Madeleine - Tel. 13-62-11

If you read the other reviews you know by now that this film is about prostitution. I saw "Madeleine" many years ago in German with English subtitles and I was very impressed by the way it handled the subject matter, by the cinematography, and by the acting. Director Kurt Meisel also managed to create a compelling atmosphere that is fascinating and stays with you long after viewing the film. Also impressive are the performances of the two female leads, Eva Bartok as the experienced but sad Madeleine, and Sabine Sesselmann as the student who decides to help her and the other ladies trapped in the world prostitution. Since then, I have been trying to find a copy on home video that matches the original film but it has been impossible. The DVD badly dubbed in English and sold under the title "Naked in the night" is a total disaster. Do not buy it! The scenes in the film are out of order and you might have a tough time understanding it. Let´s hope that someday "Madeleine" receives the treatment it deserves in home video. The ideal is to be able to watch it in the original German with English subtitles. None of that laughable, distracting dubbing which cheapens an otherwise good movie.

The story was interesting, but the time line was hopelessly disjointed. Day or night? Didn't matter. It was very hard to understand where you were and why things were happening that shouldn't (and couldn't) be happening yet. Somebody needs to re-cut this thing...as a matter of fact, that would be a GREAT exercise for a film editing class. I think all the parts are there - they are just in the wrong order. The cinematography and lighting was good, and the acting seemed quite acceptable, although, since it was dubbed into English, it's kind of hard to tell. The music was amusing - I kept waiting for the bongos to kick in...I enjoyed the lavish sets and all the Volkswagens.

Released in the USA as NAKED IN THE NIGHT, this film was advertised (and the VHS release still pushes this) as an "adults only" film, but except for three brief dance sequences (with pasties), it's mostly a crime film dealing with prostitution. As a crime film, it's quite good and well-acted by Eva Bartok and Sabine Sesselmann, the former as a lady trying to bust the racket, the latter as a sad victim of it. Heinz Drache, later in many German "krimi" films of the early 60's, does a fine job as a regular customer of the madam who isn't exactly what he seems. While the dubbing does not match the lips that well, the dubbed voices do a decent acting job and the dialogue is literate, so I had no problems with the post-synchronization. There is a fine Teutonic jazz score by Willy Mattes and moody, atmospheric photography. The credit sequence, with a speeding car careening down the street with the credits flying toward the screen, culminating in a car crash, started the film off with a bang, and the pace is kept up well throughout. In the late 1950's and the early 1960's, many foreign melodramas with a sexual element were marketed as "adults only" films in the USA. This brought a number of excellent films here that might not have gotten a US release otherwise, but gave the films the stigma of being tedious nudist or sex films, which many were not (thankfully, there are no American nude inserts here!). Despite the VHS cover NAKED IN THE NIGHT as a nudist or sex film, this is really a German crime film, and as such it's recommended to those who would want to see a Teutonic white slavery melodrama.