Artikelnummer 978
Verfügbarkeit

HIMMELHUNDE (1942)

Malte Jäger, Waldemar Leitgeb and Albert Florath
$9.99

Obertruppführer Fritz Kilian hat ein neues Segelflugzeug entworfen. Zusammen mit dem ehrgeizigen Scharführer Werner Grundler konstruieren sie mit ihren Kameraden den Flieger. Hitlerjunge Werner fehlt zu seinem Silber-C nur noch ein Flug über eine 50 km lange Streck. Kurz vor der Fertigstellung befiehlt Vorgesetzter Kilian die benötigte Leistung abzulegen. Nach bestandener Prüfung überrascht er ihn damit, dass er das neue Modell beim Wettbewerb fliegen darf; doch einen Tag vor der Veranstaltung wird ein Bruch im Flügel festgestellt. Und um niemanden zu gefährden, sagt Obertruppführer Kilian den Wettbewerb für sein Flugzeug ab. Entgegen dem Befehl leimen die Jungens die Bruchstelle und Werner nimmt am Wettbewerb teil. 

The scene is a Hitler Youth summer camp in the hills of southern Germany.  The boys are all making or maintaining gliders under the paternalistic eyes of their officers.  It is all very friendly, healthy and challenging, with scenes of camp life and camaraderie, and not a little tweaking of authority's tail.  The boys and their gliders attend a competition, and one of the boys disobeys orders in taking part and, although flying well, crashes his glider. He is disciplined for this, takes umbrage, gets cross with his parents and goes off in a huff.  He spurns the help of a friend, but eventually listens to the wise words of one of his officers, returns to his team, is re-admitted without fuss, and plays his full role in the next competition. Lots of shots of gliders, bucolic towns and villages, beer drinking, children at play, and not a sign of war, but plenty of swastika arm bands.  The film is notable for lots of footage of a Horten Ho I flying wing glider.  Germany, of course, developed a talent for gliders to counter the Versailles restrictions on any air force.

 
Unfortunately, the quality of this film is quite poor:  washed out, poor contrast, poor quality.  We attempted to digitally alter it and had some success, but it is still barely watchable.
 
 

THERE IS A NEWSREEL PREVIEW BEFORE THE FILM, JUST AS GERMAN AUDIENCES MIGHT HAVE SEEN WHEN THE MOVIE WAS FIRST SHOWN (except this newsreel may not be contemporary to when the film was released).

DVD-R IS IN GERMAN WITH NO SUBTITLES (except for the Newsreel). APPROX. 100 MINS. COMBINED TOTAL. VERY POOR FILM QUALITY OVERALL.

 

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