Ballad of Berlin, The (1948-Berliner Ballade)

The Ballad of Berlin is a satire of post-war reality in Germany, presented as a flashback in the year 2048.

Otto Normalverbraucher, an average German citizen, returns from captivity in 1949 to Berlin and has to come to terms with the new post-war situation. He meets bootleggers and reactionaries, looks for work and food, and in the end even finds his "dream woman".

Director:
Robert A. Stemmle
Writers:
Günter Neumann (story)
Günter Neumann (screenplay)



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Cast:

Gert Fröbe ... Otto Normalverbraucher

Tatjana Sais ... Frau Ida Holle

Ute Sielisch ... Eva Wandel, Bäuerin

Aribert Wäscher ... Anton Zeithammer

O.E. Hasse ... Der Reaktionär

Hans Deppe ... Emil Lemke

Werner Oehlschlaeger ... Raisonneur (as Werner Oehlschläger)

Erik Ode ... Narrator (voice)

Karl Schönböck ... Rundfunkreporter

Herbert Hübner ... Herr Bollmann, politischer Redner

Alfred Schieske ... Herr Schneidewind, Politischer Redner

Herbert Weissbach ... Spirituosenhändler

Kurt Weitkamp


Franz-Otto Krüger ... Einbrecher Franz

Review Summary

Long before he played the corpulent Goldfinger, German actor Gert Froebe was a scarecrow-skinny comedian. In Berliner Ballade, Froebe makes his screen debut as Otto, a feckless Everyman who tries to adjust to the postwar travails of his defeated nation. Stymied by black-market profiteers and government bureaucrats, Otto begins fantasizing about a happier life at the end of that ever-elusive rainbow. Director R. A. Stemmle doesn't have to strive for pathos: he merely places his gangly star amidst the ruins of a bombed-out Berlin, and the point is made for him. Filmed in 1948, Berliner Ballade was later released in the U.S. as The Berliner.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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