''Nights on the Road'' (german: Nachts auf den Straßen) is a 1952 West German

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

Rudolf Jugert Rudolf Jugert (1907–1979) was a German film director. Selected filmography * ''Film Without a Title'' (1948) * '' Hallo, Fräulein!'' (1949) * '' A Day Will Come'' (1950) * ''Nights on the Road'' (1952) * ''Illusion in a Minor Key'' (1952) * ''J ...

and starring Hans Albers,

Hildegard Knef Hildegard Frieda Albertine Knef (; 28 December 19251 February 2002) was a German actress, voice actress, singer, and writer. She was billed in some English-language films as Hildegard Neff or Hildegarde Neff. Early years Hildegard Knef was born ...

Marius Goring Marius Re Goring, (23 May 191230 September 1998) was a British stage and screen actor. He is best remembered for the four films he made with Powell & Pressburger, particularly as Conductor 71 in '' A Matter of Life and Death'' and as Julian Cr ...

and

Lucie Mannheim Lucie Mannheim (30 April 1899 – 17 July 1976) was a German singer and actress. Life and career Mannheim was born in Köpenick, Berlin, where she studied drama and quickly became a popular figure appearing on stage in plays and musicals. Among ...

. It was produced by the veteran Erich Pommer who had returned to Germany after years of exile. It is one of the more prominent German film noirs. It was acclaimed by German critics on its release and was awarded a prize at the Berlin Film Festival. It was shot at the

Bavaria Studios Bavaria Studios are film production studios located in Munich, the capital of the region of Bavaria in Germany, and a subsidiary of Bavaria Film. History The studios were constructed in the suburb of Geiselgasteig in 1919 shortly after the Fir ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

and on location in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

and various

autobahn The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track' ...

s. The film's sets were designed by Rudolf Pfenninger and

Ludwig Reiber Ludwig Reiber (1904–1979) was a German art director.Capua p.159 The veteran Reiber worked on film and television set design from the silent era to the early 1970s. He was employed by the Munich-based Bavaria Film at the Emelka Studios. He wor ...

. The production budget was around 900,000

deutschmark The Deutsche Mark (; English: ''German mark''), abbreviated "DM" or "D-Mark" (), was the official currency of West Germany from 1948 until 1990 and later the unified Germany from 1990 until the adoption of the euro in 2002. In English, it was ...

s.Hardt p. 190

Synopsis

A happily married

truck driver A truck driver (commonly referred to as a trucker, teamster, or driver in the United States and Canada; a truckie in Australia and New Zealand; a HGV driver in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the European Union, a lorry driver, or driver in ...

meets a much younger woman one night on the road and begins a relationship with her, which ends with her being drawn into the company of her criminal associate Kurt.

Cast

* Hans Albers as Heinrich Schlueter, truck driver *

as Inge Hoffmann *

as Anna, Schlueter's wife *

as Kurt Willbrandt *

Heinrich Gretler Heinrich Gretler (1897–1977) was a Swiss film and television actor, who also starred on stage at the Bernhard-Theater in Zurich. Selected filmography * '' The Mysterious Mirror'' (1928) * '' Struggle for the Matterhorn'' (1928) * ''The Man ...

as Carl Falk, forwarder *

Gertrud Wolle Gertrud Wolle (11 March 1891 – 6 July 1952) was a German film actress. Selected filmography * '' Die Insel der Glücklichen'' (1919) * '' Prince Cuckoo'' (1919) * '' Roswolsky's Mistress'' (1921) * '' A Glass of Water'' (1923) * ''Burglars'' ...

as Frau Jaguweit *

Wolf Ackva Wolf Ackva (30 July 1911 – 16 January 2000) was a German actor. He appeared in more than 70 films and television shows between 1935 and 1996. Selected filmography References External links * 1911 births 2000 deaths People from ...

as Klatte, chief of Broadway bar *

Hans Reiser Hans Reiser (born December 19, 1963) is an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, and convicted murderer. In April 2008, Reiser was convicted of the first-degree murder of his wife, Nina Reiser, who disappeared in September 2006. He subseq ...

as Franz * Peter Martin Urtel as Hans Brunnhuber *

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 ...

as Inspector Busch * Karin Andersen as Lieschen Brunnhuber, Schlueter's daughter * Johanna König as Dancer in Broadway bar * Margot Hielscher as Singer * Renate Feuereisen * Heinz Berg * Hans Elwenspoek * Kurt Hinz *

Hans Pössenbacher Hans Pössenbacher (14 July 1895 – 24 February 1979) was an Austrian-born German actor. Filmography References External links * 1895 births 1979 deaths German male film actors Actors from Graz 20th-century German male actors ...

* Maria Riffa * Else Mental

References

Bibliography

* Hake, Sabine. ''German National Cinema''. Routledge, 2013. * Hardt, Usula. ''From Caligari to California: Erich Pommer's Life in the International Film Wars''. Berghahn Books, 1996. *Spicer, Andrew. ''Historical Dictionary of Film Noir''. Scarecrow Press, 2010.

External links

* 1952 films 1952 drama films German drama films West German films 1950s German-language films Films directed by Rudolf Jugert Trucker films Films set in Munich Films set in Frankfurt Bavaria Film films Films produced by Erich Pommer German black-and-white films 1950s German films Films shot at Bavaria Studios {{1950s-Germany-film-stub