Die Ratten (1955) - film review

Soon after World War II,  a penniless young refugee, Pauline Karka, wanders Berlin looking for the boyfriend who has abandoned her.  Pregnant and alone, she has no option but to accept the offer of another woman, Anna, to buy her child.  After the birth, Pauline has a change of heart and feels compelled to reclaim her newborn child.  Anna and her brother Bruno try unsuccessfully to buy her off.  When this fails, Anna decides that drastic measures are called for...

Die Ratten is the first film that director Robert Siodmak made in his native Germany after his successful period in Hollywood.  The film was based on a play of the same name by the Nobel Prize winning author Gerhard Hauptmann, who was renowned for his hard-hitting social dramas.  Instead of a naturalistic approach, Siodmak chose to employ the stylised film noir look which he perfected during his time in Hollywood.  Whilst this does diminish the realism of the drama somewhat and introduces an element of theatricality, it does accentuate the darker aspects of the story, and Siodmak manages to capture the pathos and brutality of his subject without slipping into tedious melodrama.   Compelling performances from Maria Schell and Curd Jürgens bolster the impact of this film, one of Siodmak’s best and winner of the Golden Bear at the 1955 Berlin Film Festival.

© James Travers 2007

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