Emil and the Detectives

1964
Approved
1h 39m

IMDb RATING

6.1/10

858

YOUR RATING

Comedy Crime Drama Family

Emil goes to Berlin to see his grandmother with a large amount of money and is offered sweets by a strange man that make him sleep. He wakes up at his stop with no money. It is up to him and... Read allEmil goes to Berlin to see his grandmother with a large amount of money and is offered sweets by a strange man that make him sleep. He wakes up at his stop with no money. It is up to him and a group of children to save the day.Emil goes to Berlin to see his grandmother with a large amount of money and is offered sweets by a strange man that make him sleep. He wakes up at his stop with no money. It is up to him and a group of children to save the day.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.1/10

858

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
Walter Slezak who plays Baron, the mastermind, had a long career in films, dating back to European silent films in 1922.

Goofs
The seats are numbered on the bus Emil takes from Neustadt to Berlin. At 0:04:38 the number 13 is on the back of Emil's seat. At 0:04:54 the number 1 is on the toddler's seat in front of Emil. At 0:05:13 the numbers 1 and 2 are on the empty window seat immediately behind the driver and the aisle seat to its right where August Grundeis is initially seated. Apparently, the toddler's side of its interaction with Emil were shot in the front of the bus.

Quotes
Gustav: What are you looking at?
Pony: Nothing. Nothing at all.

Connections
Edited into The Magical World of Disney: Emil and the Detectives: Part 1 (1966)

User reviews17

Review

Featured review

7/10

Fun kids adventure film set after WW II in Berlin

"Emil and the Detectives" is the type of kids adventure stories that Walt Disney Studios made several of in the 1950s and 1960s. They were always fun and somewhat interesting, though no one ever thought any real harm would come to the heroes. Still they could keep kids on the edge of their seats at times.

This is a fun family film that youngsters especially should enjoy. Although older kids who are addicted to video games and non-stop action films will have to learn how to sit still to enjoy it.

The only actor of any note in this film is Walter Slezak, an Austrian-born character actor who played in dramas, thrillers and comedies. He will be most familiar for his roles in films about WW II when he usually played German officers or high-ranking officials.

Bryan Russell was a fine young actor, playing Emil in this film. But he made only one movie after this, and after a TV series in the mid-1960s, he quit acting.

An interesting aside in this film was its shooting locations in Germany. This was 1964, and it shows some of the rubble yet from World War II. I can attest to that fact, having served in the U.S. Army in Germany from 1962 to October of 1964. I was stationed near Mainz, Germany, and that city still had partial blocks in rubble that had not yet been cleaned up and rebuilt.

While Walt Disney began his film-making dynasty with Mickey Mouse and animated films, Disney moved into real-life film later. He developed a mixed genre that incorporated some animation within live action film. A classic example of that was "Mary Poppins."