HISTORY
Danish Cult film...
Aboard
Martha, history's protagonist, it is important to feel good, and have
great food. Also, it is extremely important to have clean hands,
specifically regarding the stoker Alexander (Stavros Christofides)
when he goes to dinner. It is controlled strictly by the steward
Watson (Ove Sprogøe). The movie starts with the cabin-boy HalfDan
(Birger Jensen) 17 year birthday. Halfdan is little popular, he is
very clumsy and very stupid, and he is a master of saying and doing
the wrong thing at the wrong times, but he will get celebrated as goes
from child to adult. He must also have a gift, so when the other crew
learns that he never even had a girl. After some discussion, about the
gift issue, Helena (Eleni Anoussakis) will be purchased and handed
over to the birthday boy, with a wonderful celebration of dance. They
sing and drink the whole night. But he gets little pleasure out of
this event, as he has gone under the table (drunk).
While all this, far away, in Denmark, a drama takes place. Copenhagen
shipowner OP Andersen (Helge Kjærulff-Schmidt)arrives 20 minutes
before usual. A large oil contract is about to slide his fingers. His
arch-enemy the Norwegian Shipowner Tore Amundsen (Sverre Wilberg) also
gave an offers to the Shah of abbot. OP ordering his secretary Miss
Bruun (Lily Weiding) to contact his daughter Elinor (Sarah
Borchsenius) in Rome, and ordering her to immediately meet him in
Athens, OP is furious over her appearance in a scandal sheet. When the
crew returns to Martha, mood is lifted, but the disaster has happened.
OP his daughter and his secretary arrived, and he informs them that he
intends to spend the next 4 days aboard the Martha. This creates a
total panic. Martha is an old coal-fired boat, and as Captain Nielsen
(Karl Stegger) says: "without comfort", but it is first now it
beginnins to be unpleasant thing for the crew. OP will inspect the
ship for his intention to shake the ship Constitution, advice and
rust, missing railings and stair, tangled piles of rope, lapped
sheets, and empty beer bottles floating all over the ship. This is not
quite ship Rules. This does that Captain Nielsen is fired because of
laziness and incompetence. OP discovers that radiographer Marius
Knudsen (Paul Hagen) are dyslexic so he flees into the engine room of
Engineers Brovst (Poul Reichhardt). 1 officer (Henrik Wiehe) is asked
to calculate their position and his result is that they are in the
middle of St Peter's church in Rome, so he will also get fired. OP
would rather fire the whole crew and send Martha to scrapping, but he
needs her to come first in the race for the oil contract. This will be
Marthas rescue.
Amundsens ship "Harald" is a brand new fast steamer, OP sees no
alternative but to again employ the sacked staff. They managed to
trick the norwegian with the help of Helena to gain a engine sparepart
they need. This is also done with a little strip and with the
Norwegian national anthem.
Following the successful operation, they have to sail through the
"Straits" a very difficult passage. Demonstrations and adventurous
unit leads to Martha brave crew tails oil contract back to the OP here
eventually fell for her unique charm and no more talk of scrapping. |