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.
Genre: Comedy
Stars: Gert Fröbe, Tatjana Sais, Ute Sielisch, Aribert Wäscher, O.E. Hasse, Hans Deppe
Crew: Heinz Rühmann (Producer), Günter Neumann (Writer), Robert A. Stemmle (Director), Alf Teichs (Producer), Gabriel Pellon (Production Design), Günter Neumann (Music)
Country: Germany
Language: Deutsch
Studio: Comedia-Film
Runtime: 89 minutes
Quality: HD
Released: Dec 31, 1948
IMDb: 3.6
