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.

Madeleine Tel. 13 62 11 (1958) ♀

Around the same time of the first Rialto Edgar Wallace adaptions, a stream of grittier, sleazy Krimi appeared, somewhat similar to the Noirish French Polar of the late 1950s, often featuring Jean Gabin, and, like those movies, revolving around white slave trade, prostitution and narcotics, this in a considerably realistic and grimy setting. One of the earliest ones, Madeleine Tel. 13 62 11, was a fun little 1958 Krimi revolving around call girls and inspired by the mysterious murder of real-life call girl, Rosemarie Nitribitt which shook the Federal Republic of Germany in 1957. As a result numerous filmmakers seized the moment and took up the subject of murder and prostitution in some form, including Arca Film, founded in 1953 by Gero Wecker, a production company that had already meddled in successful ‘scandalous’ films, with Liane, das Mädchen aus dem Urwald in 1956, its 1957 sequel, Liane: Die Weisse Sklavin.