Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"Das doppelte Lottchen" or "Two Times Lotte" is a West German black-and-white film from 1950, so this movie is already over 65 years old. It is one of the two pretty famous works by director Josef von Báky and he also won a German Film Award for it, but the real star here is of course writer Erich Kästner, who also received a German Film Award, just like the movie itself that was honored as best of the year with the Golden Candlestick, the equivalent to the Lola back then. It runs for approximately 100 minutes and I cannot say I am too familiar with the cast here. But the lack of really well-known actors (at least by today's standards) is not the major problem here. The major problem is the writing and this is especially disappointing given Kästner's fame and the fact that he adapted the book himself. It is one major aspect that was frequently a problem, namely the complete lack of shades. All the characters were depicted as likable, except the lover of the girls' father who was depicted completely unlikable, so we would cheer for the parents getting together. It's really cheap and uninspired in my opinion and apart from that I cannot say that I liked the parents a lot. No matter how much they tried to justify it, there is no excuse for denying your daughter that she has not only a sister, but an identical twin. And I personally felt that the Günther twins also did not display the greatest range really. Not surprised at all that they stopped acting quickly. Peter Mosbacher was by far the one who gave the best performance in here. But he alone cannot make up for all the flaws with this movie. I do not recommend the watch and the Lohan (happy 30th birthday Linds!) version is for example far superior.
