"Drillinge an Bord" is a West German black-and-white movie from the year 1959, so it will already have its 60th birthday soon. The director is Hans Müller and the writer duo are Gustav Kampendonk and Lothar Koch. However, the real star here is of course lead actor Heinz Erhardt, who was the defining comedy actor from Germany back then and is still considered among the best the country had to offer ever. A lot of his success comes through his strong physicality. At times, he reminded me of a talking version of Fatty Arbuckle. And good news for his fans, he plays three characters in this film, triplets as the title already states. Unfortunately, like so many other times in Erhardt's career, the material is not on par with his talent. There are not many very funny moments and when the film dives into drama/crime terrain with the real criminals on board of the ship, it becomes completely uninteresting. Such a shame as Erhardt was kind of wasted here and there is little memorable about this movie apart from him appearing in three roles. The romance part was not good either. Thumbs down and I do not recommend the watch.
Review of Drillinge an Bord
