The Shadows Grow Longer (1961) [N/A]
Featuring:
Barbara Rütting, Hansjörg Felmy, Luise Ullrich
Written by:
István Békeffy
Heinz Pauck
Ladislao Vajda
Directed by:
Ladislao Vajda
Release Date:
August 11, 1961
Original Title:
Die Schatten werden länger
Genres:
Drama
Production Companies:
CCC Filmkunst
Praesens-Film
Production Countries:
Germany | Switzerland
Ratings / Certifications:
N/A
Runtime: 91
Christa Andres runs a home for troubled girls. With great dedication, she tries to help girls who have gone astray return to a normal life. She takes special care of Erika, who works as a prostitute and one day runs away from the home. Christa sets out to search for the girl in the red-light district. In doing so, she is haunted by the shadows of her own past. The educator herself used to work as a prostitute. When she meets her former pimp, he tries to exploit his knowledge in a perfidious way and blackmail Christa...
It is not clear whether this was meant as a melodrama or as a Problemfilm that concerns itself with difficult adolescent girls. In the end it is neither: it ends like a trash thriller, while exploitation is constantly in the background. Vajda's direction is only competent and does not do anything to make an already so-so script work. The film could have been dismissed were it not that there is Luise Ulrich, German star since the 30's is in the cast.
