out for sure and pretty uninspired. I found it difficult to believe though that the sailor was really such a casanova looking at how he falls relatively quickly for the one he wants and I would have expected that as well with at least one of his affairs. Oh well, maybe it is just me. Let me just say say that the banter between the other couple was pretty difficult to take and again Hagen showed there that she is not a good actress. So yeah, it's really easy to come up with all kinds of negative stuff from this film that proves that the talent just wasn't there. Not even for an underwhelming movie. This one is not underwhelming or below-average, it is just plain bad. One of the worst 1960s films I have seen. Now it was not the most glorious decade for German films (West Germany or East Germany), but luckily there are many that are far superior to this one here, not that this would require something. What is maybe the most disappointing aspect is that even with all these seemingly uplifting songs, it all feels staged and for the sake of it and real joy just isn't there, apart from the pretty shoddy editing that makes it even difficult to appreciate how the movie jumps from one song to a scene without music and quickly to the next song. Yeah well, it just isn't working whatsoever. Massive thumbs-down. Also pretty strange how back then it was apparently not too unusual that your employer does not only know what your lovelife looks like, but even tries to steer it into a certain direction. Unthinkable today. Thank God.
