This East German production is surprising in many ways, one of the most obvious is its shifting between color and black & white film stock (which is about 1/3 of the film). Unlike American History X, where such shifting indicates different periods in the life of the main person, I could not find out what the cause was here. Maybe night scenes.. but a number of indoor scenes were also in b/w, where lighting couldn't have been a problem. In some scenes, like the English agents trying to break into the taverna, there is even rapid cross-cutting between color and b/w.
The story in brief: a team of East Germans travels to a fashion presentation in some unspecified Mediterranean country (several hints point to Yugoslavia, which in those days and times may have been a feasible location for DEFA).
Confusion starts on the plane trip, where a French padre has a suitcase identical to the hero, journalist Thomas (the suitcases being indeed a classic McGuffin, always sought by almost everybody, though its "important" contents are never revealed until the end). After arrival, confusion quickly builds up with two rivalling "agent" groups - the Italians and the British, commanded by Mabel Patrick (Annekathrin Bürger) - try to steal Thomas's suitcase, or kidnap him, or his newfound girlfriend Eva, or the padre ...
Still, it is mostly played for comedy, even with some suspense built-in, mostly car chases on winding coast roads, and it makes more than a nod to Italian giallo films and French productions of the era, even briefly addressing JC Belmondo.
Fun exercise: try to spot Manfred Krug in the no less than eight roles he plays. Maybe after Peter Sellers, this must have been a kind of record. All in all, a strange movie.. I'll have to watch it some more times for deeper thoughts :)
The story in brief: a team of East Germans travels to a fashion presentation in some unspecified Mediterranean country (several hints point to Yugoslavia, which in those days and times may have been a feasible location for DEFA).
Confusion starts on the plane trip, where a French padre has a suitcase identical to the hero, journalist Thomas (the suitcases being indeed a classic McGuffin, always sought by almost everybody, though its "important" contents are never revealed until the end). After arrival, confusion quickly builds up with two rivalling "agent" groups - the Italians and the British, commanded by Mabel Patrick (Annekathrin Bürger) - try to steal Thomas's suitcase, or kidnap him, or his newfound girlfriend Eva, or the padre ...
Still, it is mostly played for comedy, even with some suspense built-in, mostly car chases on winding coast roads, and it makes more than a nod to Italian giallo films and French productions of the era, even briefly addressing JC Belmondo.
Fun exercise: try to spot Manfred Krug in the no less than eight roles he plays. Maybe after Peter Sellers, this must have been a kind of record. All in all, a strange movie.. I'll have to watch it some more times for deeper thoughts :)
