STRAßENMUSIK
Sc.: Walter Gronostay, dall’omonima pièce di Paul Schurek. F.: Franz Koch. Mu.: Walter Gronostay. M.: Gottlieb Madl. Scgf.: Max Seefeld. Su.: K.A. Keller. Cast: Jessie Vihrog (Grete Witt), Ernst Legal (Otto Brommel), Fritz Genschow (Hans Lunk), Hans Deppe (Paul Spittel), Fita Benkhoff (Hilde Neumann, una giovane vedova), Karl Valentin (Otto, il corazziere), Liesl Karlstadt (sua moglie), Otto Wernicke, Alfons Täuber, Else Reval, E.F. Fürbinger, Josef Eichheim, Willem Holsboer, Ernst Martens, Walter Hotten, Hans Kraft. Prod.: Bavaria; 35mm. L.: 2495 m. D.: 91’ a 24 f/s.
Film Notes
For a year and a half now, Paul Schurek’s comedy has received enormous public consensus at two Berlin theaters – the echo of this story of three musicians who earn a hard but dignified living together with Grete, their housemate, can be heard throughout Kurfürstendamm. […] In the role of the cuirassier, Valentin plays a part typical for him, not extraordinary but definitely effective: Otto, in a helmet with bells and a drum tied to his back, livens up the rhythm of the film.
«Film – Kurier», 24/7/1936
Hans Deppe’s comedy forced Valentin to go to Berlin for shooting. In the film, which tells the story of three poor musicians, he plays a small part, that of Otto, the cuirassier; he drags himself sorrowfully around the capital, with his armament of simultaneously played instruments, like in his old Orchestrion, with Liesl Karlstadt in the role of the singer. Nonetheless, the director lets him collect more change than the trio competing with him, though in the end their paths will unite towards the goal of success. The presence of Valentin in this film is actually tragic, and it is the most obvious confirmation of how they wasted and nullified his abilities, limiting him almost without exception to those few scenes. He definitely didn’t have a lot of fun on Straßenmusik.
Michael Schutte and Peter Syr (eds.), Karl Valentins Filme, München/Zürich, R.Piper, 1978