English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
: ''Black Velvet'') is a German
crime film
Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...
photographer
A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs.
Duties and types of photographe ...
Gwendoleit, who as courier was supposed to bring counterfeited documents and numberplates to
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
and moreover to get active there as photographer. Because the State Security Service neither knows, with whom Gwendoleit wants to meet in Leipzig, nor what the photo subject was, the security agent Alexander Berg takes up the identity of Gwendoleit, although he actually planned tripping to Oberhof for winter holidays.
In Leipzig Helma Sibelka appears and hands over a deposit for the passports and the numberplates to Alexander. Berg refuses the delivery of the passports, that she only will get when the full amount is paid. Helma visits her husband, the engineer Manfred, in the guesthouse, where she finds him with the secretary Vera Gorm. For Manfred the marriage is going to break down, for a long time he is planning his coup without his wife.
Alexander, who takes his position in the Hotel Astoria, does only have a few clues, what the affair is about. In a few days the
Leipzig Trade Fair
The Leipzig Trade Fair (german: Leipziger Messe) is a major trade fair, which traces its roots back for nearly a millennium. After the Second World War, Leipzig fell within the territory of East Germany, whereupon the Leipzig Trade Fair became o ...
will start. Beside that he gets an encrypted letter, in that he is asked by a "Dora" to remind his "business partner" of a delivery "black velvet". Soon it is clear that a certain doctor Oranke is hiding behind "Dora". "Black velvet" is identified by the security agents with the demanded "snap shot" Manfred is speaking at a meeting. Actually Manfred demands Alexander soon to take the snap shot - from his working room, from where a blind controlled crane can be seen, which will be the sensation on the Leipzig Trade Fair. Crane operator Manfred manipulates the machine, so that the monitors break down and the test run becomes a disaster. Alexander films this with his camera. Soon the connections are getting clear: Manfred was offered a position by doctor Oranke, who was living in
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
. But previously he is supposed to damage sustainably his company and the economical prestige of the
GDR
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
by the enhanced attention in the context of the trade fair. The security agents want nevertheless play for time to find out, who Manfred wants to take with him on the second demanded passport, because it will not be his wife. Soon after Alexander discovers Manfred battered to death.
He is requested by an unknown person to come to Manfred's office. Here he meets Vera Gorm, who in reality is one of the masterminds of the operation. She reveals to Alexander that Manfred actually should handle the crane with acid, so it had to collapse at the trade fair opening day, but he was going to duck out. She had to kill him. The acid however was transported in a box with the inscription "black velvet". Alexander makes himself suspicious, because he doesn't know certain facts, and is exposed by Vera. By an accomplice she let him bring to the cellar rooms of the building, while she is going to destroy the crane with acid. Here she is detained by Alexander's men and also Alexander, who was able to take out the accomplice, appears. The case is solved.
Soon after Alexander is already sitting in the train to Oberhof. A female fellow passenger is spraying on perfume - with the brand "black velvet".
Production
''Schwarzer Samt'' was shot in 1963 in and around
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
. Filming locations include the Hotel Astoria, where Alexander Berg lived during his investigations, and the
Monument to the Battle of the Nations
The Monument to the Battle of the Nations (german: Völkerschlachtdenkmal, sometimes shortened to ''Völki'' or ''Schlachti'') is a monument in Leipzig, Germany, to the 1813 Battle of Leipzig, also known as the Battle of the Nations. Paid for mo ...
, where the scene of the gathering of Alexander and Manfred emerged.
On 27 February 1964 the film premiered at
Kino Babylon
The Kino Babylon is a cinema in the Mitte neighbourhood of Berlin and part of a listed building complex at Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz opposite the Volksbühne theatre. The building was erected 1928–29. It was designed by the architect Hans Poelzig i ...
in Berlin. The script is based on themes of the novel ''Der scharlachrote Domino'' (''The Scarlet Red Domino'') by Fred Unger.
Cast
*
Erich Gerberding
Erich Gerberding (15 Oktober 1921 – 24 May 1986) was a German actor.
After 1945 Gerberding had at first stage engagements in Gera
Gera is a city in the German state of Thuringia. With around 93,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest ...
: Captain Jensen
*
Rudolf Ulrich
Rudolf Ulrich (3 January 1922 – 4 April 1997) was a German film actor. He appeared in 67 films between 1954 and 1986. He died in Berlin at age 75.
Selected filmography
* ''Duped Till Doomsday'' (1957)
* ''Polonia-Express'' (1957)
* '' Br ...
: Lieutenant Wohlfahrt
* Fred Delmare: Alexander Berg
*
Günther Simon
Günther Simon (11 May 1925 – 25 June 1972) was an East German actor.
Biography
Early life
A bank clerk's son, Simon attended an acting school already in '' Gymnasium''. At the age of 16, he was sent to a premilitary training camp of the ...
Christine Laszar
Christine Laszar (19 December 1931 – 17 November 2021) was a German actress.
Biography
Laszar was born Christine "Christel" Lazarus in Ortelsburg, East Prussia, Prussia, Germany (today Szczytno, Poland).
She was educated at the West Berlin ...
: Vera Gorm
*
Herbert Köfer
Herbert Köfer (17 February 1921 – 24 July 2021) was a German actor, voice artist, and television presenter. He was the first German TV news presenter for the East German Deutscher Fernsehfunk, and also presented the station's last news befo ...
Klaus Fiedler
Klaus Fiedler (born September 7, 1951, in Wetzlar) is a German psychologist who teaches as a professor for social psychology at the Universität Heidelberg.
Biography
Fiedler studied psychology at the Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen getting h ...
: hotel boy
Critical reviews
Contemporary critics gave negative ratings for the film. "In favour of external tension sometimes internal logic is lacking; with an overly complicated setup of their plans the agents seem to put obstacles in their own way", a critic judged. Renate Holland-Moritz criticized, that in the film yet another time "a superman is served, who solves the difficult case almost in solo action."
film-dienst states ''Schwarzer Samt'' to be "exciting entertainment, that satirizes the James Bond mythos within the limits of possibilities."
Literature
* ''Schwarzer Samt''. In:
Frank-Burkhard Habel
Frank-Burkhard Habel is a German scholar of the film and television industries. Since the 1970s he has worked as a film-journalist and, more broadly, as a commentator and lecturer on the films sector. He has worked as a screenwriter and, having ...
: ''Das große Lexikon der DEFA-Spielfilme''. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, , pg. 523–524.
DEFA Film Library
The DEFA Film Library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is the only research center and archive outside of Germany devoted to a broad spectrum of filmmaking from and related to the former German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany). R ...