The Berliner (Berliner Ballade) 75 years old

The Berliner

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 95 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
The Berliner poster
The Berliner (75 years)

  • Release day: Friday, December 31, 1948
  • Runtime: 89 minutes