Feuer unter Deck (1979) User Reviews

Nostalgie

[walzenstein · 7/10 · 16 November 2020]

Ein typischer Manfred Krug! Die Elbe als Kulisse ... Dresden, Pillnitz.

Very forgettable overall

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 28 May 2020]

"Feuer unter Deck" is a German television film from 1979 and looking at the year, I should clarify that this is an East German movie and that it is already over 40 years old now. The reason why this was shown today on television is the recent death of actress Renate Krößner ("Solo Sunny") and in this movie we have here, she plays the central female character. It says 93 minutes here on imdb, but the version I saw today was even shorter, namely not even 85 minutes, probably because of the omission of closing titles. The director is Hermann Zschoche and he was really among the most known GDR filmmakers and he probably has several movies in his body of work that are not entirely forgotten today when it comes to East German films. He is also still alive and getting closer to 90. His writers here, Müller and Wolter, are not alive anymore and I guess they are not remembered by too many anymore. One of them has barely worked on another project and the other was also not exactly prolific. As for the cast, I already mentioned Krößner and you can see her on the photo too and the man standing next to her is of course Manfred Krug, maybe the most known actor the GDR had to offer and one of not too many who effortlessly continued to have a successful career in reunited Germany. He always played slightly gruff, virile characters, which of course fit his stature as he was a big guy too. Yes, "was". He also died a few years ago, but it is not too surprising because he is not a spring chicken anymore in this movie, slightly under a decade older than Krößner. But there are cast members that are still alive, which is not too surprising either because this is not a film from 60 years ago or so. Actually it was released 5.5 years before I was born. Thomas Neumann is one of them. Jürgen Heinrich would be another. The latter also managed a successful career in Germany in the 1990s. I remember that I kinda liked him on "Wolffs Revier". In general, this film offers many familiar faces when it comes to GDR actors. I already mentioned a handful, but another would be Fred Delmare. So I am a bit surprised that this film has really not been seen by too many.

Or actually I am not surprised because the overall quality here is simply not particularly good. It was easy to see how the writers struggled here with the story and the more talented director as well as cast can only make up for so much. Definitely not for enough. Krug in his trademark show is in charge of steering a truck and they sure liked giving him vehicles to be in charge of because here he has a boat. Well, for the most part. Actually until his (ex-)girlfriend is picked to turn said boat into a restaurant and of course there is a lot of male-female clashing as a consequence with how Krug's character struggles to accept orders from a woman. But I must say that she was the one in charge eventually was a bit of a bad joke and definitely not realistic. Just a strange choice to create some conflict, but this shows that the film does not only lack grit and interesting stories, but also authenticity. And the moments when it goes shamefully over the top like one character wildly proposing to another may have been intended for comedic purposes and also would have been more realistic back then than today as nowadays this would be even more absurd (even if the guy can pay for the girl's life), but yeah I don#t think it was working at all. Of course, there is the happy ending again that has a slight connection to the title, but they messed up there as well for the most part because this film definitely did not elaborate from a dramatic perspective either. They tried to be a little bit of everything it seems, but the outcome is that they are almost nothing eventually. I also felt that the film takes itself far more seriously than it has the right to. For example near the end, there is a voiceover sequence by Krug's character that almost sounds pretentious and his singing earlier on the boat is only slightly better. I mean I am somebody who loves water, needs the sea in his life, but even there, the film did not make an impact really as far as I am concerned. I think my parents were Krug fans (or at least one of them) and they grew up in the GDR, but I must say that taking everything into account I have seen from him, I cannot continue with this tradition of appreciation. Oh well, he is not with us anymore, so it won't be a problem. He always feels a bit like a less talented, less interesting Götz George / Schimanski to me. Finally, I was a bit surprised that they were actually showing naked female breasts in this film on one occasion. I mean I couldn't care less, even if I did not find Krößner in here particularly attractive or likable, but I thought that they would not be allowed to do so in the sense that they cannot show this film at noon. But actually I am glad that apparently they are not that strict anymore because I cannot imagine at all tehy just overlooked it and it was an accident. Anyway, as a whole this film is not a failure, but a pretty weak watch overall as the subplots are as underwhelming as the key story. It is probably closer to failure territory than to a positive recommendation for me. Watch something else instead. Not Zschoches finest hour.

Manfred Krug in a Manfred Krug movie

[DasGlasperlenspiel · 10/10 · 4 April 2022]

Even when it was produced more than 45 years ago, this was a more than old-fashioned film. But a wonderfully old-fashioned film. Honest workers refloat stranded ships on the Elbe by shoveling coal sweaty and dirty and working their backs tight on the paddle steamer 'Jenissei'. In doing so, they eliminate problems that the bureaucrats in white shirts cannot solve. A bit of nostalgia, a strong captain's wife (Caramba!), some river romance. I was entertained.