Sieben Tage Frist (1969)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Alfred Vohrer

Writers:

Paul Hendriks (novel)
Manfred Purzer (writer)

Release Date:

3 April 1969 (West Germany)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Plot:

In a North German Boarding School for Boys, one Pupil, Kurrat, suddenly vanishes one night without informing anybody...

Plot Keywords:

Boarding School | Closeted Homosexual | Based On Novel

Cast

Joachim Fuchsberger	...	Hendriks
Konrad Georg	...	Fromm
Horst Tappert	...	Klevenow
Karin Hübner	...	Frau Muhl
Petra Schürmann	...	Fräulein Gabert
Hilde Brand	...	Lonny
Bruno Dallansky	...	Herr Muhl
Paul Albert Krumm	...	Stallmann
Robert Meyn	...	Direktor
Joachim Rake	...	Beamter
Otto Stern	...	Kurrat Senior
Wolfgang Stumpf	...	Fremder
Frithjof Vierock	...	Sickelcka
Arthur Richelmann	...	Kurrat Junior
Gunther Beth	...	Hensen

Also Known As:

School of Fear (USA)
Seven Days Grace (International: English title)

Runtime:

West Germany:100 min

Country:

West Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Not Rated | West Germany:16 | Canada:13+ (Quebec)

Filming Locations:

Bendestorf, Lower Saxony, Germany

Company:

Roxy Film

The Distortion of an Image

Frankly speaking, I am astonished that meanwhile approximately half a dozen of the German thrillers of the fifties and sixties, directed by Alfred Vohrer, are available on international DVD. The American audience must like them, although they get constantly bad ratings. Moreover, they are all dubbed, and horribly so. They are converted into "B-movies" simply by exchanging the titles. Finally, "Sieben Tage Frist (lit.: "Seven day's deadline") or "School of Fear" (which sounds like "School of flesh") is already full of mistakes in the credits: Alfred Vohrer turns into Alfred Voher, Petra Schürmann into Peter Schurman, Karin Hübner into Karen Huber, etc., not to mention that all German names are mispronounced so that they are not recognizable anymore (imagine "John Barrymore" pronounced according to German phonetics!). Another problem is that all the Vohrer movies are unrestored and of partly bad quality, like the movie in discussion here.

The average German audience that is interested in foreign thrillers has no idea about the special political and sociological situation of Germany in the fifties and sixties. How could they? However, Alfred Vohrer (1914-1986) was a film director who used, besides his cinematic and theatric work, especially TV in order to criticize actual events in his homeland in a quick manner, so his movies are contributions to the actualities of the days - in the fifties and sixties. Vohrer did not primarily create social-critic movies that are going to persist into eternity, like, e.g., Fassbinder did. And so, also the quintessence of "Sieben Tage Frist" is bound by actualities some forty years ago. At that time, the masks of many influenceful people were torn off who could escape twenty years ago from punishment for their collaboration with the Nazi regime - like the physician/physics teacher Fromm alias Dr. Brandt in the movie. Since these people are all dead by now, even in Germany, not even the young generation understands the motives for Vohrer thrillers anymore. They are measured by comparison with the high stylish Hollywood thrillers, which is an apriori nonsense.

However, I want to point out that the German "thriller-culture" started with Vohrer. F.ex., Vohrer directed 14 Edgar Wallace movies and several dozens of episodes of the TV series "Derrick" and "Der Alte". Since the audience never knew what episode will be next, I remember very well my mother telling me, when they were announced: "The next episode will be directed by Alfred Vohrer!!!". Vohrer's name was, during almost three decades from the fifties to the eighties, in Germany, simply a guarantee for high-class thrillers and horror from the best. Now, they look a bit like cinderellas besides some more recent Hollywood creations. But nevertheless, I want to point out here clearly that Alfred Vohrer's work has its fixed place in German film history. Vohrer would be very astonished to see his TV movies being played all over the world now. He made his TV productions for Germany of and as children of their time. Besides that, some first-rate cinematic productions of Vohrer, like "Anita Drogemöller und die Ruhe an der Ruhr" have never been released on VHS nor DVD. By holding Vohrer's really artistic works back and promoting solely his actuality-of-the-day TV productions, the image of this very versatile director is getting distorted.