Der Chef wünscht keine Zeugen

Any film that deals with international relations and the future of the planet has merit these days. This is an extremely hard film to find, but is available at Horror Theatre online. I have always liked the spare black & white treatment of such international science fiction. This one involves the old "alien taking over human bodies" storyline, but it's handling here is well done and unique. I was particularly struck with how ruthless some the "death" scenes were. The aliens' lack of emotion seemed appropriate to me. The film runs a little long, and some of the scenes talk too much, but if you stick with it, I think you will find its overall appeal. Good ending.

1963's "No Survivors Please." ("Der Chef wunscht keine Zeugen," or The Boss Does Not Want Witnesses) shows itself to be an intriguing addition to the alien invasion subgenre, and may require additional viewings to truly appreciate its impact. The shoestring budget precluded any special effects, the various crashes represented by stock footage, producer Hans Albin and screenwriter Peter Berneis sharing directorial credit, shooting in the style of a typical black and white Krimi. We kick off with a noted ambassador (Robert Cunningham) becoming the latest target for death by the Orion alien Chief (Rolf von Nauckhoff), leader of disembodied beings who were once human but now consist solely of 'superior intellect' after doing away with all emotions, taking over each corpse but still retaining memories of its human past. Gustavo Rojo receives special billing as primary assassin Armand de Guedez, on call to ensure that everyone winds up dead as planned, including brunette beauty Vera Svenson (Karen Blanguernon), whose shoe is playfully dropped from the correct height before Armand pushes her screaming over the railing. Like Phil Tucker's "The Cape Canaveral Monsters," the possessed victims often prove susceptible to mankind's supposed frailties, love shown to be his greatest strength, but is that enough to save the humanity of perceptive reporter Howard Moore (U. Friedrichsen) and secretary Ginny Desmond (toplined Maria Perschy), the two lovers who become aware of the truth? Howard's attempted seduction by a naked Vera is witnessed by Armand, she dismissing the lovesick newshound so that he lives to fight another day, the gun intended to shoot him instead being used by her own smiling killer. The opening third shows a number of scientists and military personnel succumbing to their extraterrestrial aggressors, discussing how it feels to occupy a dead shell (they need our planet for more space), intending that earth's inhabitants annihilate themselves by instigating nuclear war. The picture's budgetary shortcomings remain a factor in keeping viewers at a distance, but it's well acted to keep them off balance as they try to learn who survives and who does not. Perhaps even more obscure than ever today, this might still find cult status if only to offer a rare example of West German sci fi.

No Survivors Please is one strange duck - not really science fiction, more of a political allegory with very, very light Sci-Fi overtones, similar to another film of the era, Planets Against Us, with which NSP shares some marked similarities.

NSP is, if anything, a dark treatise on modern existence, and love without "soul." World leaders and celebrities are taken over by aliens, by being killed and "reborn" - a not-subtle allusion to religious indoctrination - and become cynical, amoral versions of their previous selves (a page taken out of Invasion of the Body Snatchers). As such, this aspect of the film is an overt allusion to the modern world politician as being a soulless, self-serving engine of destruction, even while he pretends to be a helper to society - a not inaccurate description of such career ghouls.

As the main theme of the film is the precarious nature of international harmony, the esteemed United Nations features prominently, and there are some wonderful shots of that magnificent - and woefully maligned - institution. As with the aforementioned Planets Against Us, NSP comes across largely as a meditation on topical issues of the day, existential alienation urban loneliness. The main characters, including our hero, a reporter, all suffer emotional detachment, and a good part of the film deals with the angst suffered by those who wish to reach them emotionally.

In the execution of their plan, the aliens resort to fairly heartless murders, the most gruesome being that of a young woman who is unceremoniously tossed off a high bridge, screaming in terror as she falls to her death.

Yet the finale, in which the alien implants discuss starting a World War in order to teach humans beings how not to wage World War, seems confusing and self-contradictory at best, and in the final analysis it is almost impossible to tell what NSP had in mind. Although it was listed as science fiction in TV Guide listings back in the day, other than the fact of the replicated humans there is nary a Sci-Fi plot point to be found, and unless I blinked, not one special effect in the whole thing. A strange duck indeed, No Survivors Please may work best as a stark, despairing monochrome depiction of modern America as a repository for emotion-free predators working ceaselessly behind the scenes towards our mutual destruction, and as such reflects the current world political climate eerily.

I saw this movie on late-nite TV sometime during the 80s. It is no longer part of any such TV package to my knowledge because I have never seen a trace of it since. However, it still remains in my mind one of the most powerful movies ever made. It is a surreal excursion into the modern international metropolis, complete with threats of world war, mass destruction, media-induced insensitivity to violence, and so on. All in the guise of a sci-fi theme about alien takeovers of political decison making (not so hard to imagine if you look at our world today --circa 2002!) If you catch this, you will see what I mean. A one-of-a-kind experience and quite remarkable. --Peter Titus, Chestnut Ridge, NY (USA)