Popular reviews

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  Review by Rick Burin ★★★★

  This early talkie take on the classic kids' book, made in Germany from a script by Billy Wilder and Emeric Pressburger, is both remarkably accomplished and true to the spirit of its source. Stylish, airy and with some great location shooting, it's also a kiddie companion to the adolescent People on Sunday, that gobsmacking slice of summer escapism that had come a year earlier.

  The story sees mischievous, resourceful Emil (Rolf Wenkhaus) being put on the train to Berlin by his mum. In his pocket is the 140 marks he must give to his grandmother: a fortune to their impoverished family. Enter the most suspicious-looking man in the world (creepy Fritz Rasp), who drugs Emil with a poisoned sweet -…

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  Review by OlivierBL ★★★★ 2

  Y'a pas d'enfant qui essaie de se tuer dans celui-là! Un excellent Lamprecht et l'un des premiers films sur le CV de "Billie" Wilder, qui l'a scénarisé.

  Emil se fait voler son cash dans le train pis y'a à peu près 3000 kids qui l'aident à retrouver le voleur. C'est vraiment cute, mais je ne pouvais pas m'empêcher de me demander combien de ces enfants allaient se faire élever dans la haine de l'autre et tuer/se faire tuer au cours des années qui allaient suivre...

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  Review by Krautsalat ★★★★

  Fast paced early talkie written by Billy Wilder. There's a pretty freaky dream sequence and the villain looks like Hitler.

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  Review by darrenj ★★★½

  LSC 2015-16: Week 27: Pre-Hitler German Week

  Enjoyable early talkie featuring some great special effects. Must be a very early example of a children's film, too?

  Loved the intro, with Emil and his friends dressing up the statue in the park to look like the local policeman. And the hallucinatory sequence in the train after Emil has been drugged by the thief is extraordinary. Also, the way the kids got together to track him down and the great array of characters they had. Flying Stag, who would only speak like an Indian chief, was particularly good, even if he was only on screen for a short time.

  All this and Pony Hütchen! Great fun all round.

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  Review by splatty ★★★★

  Movie Challenge 2020: 104 Years in 52 Weeks: Movie #32 out of 104

  There are some scenes in this kids-movie, that are really creepy as hell, especially this extremely surreal sequence on the train in the beginning. This must have scared the shit out of a young audience.

  #52years20

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  Review by SpaceCadetJuan ★★½

  73 Lightweight children’s adventure in which a naïve young lad takes candy from a stranger, trips balls, and has a big wad of cash taken from him. Some street kids agree to help him get the money back. If you can find a Youtube clip of the kid hallucinating on the train that’s the best part, the rest is of little interest to a modern audience.

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  Review by dirtylaundri ★★★★

  Well-made adaptation of the novel, with expert casting ... although, as pitch-perfect Fritz Rasp is as Grundeis, the only thing in here that's really disturbing is the effortless, natural emergence out of nowhere not of a mob, but of a well-oiled, hierarchical structured combat unit. In fact, the well-oiledness and the hierarchical structure is a perfectly sufficient reason for the boys to join the cause. Let's be part of the machine, no further agitation necessary.

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  Review by Jill Condon

  classic NYU German department curriculum first movie you have to watch without subtitles. IYKYK😹

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  Review by 🌸George🌸 ★½

  These kids have WAY too much autonomy but it’s also very relatable because as a kid we also tried a lot of hussles and forming a detective agency is honestly something we would have done.

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  Review by Darren Richman ★★★★½

  Great to see this on the big screen at the BFI. My favourite book as a child and a screenplay co-written by a young Emeric Pressburger and an even younger Billy Wilder.

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  Review by Milo ★★★½

  For the duration of this film, I was subject to a strange electronic tone. It sounded somewhere between the midnight hum of a rainforest and the wailing of a dial-up telephone, and about as loud as either. What exactly was emitting this sound was unclear, though I have developed several theories. The first, quickly abandoned, was the idea that the sound might be inherent in the projected DCP, some kind of digital artefact wreaking havoc on the soundtrack. But this was never mentioned, nor addressed. And more, the sound seemed more distinct to my left than right. My second theory, fuelled by a spike of irrational paranoia and unwarranted anxiety, was that the sound was coming from me, that for…

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  Review by Blumenberg ★★★½

  In Berlin gibt es Häuser, die sind 100 Stockwerke hoch - In Berlin, there are houses that are 100 stories high

  Gerhardt Lamprechts filmic adaptation of Erich Kästners famous children's novel, with a screenplay by Billy Wilder, abducts the viewer into a peaceful Weimar Berlin, in which evil forces are summoning--in a symbolic form. Striking is Fritz Rasp's (known as The Thin Man from Metropolis) portrayal of the hitleresque criminal and con artist Grundeis/Mitlinski. 

  While the portrayal of Berlin is largely ignoring the political reality of the metropolis that was being haunted by fascist and communist Stoßtrupps (Hitler would gain power two years after the film was released), the villain with the uncanny eyes and the  little beard serves as…