This is in some ways Olsen’s most “prestigious” St Pauli film as it comes with a lot of baggage based on the title alone.
“Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins” (tr. “On the Reeperbahn at half past midnight”), about a night out on the Reeperbahn, is one of Germany’s most popular songs ever since it was composed for a musical revue in 1912.
The song had previously served as the basis for two German movies with the very same title, in 1929 (ironically one of Germany’s last silent movies) and the Hans Albers classic from 1954.
Hans Albers is one of the singers most popularly identified with the tune. Prior to the eponymous 1954 film he had also sung it in Große Freiheit Nr. 7/Port of Freedom (1944), a Third Reich production that has stood the test of time and is still admired by international audiences as it cleverly managed to subvert its attempts to turn this into a propaganda vehicle.
Albers was born in Hamburg and became a local legend who frequently acted in films based in Hamburg or St Pauli. In actual fact he is the actor Curd Jürgens (a jet setting playboy with few connections to Hamburg’s coastline) clearly emulated in all these Olsen productions. Jürgens and Albers shared certain physical features which I suspect was one of the key factors in being chosen by Olsen as the star of his films.
The 1969 film is a loose remake of the 1954 film, copying over some of its plot points but then adding various new elements as well as injecting it with some more salacious T&A and violence. The song features throughout the film in various instrumental versions and is also “sung” by Jürgens and the ever reliable Heinz Reincke during a boisterous night out. (A subsequent single was also released with Jürgens singing that song together with another similar one on the B-Side.)
Jürgens plays Hannes Teversen, an ex-captain, who had lost his licence and served eight years in prison for the murder of his lover, the wife of his best friend, while in a drunken stupor. He always denied the allegations and upon release seeks to clear his name and swears revenge.
Once back in freedom, he is confused about the onslaught of sex shops and magazines and the number of foreigners who have now made their home in Hamburg. He crosses paths with an old flame just to discover that she is now a street hooker.
Pitter’s daughter Antje (Jutta d’Arcy) always had a childhood crush on “Uncle” Hannes, a crush that with her now being a young, attractive woman seems likely to become consumed.
If only Teversen, unbeknownst to himself, wasn’t her real father!
Meanwhile one of Antje’s admirers (Klaus-Hagen Latwesen) gets mixed up with a biker gang and requires Teversen’s help to get him back on the straight and narrow.
Olsen’s St Pauli is again a society dominated by brutal day-time violence, murder and organised crime, topless ladies and prostitution. And even though the film ends in an action packed finale, for a considerable part of its running time it focuses on the relationship between Jürgens and his old buddies…. and the imminent threat of incest with his own daughter.
Apart from Jürgens and Reincke, this production also stars Fritz Wepper, Konrad Georg and Fritz Tillmann, all actors who would frequently show up in this series, adding to a general sense of familiarity and Deja Vu.
It also features Diana Körner in one of her first roles as the daughter of Jürgens’ alleged murder victim. Körner in future years would become a very popular German TV actress.
Al Adamson released this film Stateside under its alternative title Shock Treatment (not to be confused with the Alain Delon film from 1973 or the 1981 Rocky Horror Picture Show followup and musical comedy).
To be continued….
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