Bevor Sundown:

About Hans Albers

Hans Philipp August Albers was born on September 22, 1891, the son of a butcher in Hamburg St. Georg. He attended a secondary school in the Uhlenhorst district of Hamburg. When a teacher beat him up, he retaliated and sent him to the boards with a well-aimed hook to the chin. The consequence: expulsion from school. He also had similar problems at his new school in St. Georg. Beating teachers was something normal at the time, but for Hans Albers it was anathema. Albers fought back. His father sent Hans Albers to Frankfurt am Main, where he completed an apprenticeship as a merchant. He began his theater career at the local New Theater. At the same time he took acting lessons, which were secretly financed by his mother. His father was not allowed to know. In 1915 Albers was drafted into the military and had to fight in World War I on the Western Front. He was seriously wounded and was sent to a hospital in Wiesbaden. The loss of a leg was imminent. But the doctors were able to save it. After his recovery he appeared in Wiesbaden at the local theater in comedy plays and operettas.

In 1917 he moved to Berlin, where he came into contact with the new medium of film. He appeared in over 100 silent films before getting his first sound film role in 1929 in the film “Die Nacht gehört uns“. The very next film made him finally known worldwide. “The Blue Angel” became a worldwide success and also a great success for Hans Albers. In the following years Albers took part in several top-class film productions. Films such as “The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes,” “Munchausen,” “Water for Canitoga” and “Great Freedom No. 7” all became worldwide successes. Hans Albers, who had a very distanced relationship with the Nazi regime, stayed away from Nazi celebrities as much as he could. He never appeared in public with any of these people, even canceling the public acceptance of an acting award from the hand of Joseph Goebbels. Because of these cancellations and the fact that he was involved with the Jewish actress Hansi Burg, he suffered from reprisals. When it became dangerous for Hansi Burg in Germany in 1939, Hans Albers took her to England. Only after the war was she able to return to Albers’ domicile, Garatshausen on Lake Starnberg.

Hans Albers was the big movie star of the 1930s and 1940s. Even after the war, that did not change. In films such as “Vor Sonnenuntergang” and “Der Mann im Strom,” he still showed his great art as a character actor. Albers also had cult status as a pop singer. He promoted his songs through his films very early on. His very big hits were “La Paloma“, “Flieger grüß mir die Sonne” , “Goodbye Johnny” and “Jawohl meine Herrn“. After the end of the shooting of his last film in 1960 “Kein Engel ist so rein“, he played theater in Vienna. During a performance of the operetta “Katharina Knie” in February 1960, Albers fell heavily on stage. The consequences of the fall were severe internal injuries. He was taken to a hospital in Berg am Starnberger See. He died there as a result of his accident on July 24, 1960, and was buried in the cemetery in Hamburg Ohlsdorf. Hans Albers was one of the greats of German cinema. He was a superstar and a heartthrob. However, he remained unmarried and was faithful to his great love Hansi Burg until his death.

About Annemarie Düringer

Annemarie Düringer was born on November 26, 1925 in Arlesheim in the canton of Basel (Switzerland). She grew up in Bern. After a commercial apprenticeship, she attended several acting schools in Paris and Vienna. In 1949 she was appointed to the Vienna Burgtheater, where she acted until shortly before her death. She repeatedly made guest appearances at theaters in Berlin, Munich and Salzburg. Annemarie Düringer was one of the very great theater actresses of the 20th century in the German-speaking world. Occasionally she also appeared in feature films, but she chose her roles carefully.

In her native country, Switzerland, she often stood in front of the film camera, but these films are not very well known in Germany. In Germany, Annemarie Düringer appeared in very important films, such as “Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam“, “Vor Sonnenuntergang“, “Der 20. Juli” or “Der Lügner“. From the 1960s she also worked occasionally for television. Annemarie Düringer was highly decorated as a theater actress. She was the holder of the Alma Seidler Ring, the Hans Reinhart Ring and the Grand Decoration of Honor of the Republic of Austria, among a number of other awards. She received the Federal Film Award for her film role in “Nachts wenn der Teufel kam“. Annemarie Düringer died on November 26, 2014, her 89th birthday, in Baden near Vienna.

About Martin Held

Martin Erich Fritz Held was born in Berlin on November 11, 1908. After an apprenticeship as a precision mechanic with the Siemens company, Held studied performing arts at the Berlin University of the Arts. After graduating in 1931, Held acted in several theaters in northern and eastern Germany. In 1951 he returned to Berlin and became a permanent member of the ensemble of the Staatliche Schauspielbühne. Held remained a member of the ensemble there until his death. However, he had to largely cease his active stage work in 1985 due to his diabetes. He only appeared in small roles. He now worked increasingly as a narrator in radio play productions or gave poetry readings. Until his death, he took part in more than 120 radio play productions, making him one of the busiest radio play actors to this day. Martin Held was also a sought-after dubbing artist.

As a film actor, Martin Held appeared in front of the camera in some of the most important German films after World War 2. Martin Held played major roles in films critical of the times, especially in the 1950s. Well known are his portrayals of Reinhard Heydrich in “Canaris“, Erich Gimpel in “Spy for Germany“, the senior public prosecutor Wilhelm Schramm in “Roses for the Public Prosecutor“, as well as the mischievous retired senior court judge Herbert Zänker in “The Gentlemen with the White Vest“. From 1955 Held also appeared in a large number of television productions. Martin Held received many honors and awards for his acting. Among many others, these were the “German Critics Award“, “Filmband in Gold“, “Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse“, as well as a “Golden Camera“. Martin Held died on January 31, 1992 in Berlin.

About Hannelore Schroth

Hanne Lore Emilie Käte Grete Schroth was born in Berlin on January 10, 1922, the daughter of the acting couple Heinrich Schroth and Käthe Haack. Her mother, already a top German star at the time, took her to the stage as a child. There she played small children’s roles. She completed an acting training in Lausanne. From 1938, at the age of 16, she starred in motion pictures and was cast in a number of top films. In between, Hannelore Schroth played the theater again and again. She appeared on all the major German stages.

She became known to a wide audience through her television appearances from the early 1960s. She appeared in several episodes of the series “Derrick“, “Das Kriminalmuseum“, “Tatort“, as well as in various TV movies. Hannelore Schroth was in great demand as a dubbing artist. She gave her voice to big Hollywood screen stars such as Shirley MacLaine, Elizabeth Taylor, Gina Lollobrigida and Paulette Goddard. Hannelore Schroth died of heart failure in her Munich apartment on July 7, 1987, one year after her mother Käthe Haack, at the age of 65.

About Claus Biederstaedt

Claus Biederstaedt, born on June 28, 1928 in Stargard (Pomerania), grew up in a family of artists. His father was a teacher of music at the high school in Stargard, and his mother was a singer. The happy family life was destroyed by the turmoil of the 2nd World War. The father, being a reserve officer, had to go to war. Claus was also drafted into the Wehrmacht at the age of 15 and served as a flak helper. Afterwards he had to go to the Eastern Front. On the retreat, he was just able to escape the advancing Russian troops. His mother took her own life while fleeing from Pomerania, believing that her son Claus had been killed in action. After the war, Claus Biederstaedt met his father again and moved with him to Hamburg. There he caught up on his A-levels and began to study medicine, but dropped out after four semesters.

He met the actor Will Quadflieg and took acting lessons with him. After graduating, Biederstaedt went to the theater, first in Hamburg, and later at theaters in various German cities. He also worked as a theater director. His career in German cinema was very varied. Many films in which he participated were light and simple entertainment and music films for the general public. They were mainly films without any pretensions. However, a few films belong to the cream of post-war German cinema.

For his film debut “Die große Versuchung” (The Great Temptation), he immediately received the Federal Film Award as best young actor. From the early 1960s to the mid-1990s, Biederstaedt worked a great deal for German television. He appeared in around 60 television productions during these years. His last television appearance was in 2011 in the documentary about the revue dancer Germaine Damar. Claus Biederstaedt fell seriously ill with cancer and had to stop all his activities. On June 18, 2020, he died as a result of his cancer in Eichenau (Upper Bavaria), just 10 days before his 92nd birthday.

About Wolfgang Preiss

Wolfgang Preiss was born in Nuremberg on February 27, 1910. Among other things, he studied theater and took acting lessons on the side. From 1932 to the war year 1941 Preiss played at different German stages, among other things in Berlin, Munich, Königsberg and Stuttgart. Then he too had to go to war. He first served as a flak helper, which enabled him to remain in Berlin. This also allowed him to make his film debut, specially exempted by the Wehrmacht, in the film “Die große Liebe” alongside Zarah Leander. Already in his first film he impersonated a German officer. This role was to become his trademark in many of his films and television productions. After the end of the war, Preiss initially worked at the theater again.

Alfred Weidenmann brought Preiss back to film in 1954 and cast him again in an officer’s role in “Canaris.” The following year, Wolfgang Preiss made his final breakthrough in film in the role of Hitler assassin Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg. This role in Falk Harnack’s film “Der 20. Juli” brought Wolfgang Preiss great popularity with cinema audiences and also the Federal Film Award as a silver film ribbon. Now Preiss was also cast in international productions and Hollywood films. He played alongside Jean-Paul Belmondo in “The Cardinal“, with Burt Lancaster in “The Train“, and alongside Trevor Howard and Frank Sinatra in “Colonel von Ryan’s Express“. Preiss also played significant roles in other major productions such as “The Longest Day,” “The Bridge of Arnhem” and “Burning Paris.”

From the 1960s onward, Wolfgang Preiss worked more for television than for the cinema. In 1983, he received the highest praise for his performance in the German/American television series “The Firestorm,” in which he portrayed German Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch. For his many years of outstanding work in German film, he was again awarded the Federal Film Prize in 1987, this time as the Filmband in Gold. Wolfgang Preiss was married three times. With his third wife Ruth, it was 47 years until her death in 2002. Only a few months later, on November 27, 2002, Wolfgang Preiss also died in a clinic in Baden-Baden at the age of 92.

About Erich Schellow

Erich Schellow was born in Berlin on February 27, 1915. He graduated from drama school and joined the stage in 1937. From 1948 he was a permanent member of the Städtische Schauspielbühnen Berlin until its closure in 1993. Erich Schellow was a pure theater actor who appeared in only a few motion pictures. Occasionally he also took on dubbing assignments. He also appeared only very rarely in television productions. His best-known television role was that of Sherlock Holmes in the 1967 WDR television series of the same name. He received the Berlin Culture Prize, the German Critics‘ Prize, and the Federal Cross of Merit several times for his services to the theater. Erich Schellow died in Berlin on November 25, 1995, as a result of a severe stroke suffered in 1993.

About Hans Nielsen

Hans Albert Nielsen was born in Hamburg on November 30, 1911. After drama school, he made his theater debut in 1932 at the Hamburg Kammerspiele. In 1937, Nielsen joined the film industry, which was to be his main activity from then on. From 1948, dubbing became his second mainstay. He gave his voice to the really big stars. Orson Welles, Errol Flynn, Gary Cooper, James Stewart, Spencer Tracy and many others. Nielsen played theater only rarely. Until shortly before his death, Nielsen appeared in over 130 motion pictures. On October 13, 1965, Hans Nielsen died of leukemia in Berlin at the age of only 53.

Press

“This time freed from worldly tendency, with Hans Albers playing more forceful in character roles than as a lover, surrounded by choice antagonists. Dignifiedly made up under moderate use of the poet’s word.” (Paimann’s Film Lists)

“Annemarie Düringer as Inken Peters has the delicately cranky quality that explains even the oddest liaison. Hans Albers, who plays Clausen, is as stately and winning as ever, even as an aged death row inmate.” (Der Spiegel)

“In this film, Hans Albers plays a great character role in the old age department.” (Heinrich Fraenkel: Immortal Film).

Behind the Scenes –  Material

Features and technical data

Limited Mediabook | Picture format Blu-Ray: 4:3 Pillarbox (techn. 16:9); Picture format DVD: 4:3 Pillarbox (techn. 16:9) | Running time Blu-Ray: 103 min; Running time DVD: 103 min | Sound format Blu-Ray: German DD 2.0 (mono); Sound format DVD: German DD 2.0 (mono) | Extras: Mediabook with 16-page book part with pictures, trailer, removable FSK sticker | FSK 12

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