Fremde Stadt

Strange City

A man arrives in Munich with two million deutschmarks in a suitcase. He stole the money from a bank in Dusseldorf. He hopes to "launder" the cash by having his ex-wife pay it into her bank account bit by bit. But despite her newly-resurgent love, she demands fully half of the booty as payment. Soon he also has a detective breathing down his neck who dreams of sailing around the world in his own boat. And then there is the shady couple following him in a dark Citroën DS with Dusseldorf license plates …

In his black-and-white, CinemaScope thriller, Rudolf Thome actually managed to make Bavaria’s capital, dubbed the "World City with Heart", look like a dangerous place. Against that consciously inhospitable backdrop, the avowed Howard Hawks fan paraded an illustrious line-up of greedy pursuers, with all of them (with the exception of a harmless aquarium enthusiast) hoping to score their own haul. Their common victim is forced to pay a steep price during risky transactions, but it seems by the end of the film as if his plan has come to fruition – while Rudolf Thome set out for new shores: from Munich to Berlin, actually and artistically.

Source: 75. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)