Wed 30 Mar 2022
Movie Review by David Vineyard: THEY WERE SO YOUNG (1954).
Posted by Steve under Action Adventure movies , Reviews[8] Comments
THEY WERE SO YOUNG. First released in Germany as Mannequins fur Rio (Corona Filmproduktion, 1954). Lippert Pictures, US, 1955. Scott Brady, Raymond Burr, Johanna Matz, Ingrid Stenn, Gisela Fackedely, Eduard Linkers, Gert Frobe. Screenplay by Felix Lutzkendort and Kurt Neumann. Suggested by Interpol files compiled by Jacques Compandez. Additional screenplay uncredited by Dalton Trumbo, Michael Wilson, and Ernest Blass. Directed by Kurt Neumann.
Their hearts were high in the sky … They never knew their feet were in the dirt.
Sometimes mistakenly identified as film noir, this West German and American co -production is pure exploitation with only the presence of American stars Scott Brady and Raymond Burr anywhere near actual noir.
It opens with the discovery of a dead half-nude young woman on the beach in Rio de Janeiro, with a quick stop at the Brazilian police who announce this is a case for Bureau 19 of Interpol.
That noted, and despite the film allegedly being based on Interpol files and one later mention of the International Police (there is not and never was such a thing and Interpol has no enforcement abilities much less having any agents in 1954 television and movies to the contrary — I’ll save my rant about the infamous and phony Interpol for the comments section if anyone doesn’t know their troubled history) that aspect of the film ends with this single reference.
Very quickly this switches from an investigation by Interpol to a straight up story of innocent girls caught up in a white slavery ring.
“The Desperate Drama of Lost Women,” as the trailer claims.
Eve (Johanna Matz) and Connie (Ingrid Stenn) arrive in Rio in the company of M. Albert (Eduard Linkers) who has brought them to Rio to work as fashion models living and working at the Villa Berganza under the direction of Mdme. Lansowa (Gisele Fackedely), “You’ll meet a good many rich and cultured people… I suggest you let me choose your friends at first.â€
Among the rich and cultured people they meet is Jaime Coltos (Raymond Burr) a local tycoon and his American engineer Richard Lanning (Scott Brady) just back from six months in the jungle. Burr is attracted to Connie, and Brady, a little worse for drink, gets a water bottle broken over his head by Eve.
Eve has caught on what Villa Bergandza is a front for and she and Connie leave the next day seeking help, but they have no papers and the police show little sympathy. Gaslighted by Albert and Mdme. Lansowa they find themselves back at the Villa Bergandza with no authorities they can turn to, not even their own Consulates.
But Eve, out on an arranged date, remembers Lanning is at the hotel where she is taken and goes to him for help. He agrees after spying the men who followed Eve and plans to let her stay in his room while he seeks help, but an emergency phone call from Coltos forces him to return to the jungle and Coltos’s villa there.
Rather than leave Eve he decides to take her with him and perhaps persuade Coltos, an influential man, to help her. I won’t offer any Spoilers here, but it you haven’t figured out the twist coming you haven’t paid attention to any movie of this type you have ever seen, much less ever seen a movie from this period with Raymond Burr in it.
Brady plays the usual somewhat lunk-headed gauche American abroad common to this era. At least here his blundering is blundering, not portrayed as somehow an advantage. At best you can say his character is determined to help the girl however ineptly.
Eve ends up prostituted on a riverboat where Connie has been sent run by the murderous Captain Lobos (Gert Frobe) used as a pleasure boat for the local workers and Lanning, by now falling for her, slips on board with a party of workers with an ally hoping to help Eve escape.
Another twist more or less out of left field awaits them, but Interpol still has nothing to do with it.
Running a short hour and twenty minutes this is a fairly tight, well done little melodrama that skirts film noir and exploitation without ever being exactly one or the other. However exploitative the trailer and campaign for the film, it never comes anywhere near living up to that promise. Despite a few scenes this was mostly shot in Hamburg.
Some film enthusiasts may get all excited by the uncredited appearance of Dalton Trumbo and Michael Wilson’s names related to this, and there are a few decent bits of dialogue here and there that they might have contributed, but honestly you could never tell watching this such distinguished company worked on it. Neither the story nor the dialogue suggests anything special here. At most they might have punched up the script for the American dubbing.
Brady is fairly charming here as a mostly one-note hero, exactly what is called for, but nothing more. Matz is attractive and innocent enough if a little hard to believe as quite this naive despite a back story out of Dickens and Little Nell. The villainy is acceptably smarmy and Ingrid Stenn actually halfway good as the doomed Connie.
I do question if Connie is really a common name for Belgian girls, but then I lived in France not Belgium.
The exploitative American title sounds like some sort of teen drama or soap opera which probably kept this from getting to any audience it might have had on initial release.
It’s currently available on YouTube. Nothing special here, but better done than you might expect with the American stars lending a bit of weight to it. It’s worth killing an hour or so if you have nothing better to do which is actually fairly high praise for this kind of film.
March 30th, 2022 at 8:27 pm
Sorry about the There for Their. Probably concentrating on trying to spell Fackedely.
March 30th, 2022 at 8:38 pm
For what it’s worth, I didn’t catch that myself, and I almost always do. Shame on me. In any case, it’s fixed now.
It’s been unplanned, but over the past few weeks Raymond Burr has come up several times now in the daily reports you see on this blog. Since he’s one of my favorite actors, I don’t mind this one bit.
On the other hand, though, while I enjoyed this review, I don’t think I’m going to watch the movie. Maybe if I were younger I’d be able to find time for it, but I’m not, so I won’t.
March 30th, 2022 at 9:43 pm
My Interpol rant, the short version (sort of).
Interpol was created in 1936 as a Nazi front organization used by the Nazi’s to keep track of Political refugees across Europe.
After the War Interpol was still a Nazi front organization used to help Nazi war criminals to escape justice. It remained so until it was reformed in the Eighties.
Interpol has not gotten better. It was never a police force, just a counting house for information issuing yellow sheets for “persons of interest” and red sheets for actual wanted felons. Member police forces subscribe to the Interpol newsletters and bulletins.
I can’t speak for now, but despite movies and television the FBI, US Secret Service, London Met. Police (including New Scotland Yard), and French Police Judiciare were for many years not members of Interpol and may still not be for all I know because of Interpol’s known political leanings and history of corruption.
Most members are small police forces. The glamorous Interpol agent in real life is an overworked harassed desk cop who gets stuck receiving and distributing Interpol red and yellow sheets.
Now it is all done by computer. Even when they are fronting for dictators in Russia, China, and other dubious governments to persecute political enemies abroad which has always been their chief job.
Hardly the glamorous man in trenchcoat and trilby accompanied by zither music in some rainy European alley.
It never had any agents until the 80’s and they still have no enforcement abilities.
Most recently Putin, through his Russian in Interpol, the VP of the organization, attempted to illegally deport a former American ambassador to Russia from Spain as a political ploy. The Spanish courts told them to go commit a rude act with themselves.
The Russian VP and five of the last six Interpol presidents including the only woman and the only American are all in jail on various corruption charges. Corruption is Interpol’s only consistent contribution to crime fighting.
Series like THE MAN FROM INTERPOL and INTERPOL aside, and books like Sidney Sheldon’s BLOODLINE, there are no Interpol agents glamorously travelling the world fighting crime.
Whenever you hear “Interpol” as anything other than a source of criminal information you are having your leg pulled.
Rant over.
The idea of the International Police was born out of the League of Nations (no ties to Interpol) which naturally had members who were concerned about international crime, but never had actual police agents.
Movies like the Mr. Moto series perpetuated the myth with Moto an operative of the International Police (which never existed).
Francis Beeding’s Col. Alister Granby was a member of the League of Nations non existent peacekeeping spy agency too. I think even Oppenheim used it once or twice. John Creasey’s Dept. Z is a typical fictional concept of some sort of international police. Alan Caillou’s Interpol agent hero and Bill Knox’s UN agent Talos Cord are equally fictional.
All pure fiction.
After the War it was just assumed by viewers and creators of crime films and thrillers that somehow Interpol was an enforcement arm of the UN, and that myth grew with films and television suggesting such agents travelled the world fighting crime.
In fairness no one involved with those films or books had any idea Interpol was a Nazi front organization or corrupt from the beginning and still.
After the War Interpol had some dubious use battling the Cold War and the myth was carefully cultivated and allowed to grow since most involved were merely corrupt and not actual war criminals themselves.
The closest thing to international police would be representatives of the World Court and the Hague and some of the UN’s drug and health agencies who do investigative but not enforcement work. No nation is going to cede its right to police itself to any outside force willingly.
This is all public information and easily checked.
March 30th, 2022 at 9:51 pm
I should add that since the formation of the European Union there is some crossover among member police organizations, but only among members from the EU HQ in Brussels.
March 31st, 2022 at 4:30 am
“ I can’t speak for now, but despite movies and television the FBI, US Secret Service, London Met. Police (including New Scotland Yard), and French Police Judiciare were for many years not members of Interpol and may still not be for all I know because of Interpol’s known political leanings and history of corruption.
Most members are small police forces.â€
The US and UK have been members since1956. Most are members have small police forces because—with 195 members— most members are small countries. #sorrytospoilyourrant
March 31st, 2022 at 9:14 am
In Mexico and the Far East, many Interpol agents were used in their intrigue movies in the ’60-’70-’80s, I never understood the reason.
March 31st, 2022 at 9:15 am
Recently an Interpol director disappeared in China, nothing more was ever known…
March 31st, 2022 at 8:48 pm
Receiving the newsletters and bulletins is a far reach from actually trusting the organization which we joined in part to ensure the safety of former dubious operatives we enlisted on our side after the War.
We do rely on the criminal red and yellow sheets to track international criminals but Interpol is not universally trusted. Both in Intelligence and later Pinkertons we were warned about Interpol’s history and the problems with it if only so we didn’t trip over any of our own assets Interpol might have covered for earlier in the Cold War.
Interpol has its uses, but since they include actively trying to help the Russians to ‘kidnap” a former American ambassador for political reasons their dubious history is obviously still part of their operating procedure.