Director: Alvin Rakoff
Aka An einem Freitag um halb zwölf
1961
Original release date: 16/02/1961
Original runnign time: 93 mins
International release details: Italy – Il mondo nella mia tasca (10.05.61); France – Vendredi 13 heures (23.08.61 – 95′); Britain – On Friday at Eleven (1961 – 93′); Spain – Atraco audaz (Madrid, 24.09.62)
West Germany / France / Italy
A Corona Filmproduktion (Munich), Critérion Film (Paris), Erredi Film / Pantafilm-Santalucia & C, Bari (Rome) production
Based on the novel by James Hadley Chase
Screenplay: Frank Harvey
Cinematography: Václav Vích
Music: Claude Bolling
Editor: Edward B. Jarvis, Alice Ludwig
Art director: Hans Kuhnert, Wilhelm Vorwerg
Cast: Nadja Tiller (Ginny), Rod Steiger (Frank Morgan), Peter van Eyck (Bleck), Jean Servais (Gypo), Ian Bannen (Kitson), Marisa Merlini (Frau Mandini), Memmo Carotenuto (Herr Mandini), Edoardo Nevola (Carlo Mandini), Carlo Giustini (Pierre)
Plot: While this effective film may ostensibly be a thriller about the robbery of an armored vehicle, considerable black comedy ensnares the action in many places. Ginny (Nadja Tiller) is an enigmatic German woman cons a gang of crooks into robbing an armored car bound for France containing a US Army payroll. The crooks plan to stage a phony car crash to lure the guard out of the truck. They then plan to commandeer the truck, drive it to a carnival ground and open the vault in private. The demonic device has booby traps for boobies who plan to open it, and though tragedy and death are the result of the thieves’ botched heist, they lose a little of their meaning to the battle with the box. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
Notes: This was one of several adaptations of the popular novels by James Hadley Chase to be made during the sixties. An international co-production, the main man behind it was Artur Brauner, a prolific German producer who specialised in fast paced, trashy B-Movies with some pan-European involvement (Brauner, by the way, produced a whopping 19 films in 1961 alone, including the high-profile 1000 Eyes of Dr Mabuse and the early spy film Operation Caviar). The Italian input seems to have been minimal, mainly restricted to the participation of a handful of performers in minor roles. Marisa Merlini, Memmo Carotenuto and Edoardo Nevola all appear as members of a family, and Carlo Giutin is credtied as Carlo. Quite possibly their scenes could have been inserts filmed to access some Italian subsidies, although as I haven’t seen it I can’t say for sure.