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Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

From my favorite movies..

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

"Hocuspocus" is a West German 100-minute movie (including credits) from 1966, so this one had its 50th anniversary last year already. It was directed by the fairly successful Kurt Hoffman back then pretty late in his career already and it is of course based on the original work by Curt Goetz, who made his own black-and-white version of this film over a decade earlier and he had already died when this color version here came out. The cast includes big names like Heinz Rühmann (in his 60s) and Lilo Pulver (in her 30s) and both received German Film Award nominations for their performances. They lost, but the film took home another award that night. Anyway, this is the story of a deceased husband and the suspicion that his wife may have killed him. As a consequence, at least half of the film is court proceedings, namely the second half in which Rühmann shines, while the first half is all about Pulver. Both were doing a pretty good job I guess, but honestly I don't think the film is really working well at all. The jokes in the courtroom were only rarely funny, even if the crowd clearly wants us to think otherwise with their constant laughter. I would not really say this is a crime, mystery or thriller movie, even if there are ingredients from all these genres, but in my opinion, it is all about the comedy, also with the revelation at the very end that shows us things really weren't as bad as they sounded. Another problem I had here was the lack of realism. Sure, it does not need to be a gritty crime thriller, but the fact that the husband is not only alive all of a sudden, but even the defense council is fairly ridiculous. Never under any circumstance could he have made it into such a position. But like I said, the comedy is the core of it all and even with such a gifted guy like Rühmann in charge here, it just isn't working out. I already did not like the older Goetz movie I mentioned previously, but this one here is at least as forgettable. Both aren't failures, but far from good enough so that I would recommend them. Watch something else instead.

Director Kurt Hoffmann already made a film adaptation of Curt Goetz' play in 1953 with Goetz himself in the lead (qv). The script of this adaptation is more elaborated, that is: it shows the events before the trial starts. The set-up of the film is remarkable: the set-design is very unrealistic: there are no real walls or streets etc, the grass is definitely out of plastic, everything is artificial; the main colour in this colour film is white. In this way Hoffmann tries to set the mood of the play - romantic humanity and human dignity - against that of a rational environment.The idea of the set-design is fine and the design is beautifully executed (and photographed), however in the end Hoffmann does not really combines this with the play; it remains an idea. The play is still there in its almost original form and long dialogues; either the writers or Hoffmann were/was able to make the design an intrinsic part of the play, that should have been almost re-written to achieve this.Still with Heinz Rühmann and Liselotte Pulver in the lead this still is a very enjoyable film, though with his first adaptation Hoffmann made a better film.