Teilnehmer antwortet nicht (1932) - A wonderfully messy Weimar crime flick

If you are obsessed with dusty 1930s German crime thrillers where everyone looks incredibly sweaty and guilty, Teilnehmer antwortet nicht is absolutely worth your time tonight.

But if scratchy old audio and characters making terrible life choices makes you mad, you should probably skip it.

The plot is honestly kind of hilarious when you step back and look at it. A girl betrays her robber boyfriend to the police, which seems like a big moral stand, right?

But then she immediately runs off with his literal assistant. Talk about a lateral move. 🤷‍♂️

The assistant has this permanent look of someone who realized they left the stove on at home. I didn't buy their chemistry for a single second, but honestly, that made it more fun to watch.

There is a scene early on where a telephone receiver just hangs off a hook, buzzing. It goes on for so long it made me anxious in my own living room.

You can tell the director was really proud of that telephone prop. It gets more screen time than some of the actual actors.

Speaking of the actors, Gustaf Gründgens is in this! He always looks like he is about to steal your wallet and then explain to you why it is your own fault.

His face is just incredibly expressive. Maybe too expressive for the camera, but I love him anyway.

Then we got Vladimir Sokoloff, who is always great at playing twitchy, nervous guys. He brings this frantic energy that keeps you awake during the slower parts.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Teilnehmer antwortet nicht (1932) through its definitive frames.

It has some of that raw, desperate energy you find in early talkies like Cornered, but with a weirdly European flavor.

The movie deicided to have some weird pacing issues though. It starts like a high-stakes bank thriller, then turns into a weird romance road trip, then back to a crime drama.

The camera sometimes just stares at a door for five seconds after a character leaves. Did the cameraman fall asleep? Maybe.

I noticed a tiny thing: in one of the office scenes, there is a calendar on the wall that is clearly from the wrong month if you look at the dates they mention. Or maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me.

There is also this bizarre music cue. A loud brass band starts playing during what should be a very tense conversation.

It totally ruins the vibe, but in a hilarious way. I actually laughed out loud.

Honestly, the writers Rudolph Cartier and the Eis brothers seemed to have written this on a weekend. It is messy. But it is the good kind of messy.

Unlike something like The Patriot, which has this heavy, prestigious weight, this film just wants to get to the next twist.

The ending is so abrupt. It just... stops. Like they ran out of film or money, or both.

Still, if you want some weird Weimar cinema history, you could do a lot worse.