| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
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Angela Winkler | ... |
Katharina Blum
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Mario Adorf | ... |
Kommissar Beizmenne
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| Dieter Laser | ... |
Werner Tötges
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| Jürgen Prochnow | ... |
Ludwig Götten
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Heinz Bennent | ... |
Dr. Hubert Blorna
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Hannelore Hoger | ... |
Trude Blorna
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Rolf Becker | ... |
Staatsanwalt Hach
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Harald Kuhlmann | ... |
Moeding
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Herbert Fux | ... |
Weninger
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Regine Lutz | ... |
Else Woltersheim
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Werner Eichhorn | ... |
Konrad Beiters
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Karl Heinz Vosgerau | ... |
Alois Sträubleder
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Angelika Hillebrecht | ... |
Frau Pletzer
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Horatius Häberle | ... |
Staatsanwalt Dr. Korten
(as Horatius Haeberle)
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Henry van Lyck | ... |
'Scheich' Karl
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Katharina Blum is a young handsome German maid. She meets Ludwig, and they fall in love at once. They spend the night together. In the morning, the police bursts in her flat, looking for Ludwig : he is a terrorist. But he was no longer here. Katharina is arrested, humiliated, suspected to be a terrorist herself, dragged in the mud by the newspapers... A plea for democracy and individual rights. Written by Yepok
Apart from its general and still (i.e. now more than ever) valid attacks on the scrupelous tactics of tabloid journalism, this movie is also very valuable as a time piece about German society in the 1970's, when the country was shaken by fear of terrorist assassinations and everything considered anti-Democratic (meaning left-wing). In this way, the film not only takes into question the missing morality of tabloid journalists, but also the loss of human rights in a society bothered with questions of homeland security (parallels to the current situation in the U.S. are obvious). Katharina Blum is not only destroyed by the merciless press abusing her for sensationalist journalism, but also by a police and judicial system that doesn't value an individual's right of privacy anymore, and even less the principle of innocent until proven otherwise.
A film of exceptional quality (even though the acting isn't convincing at some times), "Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum" is strongly recommended to every thinking movie fan with an interest in the abuse of power in our not-so-democratic society.