"Film ohne Titel" or "Film Without Title" or "Film Without a Name" is a German movie from 1948, so this one is already almost 80 years old. The director is Rudolf Jugert and he is also among the writers here. He co-wrote the film with Ellen Fechner and Helmut Käutner, one of Germany's most successful filmmakers at that time as well. Looking at the film's age (and if you forgot about earlier German color films), nobody should be surprised that it is a black-and-white movie that has sound of course. World War II had not even been over for 5 years and the country needed to be built up again and this also applies to the German film industry. The actors were not necessarily, but partially new faces. If you take a look at names like Söhnker, Knef, Fritsch or von Meyendorff and care about German film from the 20th century, then you will see familiar faces here for sure. I myself must say still that I did not enjoy the watch a lot sadly. The story was in theory not bad, but the film came short in both of its core genres, namely romance and comedy. It was never funny and never touching either. But it shows that Germany, even in the days of Trümmerfilms, was ready to take a shot at comedy too despite how bleak everything looked. It just did not work out well in this 95-minute movie, but I appreciate the idea. In terms of romance, of course we have Hilde Knef on board here and she never was a weak female devoted to her beloved one, which is obvious if you know her a bit, pretty much the exact opposite of Kristina Söderbaum for example. So that's maybe also why you should not get your hopes up way too high for the romance. And I think knew is probably a better drama actress than comedy as well. The subject is occasionally fine. Especially Italian filmmakers have made memorable works in the years after World War II that deal with film on film, with actors and directors struggling in life and profession. And this tendency of a group of people having the intention to make a movie is existent in here already. However, it is not refined at all and, as a consequence, not interesting at all either. I give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.
Review of Film Without a Name
