Emil und die Detektive

19311931
1h 15m

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

651

YOUR RATING

Billy Wilder, Fritz Rasp, Allan Gray, Käthe Haack, Erich Kästner, Gerhard Lamprecht, Inge Landgut, Hans Joachim Schaufuß, Günther Stapenhorst, and Rolf Wenkhaus in Emil und die Detektive (1931)

Adventure Family Drama

Emil goes to Berlin to see his grandmother with a large amount of money and is offered sweets by a strange man that make him sleep. He wakes up at his stop with no money. It is up to him and... Read allEmil goes to Berlin to see his grandmother with a large amount of money and is offered sweets by a strange man that make him sleep. He wakes up at his stop with no money. It is up to him and a group of children to save the day.Emil goes to Berlin to see his grandmother with a large amount of money and is offered sweets by a strange man that make him sleep. He wakes up at his stop with no money. It is up to him and a group of children to save the day.

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

651

YOUR RATING

Director
- Gerhard Lamprecht
Writers
- Erich Kästner(from the novel by)
- Billy Wilder(screenplay)
- Emeric Pressburger(uncredited)
Stars

See production, box office & company info

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Photos18

Fritz Rasp and Rolf Wenkhaus in Emil und die Detektive (1931)

Rudolf Biebrach and Rolf Wenkhaus in Emil und die Detektive (1931)

Inge Landgut and Hans Joachim Schaufuß in Emil und die Detektive (1931)

Fritz Rasp in Emil und die Detektive (1931)

Hans Joachim Schaufuß and Rolf Wenkhaus in Emil und die Detektive (1931)

Rolf Wenkhaus in Emil und die Detektive (1931)

Trivia
Many of the boy actors from this movie died as soldiers in World War II.

Goofs
When the train carrying Emil from the fictional "Neustadt" to Berlin stops at the intermediate station where all the passengers except Emil and Grundeis, the man with the bowler hat, leave the compartment, its engine is a 2-6-0 Deutsche Reichsbahn Class 38, formerly a Prussian P 8 passenger engine. When the train leaves that station, it is suddenly a DR Class 17, formerly a Prussian 4-6-0 S 10 express train locomotive. When the train enters Berlin's Zoo Station, it has reverted back to a 38/P 8.

Connections
Featured in Elokuvan ja lasten tarina (2013)

User reviews10

Review

Featured review

8/10

The children are watching.

Apparently novelist Erich Kastner was none too keen on this adaptation by Billy Wilder, with a little help from an uncredited Emeric Pressburger but the film was an unqualified success commercially and ranks as yet another gem of Weimar Cinema.

All the elements have come together here to produce a work that has retained its magic, freshness, charm and immediacy ninety years on.

There is a splendid score by Polish born Allan Gray who was to continue the Pressburger connection, notably with his scores for two of Britain's greatest, 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp' and 'A Matter of Life and Death' whilst Werner Brandes' candid camerawork has succeeded in making the city of Berlin an active participant in the plot. Especially impressive is the sequence where Emil Tischbein and his ever increasing gang of children pursue and corner the thief Grundeis.

Director Gerhard Lamprecht has worked wonders with his untrained youngsters and the inclusion of one girl amongst the boys is inspired. She is played by Inga Landgut, one of M's unfortunate victims in Lang's masterpiece from the same year. Playing Emil made an overnight star of Rolf Wenkhaus who went on to play a youth of an altogether different stamp in 'S. A.-Mann Brand' and died in combat in 1942. There is a touching performance by Kathe Haack as Emile's mother and what can one possibly say of Fritz Rasp who portrays Grundeis? A highly unusual artiste with an imposing and at times menacing presence who made his debut in 1916 and was still acting until the year of his death in 1976. He is perfectly cast here and being costumed in black adds to his villainy.

This is the first version on film. Often imitated, never bettered.

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