So You Don't Know Korff Yet? (1938) User Reviews

Goose-stepping screwballs

[F Gwynplaine MacIntyre · 7/10 · 8 May 2004]

'So, You Don't Know Korff Yet?' is a low-budget comedy, made in Germany during the Third Reich but largely free of Nazi agitprop. It's an amusing film, with an interesting depiction of Hollywood-style gangsters as imagined by Germans.

Vermeylen is a wealthy Dutch art collector, who lives in Amsterdam with his pretty daughter Dortje. Three crooks conspire to steal one of his paintings. The crooks are played by German actors but are apparently meant to be American gangsters (Morton and Kelly) with a French toff (DuFour) as their leader. Kelly is played by the great German actor Fritz Rasp, who must have felt he was slumming in this movie. These 'gangsters' are utterly unrealistic, but no more so than some of the gangster characters in Hollywood films of this era.

Into this umlaut-fest arrives Niels Korff, one of those implausible fictional characters who could never exist in real life. Korff is a hugely successful author of detective novels who amuses himself as a flautist, but who acquires material for his novels by working (in real life) as an amateur detective! That blurry object whizzing past you is this movie's plausibility, vanishing into the distance. Korff takes it upon himself to save the Vermeylens and their painting. He is aided in this endeavour by two bumbling private detectives: van Gaalen and Schimmelpennick (the latter's name is funnier than her performance).

I have a low opinion of German attempts at humour, so I was pleasantly surprised that this movie is actually fairly successful in blending intentional comedy with some genuine suspense during the heist sequences. The interplay of eyeballs between Korff and Dortje makes it obvious how this movie will end ... but we have some fun getting there. I found this plot line utterly unbelievable, yet that didn't stop me from enjoying it. I'm vaguely astonished that such a light-hearted trifle could have been confected during the Third Reich, yet this movie is very much in the spirit of the screwball comedies that Hollywood was making at this time ... not *as good* as those films, mind you, but in that same spirit all the same. The music in a nightclub sequence is good, too. I'll rate this movie 7 out of 10. I wish the Third Reich had devoted more resources to turning out pleasant froth like this, instead of their more regrettable enterprises.

Insane criminal comedy starring Heinz Rühmann

[johannesaquila · 6/10 · 3 January 2022]

This film's illogical plot is just an excuse to make Heinz Rühmann shine in his typical role as the naive and somewhat gauche man in the street who suddenly finds himself in an adventure, falls in love, and finally gets the girl.

In the first decades of his career, Heinz Rühmann was known (and loved!) only for this kind of harmless fun. At a time when many German actors had to emigrate, Rühmann came to an arrangement with the Nazis: Göbbels personally helped to arrange the safe emigration of Rühmann's first wife, who was Jewish. Rühmann stayed in Germany and continued making light-hearted, unpolitical films that provided ordinary Germans with much-needed escapism. Apparently the Nazis valued this contribution too much to try to pressure Rühmann into producing propaganda films.

In the present film, which appears to be a relatively cheap production, Heinz Rühmann's real co-star is Nils Korff's dachshund. The love story involving Austrian actress Senta Foltin as Dortje (her first cinema role) is cute but very superficial.

Even before and after the performance of a variety show that takes up the core of the film, its strengths lie in the comical scenes held loosely together by an implausible plot. Among other things, we see and hear the Danish flutist playing his instrument in various interesting situations.

Well worth watching for Rühmann fans; others may or may not like it.

Entertainment during the third Reich

[fbergeot-00848 · 7/10 · 7 October 2016]

I wonder whether I saw the same film as Cynthiahost. Heinz Rühmann's character, Niels Korff, lives in Danmark and not in the Netherlands, where he is lured into by the American crooks Dufour and Morton, who want to get rid of him, because detective stories published under his name describe crimes they have committed. In the same way as in American films all characters speak English whatever the setting or their nationalities, in this film all character speak German, although the scenery seems to be in the Low Countries. The musical numbers are very entertaining and no propaganda appears. It's Quite a pleasant film and a tribute to Heinz Rühmann's acting abilities. I recommend it.

utterly charming UFA comedy

[Clossius · 10/10 · 6 July 2004]

This is a highly amusing musical comedy with romance and crime elements. In spite of being made in 1938, it is more reminiscent, in style, contents, and setting, of earlier Weimar Republic movies. The music, and the revue numbers, are excellent; the criminals and especially the detective seem just funny today, but that adds to the charm. The hero, the naive flutist Niels Korff, is played by Hans Rühmann, the most popular comedy actor for such roles of the UFA and one of the most beloved German screen actors at all. How good he is can be seen by the fact that he has an adorable small dog who nevertheless doesn't steal the show. Some of the settings (Dutch beach, Hotel interior) are quite lovely time-pieces as well. A thoroughly enjoyable movie, but because of the quality of the voices, it must be seen in the original German.

good escapist comedy from the Nazi period

[cynthiahost · 21 January 2013]

The other writer express how there should of been more of light entertainment film ,in the third Reich, like this.As a non corporate serious classic film fan ,national and international bad and good film history,pleasant and unpleasant, hateful and tolerant.I'm not a NeoNazi.I know that what Hitler did was wrong.But looking and reading the literature art music and films are harmless .We are a large minority .The mainstream side are just fans of corporate controlled film classics,since they are not much into film history and only want to see the best only.Goebbels ,in spite of murdering his children,stated that the best propaganda is pure entertainment , not films with constant swastikas.Only a few film were anti Semitic and anti Irish,anti British, anti disabled .Most of the rest might of had a little propaganda in it.Opergang,a A.g.f.a. soap opera ,had sacrifice,but regular soap operas have sacrifice any way.Heinz Ruhmann plays mystery writer ,who solves the mysteries himself and writes about it.His name Niels Korf.He live in the Netherlands.What a coincidence, Nazi Germany would invade that country in a couple of years.He also plays the flute and has a pet dog.Most criminals in the Netherlands fear hims.Three do.Two American, German style, Mort,played by the sinister acting Frank Shafhieltin.The excellent actor Fritz Rasp plays Kelly.The gang leader is played by plump character actor and sometime filmmaker ,Victor Janson.All three fear that they will be next.Their goal is to steal a painting from Joseph Tiedtke.Two detective.one played by Will Dohm and Agnes Straub are aware of this possible crime and hire Heinz to help them to stop the crooks it. Frank Shefhietlin seduces the daughter of Teidke , played by Senta Foltin,so that the gang can get to the father.The leader portrays a theatrical agent as a front.Fritz pretends to be a butler to the old man. Agnes pretends to be Hienz's theatrical agent to get him into the Berlin Revue ,of 1938, as part of trapping the crooks.Eventually Heinz and Senta meet falling in love with each other as they both solve the crime.Twist and Turns her old man finally gets his painting back, but it's copy.But Agnes informs all of them that the real one has been protected.All of a sudden the old man does not care if he gets his painting back.At Germanwarfilm.com and amazon.DE in Germany 01,21,13