''Elephant Fury'' (german: Gesprengte Gitter) is a 1953 West German

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about naval, air, or land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle scenes means that war fi ...

directed by and starring

Harry Piel Heinrich Piel (12 July 1892 – 27 March 1963), known professionally as Harry Piel, was a prolific German actor, film director, screenwriter, and film producer who was involved in over 150 films. Piel became a director in 1912, turning out such ...

.Rentschler p.283 It also features Herbert A.E. Bohme,

Hans Zesch-Ballot Hans Zesch-Ballot (20 May 1896 – 1 September 1972) was a German film actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern m ...

and

Dorothea Wieck Dorothea Wieck, born Dora Bertha Olavia Wieck (3 January 1908 in Davos, Switzerland – 20 February 1986 in Berlin, West Germany), was a German theatre and film actress. Early years Dorothea Wieck was born Dora Bertha Olavia Wieck and grew up i ...

. The film had a troubled production history. Originally made between 1940 and 1943 under the title of ''Panic'', it faced censorship problems. Following the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Piel recovered the negative which had fallen into the hands of the occupying

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

forces. He re-shot some scenes, and the film was eventually released more than a decade after it had first begun shooting.

Synopsis

During the

, an air raid on a

zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for Conservation biology, conservation purposes. The term ''zoological g ...

leads to the animals escaping across the city.

Cast

as Großtierfänger Peter Volker * Herbert A.E. Böhme as Mitarbeiter Fritz Kröger *

as Zoodirektor Thiele *

as Hella Thiele * Wilhelm P. Krüger as Farmer A. R. Brinkmann *

Ruth Eweler Ruth Eweler (March 19, 1913 – October 1, 1947) was a German actress born in Plettenberg. She appeared in a number of films during the 1930s and 1940s, notably as a female lead in the 1937 film ''The Daughter of the Samurai'', which was a German ...

as Christa Brinkmann *

Fritz Hoopts Fritz Hoopts (5 June 1875 – 16 May 1945) was a German stage and film actor. Selected filmography * ''Trouble with Jolanthe'' (1934) * '' The Girl from the Marsh Croft'' (1935) * ''Frisians in Peril'' (1935) * ''Uncle Bräsig'' (1936) * ''When t ...

as Farmer H. Sander *

Maria Krahn Maria Krahn (1896–1977) was a German actress. Selected filmography * '' Wibbel the Tailor'' (1931) * ''Pappi'' (1934) * '' A Woman With Power of Attorney'' (1934) * ''Hermine and the Seven Upright Men'' (1935) * ''The Private Life of Louis XI ...

as Farmerin Küppers * Julius Riedmueller as Affenwärter Alois Leitner *

Julius Frey Julius Frey (25 October 1881 in Stuttgart – 28 August 1960 in Stuttgart) was a German swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in ...

as Elefantenwärter F. Müller * L. Krüger-Roger as Raubtierwärter J. Huber *

Beppo Brem Beppo Brem (11 March 1906 in Munich, German Empire – September 5, 1990 in Munich, West Germany) was a German film actor, who was in over 200 film and television productions between 1932 and 1990. He often played stereotypically Bavarian characte ...

as Tiergartenbesucher während eines Fliegerangriffs *

Peter Strunk Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

as Tierwärter Becker *

Karl Hellmer Karl Hellmer (11 March 1896 – 18 May 1974) was an Austrian film actor. He appeared in 92 films between 1932 and 1969. He was born in Vienna, Austria and died in Berlin, Germany. Selected filmography * ''I by Day, You by Night'' (1932) * ...

Maria Hofen Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial *170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 *Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, da ...

* Eva Klein-Donath * Joe Münch-Harris * Albert Parsen *

Karl-Heinz Peters Karl-Heinz Peters (1903–1990) was a German film actor. Selected filmography * ''Alarm at Station III'' (1939) * ''Men Are That Way'' (1939) * '' The Governor'' (1939) * ''Enemies'' (1940) * '' Mein Leben für Irland'' (1940) * ''Between Hamburg ...

Rudolf Vogel Rudolf Vogel (born 10 November 1900, Planegg – died 9 August 1967, Munich) was a German film and television actor. He was the father of Peter Vogel, the father-in-law of Austrian actress Gertraud Jesserer and the grandfather of actor-journalis ...

References

Bibliography

* Rentschler, Eric. ''The Ministry of Illusion: Nazi Cinema and Its Afterlife''. Harvard University Press, 1996.

External links

* 1943 films 1953 films Banned films in Nazi Germany German war drama films West German films 1950s German-language films Films directed by Harry Piel World War II films made in wartime Films set on the home front during World War II Films set in zoos German black-and-white films 1940s war drama films 1950s war drama films 1943 drama films 1953 drama films 1950s German films 1930s German films {{1950s-Germany-film-stub