"Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins" or "Reeperbahn bei Nacht" is a German color film from the year 1954, so this one is also already over 60 years old. It is one of the final performances by beloved German actor Hans Albers and it can also be seen as the ultimate tribute to his hometown Hamburg because the "Reeperbahn is in St. Pauli, a district of Hamburg. Apart from Albers, likable German actor Heinz Rühmann (also in his early 50s here) is on board too and this is far from the only collaboration of the duo. Another would be their Sherlock Holmes film. They may have been the most known German actors of their time. Unfortunately this popularity does not transition into a good, or even great, film in this very case. It is a bit disappointing because the director (Liebeneiner) and the two writers (Braun, Kampendonk) have made several somewhat known German films back in the day, so they certainly did not lack experienced. But it is all too undefined. The characters are not really interesting, the comedy is not too funny and the crime story is not really dramatic either. As a whole, this is maybe only a good watch for huge Albers/Rühmann fans or for people who have a really strong connection to the city of Hamburg. Otherwise you really shouldn't care what happens at the Reeperbahn at 0:30 am. I do not recommend the watch, 105 mostly forgettable minutes.
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cynthiahost10 March 2009St Pauli, in Homberg is the New Orleans of Germany and Great freedom number 7 street is it's bourbon street. It's a party town but the characters in the film has changed. Hans Alber is a different Hans. He also has another brother ,who now owns the the hippodrome, played by Heinz Ruhmann, co run by his girl friend , played by Fita Benkhoff.this different version of the Hans character has come back from the sea to settle in St Pauli. His brother is having problems no one want s to go to his place any more the horse riding is boring to tourist.Hans coming back helps him out with his barking and his accordion. the song that he sang in Grosse Freiheit n.r. 7 is used as a title of the film and he sings it again. He seems to draw people to Heinzs club. It gets so good that Heinz seeks a loan from the property owner of St Paulis night clubs,played by Gustav Knuth, but his associates ,one of them played by Fritz Wagner are a bunch of crooks and he doesn't know this. Heinz has a problem with Hans spending a lot of time with his daughter Hans niece, who's in love with the son of the property owner, thinking he's stealing affection away from him but he always too busy to pay any attention to his daughter. It seems that years earlier Hans was in love with Heinz late wife before they got married but being that he was a sea lover she chose Heinz.The crooks try to set up trouble with Hans and his brother and the bar. They try to use one of the dancers of the bar , I think they control, but she changes her heart and becomes fond of Hans. Well Hans and Heinz gets in to an argument about him stealing affection from his daughter and moves out of his place. The crooks dupe Heinz into helping them get some valuable stuff from an old world war 2 submarine,under the ocean, so they can sell it for money but making him think that they will turn it in to the government since it would be own by the state.Hans comes to the rescue and all well that ends well but Hans misses the sea so he goes back and another sequel 3, The Nights in ST.Pauli. You have the Wiemar Distric in Berlin ,Zurick,Munich but St Pauli is still the New Orleans of Germany and a tourist trap still today just check the website. available at www.warfilms.com