by Stephen Vagg
We admit it is very, very English language cinema-centric, which overlooks the bulk of his career.
Die Jungfrau auf dem Dach (1953)
Kruger’s first Hollywood film was actually German… stay with me on this one… Otto Preminger made a comedy with William Holden called The Moon is Blue (1953), which was a big deal in its day because it used previously-unheard-words like “virgin”, “pregnant” and “mistress”. It was based on a play that had been big in Germany, so Preminger decided to use the same crew and sets to make a German version with new actors including Kruger. Kruger and his co-stars have a cameo in the English language film. This helped established Kruger as a leading man in German cinema of the 1950s. A clip of the German version is here.
The One That Got Away (1957)
The 1950s were notable for a surprisingly large amount of Hollywood and British war films featuring “Good Germans” (I think the Cold War made them seem better in hindsight or something). This was a British film, a biopic of the one German who escaped from a POW camp. There were a LOT of British POW movies in the ‘50s, the public loved it, and this one (quite a decent film) was a huge hit, in Britain at least, and Kruger, who played the lead, became a British star.
Bachelor of Hearts (1958)
A Hardy Kruger vehicle (no kidding), a wacky fish out of water comedy with Kruger as a German going to Cambridge. Shenanigans ensue. The sort of movie that is quintessential late ‘50s Rank comedy fodder. It’s not really funny, even on a Doctor in the House level, but it has nice colour, a neat “Angry Young Man” playwright gag, and fascinating credits: Frederick Raphael and Leslie Bricusse wrote the script, and the cast includes Sylvia Syms, Barbara Steele and John Richardson.
Blind Date (1959) (aka Chance Meeting)
Kruger mania lasted long enough for him to be cast in this film alongside Stanley Baker, under the direction of Joseph Losey. Kruger played a Dutch painter accused of murder. It was the first of four films Baker made with Losey; Kruger tried to reteam with the director several times, but it did not work out. Although this is not one of Losey’s most highly regarded works, it is interesting.
Hatari (1962)
Ambling, engaging latter day Hawks movie with terrific African location footage and John Wayne having a high old time in the lead. Hawks perhaps overestimates the sexual charisma of Red Buttons, but Kruger is good. His character has a storyline where he squabbles with another man (Gerard Blain), then comes to admire him and they go off into the sunset together in the end… like a lot of men in Hawks movies. Kruger is the only one of the leads who really looks like he might live in Africa, and actually, this film inspired him to buy property there. (The same year he made Sundays and Cybèle, which I haven’t seen (but feel guilty about that fact because it won a Best Foreign Film Oscar.))
The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)
A bunch-a-guys-stuck-in-the-desert movie from Robert Aldrich. The guys include James Stewart and Australia’s own Peter Finch, but Kruger has a very good part as a smart German engineer who designs the ship that gets them out of trouble. Incidentally, Finch and Kruger reunited in a bunch-of-guys-stuck-in-the-snow movie, The Red Tent (1971).
The Defector (1966)
A Cold War drama shot in Germany that is only, repeat only, worth watching for Montgomery Clift completists (he looks as though he’s got one foot in the coffin and died not long after this). Kruger is very good in it as a commie agent. There were other male German actors appearing in Hollywood films around this time (there were always Nazi officer gigs going) – Peter Van Eyck, Horst Buchholz, Karl Boehm and Curt Jurgens for starters – but I think Kruger really was the best.
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Stanley Kubrick’s controversial film-I-made-as-a-cheap-option-after-Napoleon-fell-over. Kruger is very good in a big support part. He mostly spent the 1970s in big all-star war movies (eg A Bridge Too Far) but this reminded everyone of what he could do.
The Wild Geese (1978)
Terrific movie, one of the best guys-on-a-mission war flicks, about some mercenaries sent to a fictitious country to rescue a black politician based on Tshombe (Joseph Kimbini). It’s a star-studded cast full of charismatic drunks – Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Ronald Fraser – and Roger Moore at his Bond peak, but Kruger steals the film playing a South African farmer who has a bromance with the black leader. Here’s one of their love scenes.
Blue Fin (1978)
Aussie oi! Kruger came out to Australia to make this unofficial follow up to Storm Boy (it was another SAFC film starring Greg Rowe based on a Sonia Borg script from a Colin Thiele novel). Production was difficult – Bruce Beresford was called in to direct some sequences after Carl Schultz left – but I always liked this movie as a kid.
