Großstadtmelodie (1943)

(Melody of a Great City)

If you download the Matroska link, you will get a MKV-file with optional subtitles, which you can play with a VLC-player on your computer.

Directed by: Wolfgang Liebeneiner

Produced by: Heinrich Jonen

Written by: Géza von Cziffra

Maria von der Busche

Else Feldbinder

Wolfgang Liebeneiner

Music by: Werner Bochmann

Michael Jary

Rudolf Perak

Cinematography: Richard Angst

Walter Pindter

Edited by: Marthe Rau

Production company: Berlin-Film

Distributed by: Deutsche Filmvertriebs

Release date: 4 October 1943

Running time: 107 minutes

Country: National-Socialist German Reich

Language: German

Starring:

Hilde Krahl: Renate Heiberg

Werner Hinz: Dr. Rolf Bergmann, rapporteur

Karl John: Klaus Nolte

Paul Henckels: Director Heinze, Publishing Director

Will Dohm: Dr. Pauske, picture editor on duty

Curt Ackermann: The director of the review

Günther Ballier: A Berliner at the tram stop

Heinz Baur: Velten, employee Dr. Werners

Fritz Berghof: An unapproachable foreign personality

Elfie Beyer: Vroni Huber, Renate’s cousin

Erwin Biegel: The director of the review

Marlies Bieneck: Lotti Brandt, Dr. Pauske’s secretary

Käte Bierkowsky: Mrs. Stirner

Beppo Brem: Money postman

Heinz Brilloff: A reporter who goes swimming in the lake

Vera Complojer: Ms. Moosbrugger

Gerhard Dammann: The truck driver

Ernst Dernburg: Mr. Stirner

Franz Dombrowski: The traffic protection officer at Potsdamer Platz

Liesl Eckardt: Maid with Dr. Pauske

Josef Eichheim: Alois Huber, photographer

Peter Elsholtz: Buckel, employee Dr. Werners

Angelo Ferrari: A foreign reporter for the review test

Otto Graf: Dr. Werner, editor-in-chief

Walter Gross: A Berliner at the tram stop

Wilhelm Große: The registrar who trusts Klaus and Viola

Clemens Hasse: Tielke, photo lab technician

Johannes Heesters: Plays itself in a revue

Friedel Heizmann: The editor who is looking for pictures from Stuttgart

Irmgard Hoffmann: Mrs. Tupfer

Melanie Horeschowsky: Mrs. Krauthofer, Berlin pension owner

Ursula Klinder: Miss Kindler

Horst Lommer: The Berlin photo reporter colleague of Klaus

Marlise Ludwig: Mrs. Pauske

Käte Merk: A young lady at the sausage stand at night

Kurt Mikulski: A Berliner at the tram stop

Karl Morvilius: A police sergeant on a night tour

Peter Mosbacher: Kajetan Orff

Ditta Oesch: Anni, the: girl with Alois Huber

Walter Pentzlin: A gentleman

Wolfram Pokorny: A reporter who goes swimming in the lake

Gustav Püttjer: A welding worker in Berlin at night

Karl Rathgeb: Lapwing

Paul Rehkopf: The old cobbler in Berlin

Willi Rose: The police officer in the zoo

Günter Sabek: Florian, son of Ms. Tupfer

Werner Schott: Mr. Petersen

Heinrich Schroth: Old man with grandchild

Vera Schulz: The: Housekeeping staff at the pension

Walter Steinweg: A reporter who goes swimming in the lake

Ernst Stimmel: Mr. Albrecht

Werner Stock: Heinzelmann, employee Dr. Werners

Otto Stoeckel: Dr. Springer, director of an image agency

Gerda Maria Terno: Mother with child

Konrad Thoms: An photo-reporter during the review test

Rudolf Günther Wagner: An photo-reporter at the rehearsal

Franz Weber: The director of a photo agency

Inge Weigand: Miss Gerti from the Berolina Press

Hilde Weissner: Ms. Hesse, owner of a fashion salon

Eduard Wenck: Messenger, doorman of the Berolina-Press

Charlotte Witthauer: A telephone operator in the airport hotel

Viola Zarell: Viola, dancer and revue star, fiancée of Klaus Nolte

Maria Zidek: The secretary at Bergmann

Plot:

The film is about Hilde Krahl as a photographer in provincial Bavaria, who gets the chance to sell some photos to a major magazine and decides to move to Berlin. Here her dreams are first crushed; she loses her first job immediately by doing semi-artistic snaps instead of the sport press coverage that was demanded and toils away in the big city only supported by a photographer friend (Karl John). Then, however, her sport photos are dug out and she gets an offer to work for the big guns in the business, among them a journalist (Werner Hinz) she has fallen in love with.

One of the best films of the 40’s, with a strong modern female protagonist, a realistic description of people trying to find their way in a metropolis, some humour and a very modern sounding description of a romance between people who are separated by their work. Throughout the film there’s lot of Berlin footage interspersed, which comes from Leo de Laforgue’s documentary Berlin Symphonie einer Weltstadt (which was shot in 1938-39 but not released in 1943 as planned, due to the destruction by the Allied bombardments and the film had its premiere only in 1950).