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.
Credits
The Berliner Cast
| Name |
Character |
|
Gert Fröbe
He was 35, 75 years old when he died
|
as Otto Normalverbraucher |
|
Herbert Hübner
He was 59, 82 years old when he died
|
as Herr Bollmann |
|
O.E. Hasse
He was 45, 75 years old when he died
|
as Der Reaktionär |
|
Brigitte Mira
She was 38, 94 years old when she died
|
as Dirne |
|
Karl Schönböck
He was 40, 93 years old when he died
|
as Rundfunkreporter |
|
Erik Ode
He was 38, 72 years old when he died
|
as Stimme |
|
Rita Paul
She was 20, now 96 years old
|
as Sängerin |
|
Hans Deppe
He was 51, 71 years old when he died
|
as Emil Lemke |
|
Tatjana Sais
She was 38, 71 years old when she died
|
as Ida Holle |
The Berliner Crew
| Name |
Department |
|
Robert A. Stemmle as Director. He was 45 (70) years old when He died
|
Directing |
|
Alf Teichs as Producer. He was 44 (87) years old when He died
|
Production |
|
Günter Neumann as Writer. He was 28 (52) years old when He died
|
Writing |
