Horst in Translation ([email protected])
I am pretty sure that most Germans have already heard about the Brothers Grimm fairy tale "König Drosselbart", but I also believe that most Germans have no clue what it really is about in detail compared to other works from the famous Brothers. So people may want to watch this East German take by Walter Beck (way into his 80s today) on the subject to fill this lack of knowledge. I must say I have seen many GDR films that were well-received, but that did almost nothing for me, but this one here is an exception (that may or may not confirm the rule), but I also believe that these East German fairy tale adaptations worked really well most of the time. I enjoyed watching King Thrushbeard. It is a very short movie as it does not even reach the 70-minute mark without the ending credits. That's not a problem at all though and it's even better this way than having a bloated film that includes many insignificant scenes and bores the audience. This film also includes Manfred Krug, possibly the most known GDR actor and Krug is also still alive although it's been over half a century since this movie was made. Early on, I was not too sure if I found Krug's character as likable as I was supposed to, but the longer the film went, the better I liked him as the title character. Lead actress Karin Ugowski is not famous in the 21st century anymore (as her male counterpart), but she was a pretty big star back then in the GDR and appeared in other well-known films too. I personally can see why. She looks the part and she also gives a good performance as spoiled, obnoxious princess, who needs a lesson in becoming a good person (or probably more than one) and learning how to treat others with respect. And we watch Drosselbart teach her that lesson. You should watch it too. I definitely recommend seeing this one. Well done to everybody involved.
