Die Drei von der Tankstelle (1930)

Die Drei von der Tankstelle is a German comedy romance film first released in 1930, directed by Wilhelm Thiele.  The film stars Lilian Harvey, Willy Fritsch, Oskar Karlweis, Heinz Rühmann and Fritz Kampers.  It has also been released under the title: Three Good Friends.  Our overall rating for this film is: very good.


Returning home from a holiday, three friends – Willy, Kurt and Hans – learn they are bankrupt.  Their fortune has evaporated and their possessions are being seized by the bailiffs.  Undeterred, the three friends sell their car and open a petrol station, taking turns to man the petrol pump.  Each has, as his first customer, Lilian, a beautiful young woman who easily wins his heart.  Lilian, however, realises that she loves only one of them.  How can she break the bad news to the other two without ruining their friendship?

One of UFA’s early sound successes was this pioneering film operetta, an obvious forerunner of the Hollywood musical and a classic of German cinema.  Unlike most such films of this era, it has a contemporary setting and deals with subjects with which the audience could readily engage.  It combines a popular theme – a comic love story – with an accurate comment on the prevailing socio-economic conditions of the time.

By the end of the 1920s, Germany was in a state of economic meltdown (a direct result of the unstable Weimar government and crippling war reparation payments following the First World War).  Inflation was spiralling out of control, banks and companies were tumbling like houses of cards, and unemployment was plunging millions of despairing souls into misery.  Not, you might think, the obvious inspiration for a light-hearted musical comedy.

Rather than reminding cinemagoers of their woes, Die Drei von der Tankstelle tries to divert them by looking on the brighter side of life, and in this it is remarkably effective.  Whilst it may lack the scale and ambition of subsequent American musicals which had similar aims in the economically grim 1930s, it certainly has a lot going for it.  There are some excellent comic performances - Willy Fritsch, Oskar Karlweis and Heinz Rühmann make an exemplary comedy trio – and Werner Heymann’s attractive score includes a number of great songs that would become well-known hits.   The lighting and camerawork are also of a high standard, making up for the bland staging, which appears cheap, theatrical and unimaginative in places.  The film is a curious marriage of two of the strong artistic influences of its time – the Music Hall and expressionistic film technique.  The result is a popular comedy with an unexpectedly high art content – a delightful, timeless piece of cinema.

The plot is essentially a celebration of friendship and love – the two essentials of human experience that do not come with a price-tag.  At the same time, it makes light of serious themes such a money, work and social responsibility.  This idealistic view of life made the film a popular success, but it was judged to be dangerously subversive by the Nazis, who banned it in 1937.   Another reason for the ban was that many of those involved in making it were of Jewish connection.  Quite a few of these soon found themselves working in Hollywood, notably its director Wilhelm Thiele and producer Erich Pommer.  The actor Kurt Gerron, who played Dr Kalmus (one of the most memorable characters in the film), wasn’t so fortunate.  He died in a Nazi concentration camp in 1944.

© James Travers 2007

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