Der Sonderling (1929) User Reviews

Slightly underseen and underrated

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 27 January 2018]

"Der Sonderling" is a German black-and-white silent film from 1929, so this one will have its 90th anniversary next year and it is from between the World Wars, which age-wise makes the lack of sound and color not too surprising. Walter Jerven is the writer and director here and this is possibly his most known career effort, even if it is far from a famous film, even here in Germany. The title means roughly translated something like "The Weird One", even if weird in the year 1929 is definitely something completely different than in 2018. It refers to the main character played by Karl Valentin and this is just one of several films, also short films, he made with actress Liesl Karlstadt. The rest of the cast are not known much, not even here in Germany, but then again non-film buffs certainly haven't heard of Valentin or Karlstadt either. The physical female beauty is brought by the young Truus Van Aalten. Basically the story here is about the misadventures of a (not so young anymore) tailor's apprentice. It really is all about the comedy here mostly through awkward situations and sometimes dialogue driven too. I liked it overall. Silent films back then had one huge problem (even those starring the greats of Chaplin, Lloyd or Keaton), namely the lack of sufficient intertitles quantity-wise, but this isn't an issue here at all, especially early on and this luckily makes it very easy to understand the story and what's going on. And understand the jokes. Of course not all of it has aged well and there are some lines and moments that were intended far funnier than it actually turned out in the end, but hey that's true about many new comedies too especially here from Germany and the likes of new Schweighöfer films (ugh!) these days don't have one third of the quality this one here does for example. And the argument that they could have taken all the best parts and turned it into a high-quality short film is also not really valid as this only would have happened in a perfect world, but in our world they also would have taken many mediocre sequences and left out good sequences too. All in all, Valentin (and Karlstadt) prove(s) they still can come up with quality stuff after being in the industry for over a decade already. Good for them, good for us. I give this one a thumbs-up and if you like very old (German) silent movies, then watch this one. And if you not really do (like myself), then still do. Just don't expect something along the lines of M or Metropolis here. This one here never aspires to be a masterpiece, just some good-natured fun. And it succeeds at that. See it.

Lovely old comedy

[suchenwi · 8/10 · 13 February 2008]

This was Karl Valentin's first feature-length movie, as well as his last silent movie. Talkies allowed him to present his extravagant verbal humor, but also in Der Sonderling does he deliver many funny moments - from his fakely prolonged nose to various slapstick acts. Notable for his black humor are especially the failed suicide scenes in the end.

"Boy wonder" Gustl Gstettenbaur also plays a nice part as the teenage seducer (he was 15 at the time, but had acted in a number of movies already, including Fritz Lang's "Spione" and "Frau im Mond"). Truus van Aalten is his cute and naughty girl counterpart.

The skeleton plot: a tailor in want of money finds a 100 mark bill (equivalent to some 1000 in today's currency) in the pocket of a jacket he is ironing. He first takes it, but later regrets and puts it back - though erroneously into another, similar jacket. Tribulations with the original owner and the finder ensue. It is interesting that this same plot line, though with very different fillings, appears again 7 years later in Valentin's "Donner, Blitz und Sonnenschein"...