Das Herz von St. Pauli (1957) ♀

Based on the novel of the same name by Eberhard von Wiese, first published in Hamburger Abendblatt, the film is a mixture of Krimi and musical elements, all the while leaning heavily towards the Heimat film, this with its nostalgic, sentimental tone and the emphasis it places on the differences between old and young and the contrast between tradition and progress.

Though rather sentimental, the film is pretty enjoyable and benefits from some evocative location shooting in Hamburg, with some moody shots of the harbor, docks and nightly streets of St.Pauli, while the cinematography of Ekkehard Kyrath (Mannequins für Rio, 1954, Die junge Sünderin, 1960) provides some enjoyable noirish lighting in the Krimi oriented scenes, making use of some imaginative framing, mirrors and reflections. The lush nightclub setting delivers a bevy of pretty underclad chorus girls - among them a young Karin Baal -  performing on stage or traipsing around the backstage and dressing rooms. Though not unusual in Continental European movies of the time, the film features several scenes in which the women - some chorus girls in the nightclub and Karin Faber in her bedroom - are seen topless.

In Hamburg, in the harbour district, ex-captain Jonny Jensen (Hans Albers) runs the bar ‘Das Herz von St. Pauli.’ Though still popular with a few regular customers, whom he entertains with the accordion, business is not going well. In order to bring in money, Jensen’s son Hein (Hansjörg Felmy) urges his father to enroll shady ‘Jabo’ Jabowski (Gert Fröbe) as a business partner. However, the old captain is unaware that Jabowski, who secretly plans to use the restaurant’s rum cellar as a transshipment point for smuggled goods, has forced his son into brokering the deal, threatening to reveal that Hein has once smuggled stolen goods to Denmark for him.Hein’s brother Fiete (Jürgen Wilke), chief constable of the Hamburg police, thinks he recognizes Jabowski’s shady partner, Tanne (Werner Peters), but can’t immediately place him, so a distrustful Käpt’n Jensen reluctantly agrees to the partnership. Not long after, Jabo and Tanne pick up 17-year-old hitchhiker Helga Neumann (Karin Faber), promising the pretty girl a job in ‘Das Herz von St. Pauli.’ Meanwhile, Tine Jensen (Carla Hagen) tries to get her boyfriend Harry Pingel to finally propose to her, but the young man’s stuffy parents, who run a furniture factory, don’t want to hear about a marriage between him and the daughter of an innkeeper.

Käpt’n Jensen is far from pleased that Jabowski has turned his cosy little tavern into a nightclub, and becomes even more enraged when he finds out the shady businessman want him to perform on stage, billed as the last folk singer from St. Pauli. At first he adamantly refuses, but his family convinces him to go on stage. But even though his appearance is a tremendous success, Jensen feels sold. Tine is also less than happy because her boyfriend Harry is visiting the opening of the nightclub with his parents, but the young man's mother is anything but enthusiastic about the scantily clad girls performing on stage. Meanwhile, the lecherous Jabowski, much to the chagrin of his older and jealous lover Mia (Mady Rahl), tries to seduce the young Helga, but when she refuses his tacky sexual advances, he fires her on the spot.

In tears Helga tells the story to Trudchen Meyer (Camilla Spira), Käpt’n Jensen’s girlfriend, and the Jonny makes it clear to Jabowski that there is no way Helga will lose her job just because she refuses to sleep with him. Helga is taken in by the Jensens, much to the delight of Hein, who appears to fancy her. But the spurned Mia, along with pretty young chorus girl Janette (Karin Baal), discover that Helga lied and is in fact underaged. Vindictively, Mia tips off the police. The next day, at the request of his daughter, Käpt’n Jensen takes a day trip to Helgoland. He quickly finds out the reason for this: there are members of the Association of German Furniture Manufacturers on board – including the Pingel family. Wearing his old uniform, he is mistaken by the Pingels for the captain and Mother Pingel is delighted by the old captain's charm and agrees to Tine and Harry’s wedding.

In the meantime, Tanne and some hired gypsy burglars have robbed a jewelry store in Bremen. At night, they secretly hide the stolen goods in some empty rum barrels in the basement of Das Herz von St.Pauli. Fiete investigates the tip that a minor is employed in the bar but when confronted, the sly Jabowski claims to have dismissed Helga because she was not yet 18 years old, blaming Jensen to have ignored this. Fiete asks the young girl to leave the bar and there’s an argument between him and Hein, who has fallen in love with Helga. Käpt’n Jensen arrives just in time to prevent a fight between the brothers and when he confronts Hein, the young man confesses that three years earlier, working for Jaboski, he brought a package containing stolen watches to Copenhagen. Disappointed and angry with his son, Jensen throws him out of the house.

Hein moves into a cheap flophouse with Helga, but since he doesn’t have any money, he sets out to work on the freighter Orion. But the police have followed the trail of the stolen jewelry to Hamburg and Fiete recognizes one of the suspects in a photo as an accomplice of Tanne. The police search the basement of the nightclub, discovering the stolen loot. When Hein learns that his father is to be arrested, he turns himself in to the police and reveals Jabowski’s schemes. But the shady crook is hiding out with his accomplices, waiting to cross the border with a fake passport. But when he tries to flee on a launch, Käpt’n Jensen manages to sneak aboard and overpowers him.

Not surprisingly, the film revolves around Hans ‘Der blonde Hans’ Albers, the - in Germany - immensely popular actor/singer, who performs several songs in the movie. Apart from the enigmatic veteran actor, the film also features an array of interesting stars later to appear in various genre movies, among them the fabulous Rialto Edgar Wallace and other Krimi favourite, Werner Peters (also in Argento’s debut, L’uccello dalle piume di cristallo, 1969), usually cast in the part of some shady character; a young Hansjörg Felmy (Das Ungeheuer von London-City, 1964, Der Henker von London, 1963, Station Six Sahara, 1963, Hitchcock’s Torn Curtain, 1966, Die Tote aus der Themse, 1971), Gert Fröbe (Fritz Lang’s Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse in 1960 and as Kommissar Lohmann in two of the sequels, Im Stahlnetz des Dr. Mabuse in 1961 and Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse in 1962, the Rialto Wallace Krimi Der grüne Bogenschütze, 1960, Triple Cross, 1966, Caroline chérie, 1968, George Franju’s Nuits rouges, 1971, and, of course, appearing as Auric Goldfinger in Goldfinger, 1964); Mady Rahl (Der Fälscher von London, 1961, Die weisse Spinne, 1963, Das Wirtshaus von Dartmoor, 1964, Der Hund von Blackwood Castle, 1968, Massimo Dallamano’s Le malizie di Venere, 1969); Karin Faber (who in 1957 also dubbed Mylène Demongeot in the German release of the French-East German co-production, Les sorcières de Salem) and a gorgeous 17-year-old Karin Baal (Die toten Augen von London, 1961, Der Hund von Blackwood Castle, 1968, Massimo Dallamano’s Cosa avete fatto a Solange?).