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Benson (Erik Schumann), a totally insiginificant bookkeeper with hardly a dime to his name and not much ambition to get anywhere, has just had a lovely dinner with his cousin Bill (Dieter Eppler) and wife Doris (Thessy Khuls), when on his way home, he's dragged into a car by thugs Trigger (Walter Buschhoff) and Joe (Gerold Wanke), who have the obvious intention to kill him. That's of course bad enough, but what's worse is that they seem to know exactly who he is, while he has not the slightest idea who they might be let alone why they want to kill him. Benson somehow manages to force their car into a crash and make an escape, but it seems the two have their accomplices everywhere, all after his blood. He tries to find safety in a rundown bar, but even the barkeep's (Stanislav Ledinek) in on the thing, and when he finally makes it to a hotel and phones for the police, he instead welcomes Trigger, whom he shoots dead with a gun he has lifted from the barman. Ultimately he makes it home, but is already expected by a stranger (Konrad Georg), whom he shoots pretty much out of reflex. Being as desparate as he is, he phones Bill, and Bill fetches him back over to his to help him take care of the situation - or so he claims at first, as what Bill proceeds to say isn't very much to Benson's liking ...

Let's start with the negative here, some of the dialogue of this made-for-TV 40 minute movie is very much on the stilted side. But if you can swallow this, Schritte in der Nacht is basically an underappreciated gem, a film very much in the noir tradition in both story and execution that makes the most out of its (until the final resolution) almost kafkaesque situation, while using its limited sets and locations to create a fittingly claustrophobic atmosphere, and the film's paced well enough to keep things moving to at all times increase the pressure on its protagonist without ever feeling rushed.

Definitely worth a watch for sure.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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