Hot Picks

- Ready for My Close Up 2019

- Talk of the Dead 2016

- Tower Rats 2020

- Script of the Dead 2024

- The Bell Affair 2023

- Easter Bloody Easter 2024

- Velma 2022

- Everwinter Night 2023

- Main Character Energy 2023

- Stupid Games 2024

- Bittertooth 2023

- 4 Minutes of Terror: Night Slasher 2024

- Apart 2024

- The Abandoned 2006

- Becky 2024

- The Evil Fairy Queen 2024

- The Black Guelph 2022

- Followers 2024

- Silence of the Prey 2024

- Battle for the Western Front 2024

- Beware the Boogeyman 2024

- Subject 101 2022

- Driftwood 2023

- The Legend of Lake Hollow 2024

- Black Mass 2023

- Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2 2023

- The Manifestation 2024

- Spirit Riser 2024

- Garden of Souls 2019

- It's a Wonderful Slice 2024

- Caleb & Sarah 2024

- The Thousand Steps 2020

- The Desiring 2021

- When a Stranger Knocks 2024

- Quint-essentially Irish 2024

- Son of Gacy 2024

- Saltville 2024

- The True Story of the Christ's Return 2024

- Whenever I'm Alone with You 2023

- Jurassic Triangle 2024

- Midnight Peepshow 2022

- Offworld: Alien Planet 2024

- The Swiss Conspiracy 1976

- Sex-Positive 2024

- Here for Blood 2022

- All Over Again 2024

- The Color Yellow 2023

- Des Töchterleins Leid 2024

- I Am a Channel 2024

- The Hermits 2023

- Murdaritaville 2024

- Inheritance 2024

- The Devil's Partner 1960

- First Impressions Can Kill 2017

- A Killer Conversation 2014

- Star Crash 1979

- Strangler of the Swamp 1946

1. April 2000

April 1 2000

Austria 1952
produced by
Karl Ehrlich (executive) for Wien-Film
directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner
starring Josef Meinrad, Hilde Krahl, Waltraud Haas, Judith Holzmeister, Elisabeth Stemberger, Ulrich Bettac, Karl Ehmann, Peter Gerhard, Curd Jürgens, Robert Michal, Heinz Moog, Guido Wieland, Paul Hörbiger, Hans Moser, Theodor Danegger, Franz Herterich, Otto Tressler, Hans Ziegler, Pepi Glöckner-Kramer, Martha Marbo, Eva Payrer, Eerika Pirschl, Erna Schickl, Marianne Schönauer, Alma Seidler, Anneliese Stöckl-Eberhard, Hansi Stork, Ingeborg Wieser, Karl Bachmann, Karl Eidlitz, Hans Frank, Erik Frey, Harry Fuss, Hugo Gottschlich, Fred Hennings, Hans Holt, Fritz Imhoff, Fred Liewehr, Heribert Meisel, Alfred Neugebauer, Toni Niessner, Hans Richter, Leopold Rudolf, Stefan Skodler, Ernst Stankovski, Wiener Sängerknaben
written by Rudolf Brunngraber, Ernst Marboe

review by
Mike Haberfelner

Quick Links

Abbott & Costello

The Addams Family

Alice in Wonderland

Arsène Lupin

Batman

Bigfoot

Black Emanuelle

Bomba the Jungle Boy

Bowery Boys

Bulldog Drummond

Captain America

Charlie Chan

Cinderella

Deerslayer

Dick Tracy

Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Orloff

Doctor Who

Dracula

Edgar Wallace made in Germany

Elizabeth Bathory

Emmanuelle

Fantomas

Flash Gordon

Frankenstein

Frankie & Annette Beach Party movies

Freddy Krueger

Fu Manchu

Fuzzy

Gamera

Godzilla

Hercules

El Hombre Lobo

Incredible Hulk

Jack the Ripper

James Bond

Jekyll and Hyde

Jerry Cotton

Jungle Jim

Justine

Kekko Kamen

King Kong

Laurel and Hardy

Lemmy Caution

Lobo

Lone Wolf and Cub

Lupin III

Maciste

Marx Brothers

Miss Marple

Mr. Moto

Mister Wong

Mothra

The Munsters

Nick Carter

OSS 117

Phantom of the Opera

Philip Marlowe

Philo Vance

Quatermass

Robin Hood

The Saint

Santa Claus

El Santo

Schoolgirl Report

The Shadow

Sherlock Holmes

Spider-Man

Star Trek

Sukeban Deka

Superman

Tarzan

Three Mesquiteers

Three Musketeers

Three Stooges

Three Supermen

Winnetou

Wizard of Oz

Wolf Man

Wonder Woman

Yojimbo

Zatoichi

Zorro

Available on DVD!

To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned)

Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!

To really appreciate this film and the political satire behind it, one has to know some of the historical facts:

Along with Germany, Austria has been defeated in the Second World War, and even though Germany was the driving force behind the war, Austria's role in the war was less than flattering at least from the point on when the Austrians happily welcomed the Germans into their country to take it over ... and then one mustn#t forget, Hitler, even though he rose to power in Germany, was an Austrian by birth.

After the war followed the period of occupation, when Russia, the USA, Great Britain and France each controlled a sector of the country, and the four occupation forces shared Austria's capital Vienna among them. The occupation lasted until 1955, by the way ...

So much for the historical facts, this film though, made in 1952 and thus well before the end of the occupation, posed the question "what if Austria was still occupied in 2000 ?"

 

On April 1st,t he newly elected Prime Minister (Josef Meinrad) of Austria declares Austria independent and wants to throw the occupying forces out of the country, but in a peaceful way. The Global Union (a sort of UNO) however takes the actions of Austria as an act of war and soon enough the President of the Global Union (Hilde Krahl) comes to Austria via a weirdlooking UFO and accompanied by soldiers in even weirder looking uniforms carrying rayguns (this is the future you know), to put the Prime Minister and all of Austria on trial ... but the Prime Minister has taken this into consideration and has prepared a line of defense in which actors portray the greatest and most peaceful events of Austrian history, in which the citizen's of Austria demonstrate their peace-loving qualities in peaceful protest marches, and in which the woman President of the Global Union are to be won over by Viennese charm, Austrian operetta music and Wiener Gemütlichkeit (= Viennese comfortableness) complete with Spritzer ... and gradually, the President of the Global Union gives in not only to the Prime Minister's arguments but also his charms, and in the end, she herself declares Austria liberated ... just before one of her councilmen (Robert Michal, not very convincing as a Chinaman) finds a document that rules the occupation unlawful to begin with ...

 

Now this would sound like fun, a satire about the peaceful resistance against the occupation, made during the occupation. Unfortunately the film as such is rather a disappointment, much more effort is put into creating one clichéd and cheesy scene after the next than in actually making a political statement, and so the finished film looks less like a satire and more like an overlong advertisment for tourism in Austria, since the film really throws everything Austria has got at the audience, its favourite tourist spots, Austrian music from Mozart to light operetta and Heurigen Musik (songs sung in specifically Austrian versions of winebars), Austria's aristocrats from the past, its favourite boys choir the Wiener Sängerknaben and its famed trained palominos the Lippizaner, ... in fact, the film is so over-kitsched it totally loses its political impact on even the most attentive audience - which is a bit of a shame.

 

By the way, the film was (reportedly) released in the USA in a recut version in which the Global Union becomes a race of extraterrestrials ... oh well.

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

Feeling lucky?
Want to
search
any of my partnershops yourself
for more, better results?
(commissions earned)

The links below
will take you
just there!!!

Find April 1 2000
at the amazons ...

USA  amazon.com

Great Britain (a.k.a. the United Kingdom)  amazon.co.uk

Germany (East AND West)  amazon.de

Looking for imports?
Find April 1 2000 here ...

Thailand  eThaiCD.com
Your shop for all things Thai

Something naughty?
(Must be over 18 to go there!)

x-rated  find April 1 2000 at adultvideouniverse.com


Thanks for watching !!!

 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!