Kameradschaft (1931)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Georg Wilhelm Pabst

Writers:

Peter Martin Lampel (writer)
Karl Otten (writer)

Release Date:

17 November 1931 (Germany)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Plea against war and for friendship between peoples, through the story of french miners rescued by german colleagues after a firedamp explosion.

Plot Keywords:

Border | Rescue | Explosion | Fire | WWI

Cast

Alexander Granach	...	Kasper
Fritz Kampers	...	Wilderer
Ernst Busch	...	Wittkopp
Elisabeth Wendt	...	Frau Wittkopp
Gustav Püttjer	...	Kaplan
Oskar Höcker	...	Obersteiger
Daniel Mendaille	...	Jean Leclerc
Georges Charlia	...	Emile
Andrée Ducret	...	Françoise
Alex Bernard	...	Grand-père, le vieux mineur
Pierre-Louis	...	Georges - le petit galibot
Héléna Manson	...	Rose, la femme du mineur blessé
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Gerhard Bienert
Marguerite Debois
Adolf Fischer
Friedrich Gnaß
Georg Guertler
Willem Holsboer	...	Ingenieur des deutschen Bergwerks
Marcel Lesieur	...	Albert
Palmyre Levasseur
Marcel Merminod
Teddy Michaud
Naupel
Reinhardt
Rortais
Franz Schier
Théo Tony
Georges Tourreil	...	L'ingénieur
Richard Weichert
Fritz Wendhausen	...	Direktor des deutschen Bergwerks

Also Known As:

Comradeship
La tragédie de la mine (France)

Runtime:

93 min | USA:86 min (Janus print)

Country:

Germany | France

Language:

French | German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:TV-14 (TV rating)

Filming Locations:

Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine - Westphalia, Germany

Company:

Nero-Film AG

Trivia:

The movie was filmed in the narrow transitional sound ratio of 1.20-1, but, at least in the case of the Janus video release telecast on Turner Classic Movies, has been converted to the standard 1.37-1 ratio with the result that the players' heads are cut off either partially or completely in many of the key scenes. In the final sequence, the heads of the speakers are completely cut off.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood" (1995)

Brilliant...

Valliant effort to use a mining catastrophe as a vehicle to pronounce this director's distaste for war. The audience not only learns a great deal about early mining rescue procedures but, we learn that Europeans at the interval between WWI and WWII, had concerning pacifists(for lack of a better term). The speeches given by both representatives of each country at the end of the film, are inspiring given the time. Although the revised edition, through the transfer technology of early foreign films, "cuts-off characters heads" at times, this film holds it's own in many different aspects. Character analysis, lighting techniques, historical content and a scenario that has tested and inspired many a writer and filmmaker.

Pabst went on to Direct and put to screen Weil & Brecht's "Three Penny Opera", starring the original star, Lotte Lenya.