Der Kapitän (1971)
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Directors
Cast
Heinz Rühmann, Ernst Stankovski, Horst Janson, Günter Pfitzmann, Hans Korte, Carl Lange, Joseph Offenbach, Johanna Matz, Horst Tappert, Monika Lundi, Teri Tordai, Ruedi Walter, Margrit Rainer, Jane Hempel, Irina von Bentheim
A gruff cargo-ship veteran must prove himself when he is unexpectedly put in command of a cruise liner.
The story
Experienced seafarer Captain Wilhelm Ebbs has spent his career on cargo ships. When his old vessel, the Martin Luther, enters the shipyard for an overhaul, the shipping company assigns him to command the elegant cruise ship Julia in place of a sick colleague. Ebbs struggles with the social demands of the job, while Consul Carstens, a company shareholder aboard the ship, puts him through his paces. Though his seamanship is beyond question, difficult passengers and rebellious crew members make his new command a test of his people skills and principles. His chief officer resents his authority, and only a few people on board offer him steady support.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Captain Wilhelm Ebbs is an older, experienced seafarer, but he has sailed exclusively on cargo ships. While his current old tub, the Martin Luther, has to go into the shipyard for an overhaul, the shipping company puts him in command of the elegant cruise ship Julia to fill in for a sick colleague. The gruff Ebbs has a hard time adjusting to his new role at first and keeps putting his foot in it socially. In addition, the shipping company’s shareholder, Consul Carstens, is also on board to put Ebbs through his paces. Although his handling of the ship is excellent and beyond question, Ebbs is under tremendous pressure in his dealings with people. He faces numerous difficult situations, some precarious and some amusing, involving both challenging passengers and rebellious crew members, some of whom resent him being in command. His abilities and principles are repeatedly put to the test: he has to resist a beauty smitten with him who has set her sights on him, weather Consul Carstens’s constant provocations, and keep his arrogant chief officer in check. The strict ban on alcohol he has imposed on the crew is also undermined by his affable chief engineer, with the captain himself not entirely uninvolved. Only the second officer, passenger Claudia Lund, and his steward stand by him without reservation; they help defuse one situation or another. But in time Captain Ebbs masters his task and even foils a plot by the purser, who tries to frame him with the help of falsified accounts.
Genres
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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