Director Johannes Meyer and writer Walter von Molo draw a portrait of Frederick II that is equally ahistorical and kitschy. The film shows an episode from the Seven Years War (1756-63) where the Prussian army is at the end of its tether. But of course, King Frederick (Otto Gebühr) saves the day: He finds a way out of the encirclement by the Austrians, and he has the guts to send his 'Kerls' into one last desperate battle that they win. Frederick is not only a military genius but is simply overflowing with love: He loves his sister 'Mine' (Hilde Körber), he loves his peasants, and he also loves his soldiers (his 'children', as he calls them at one point). That is about as far removed from the actual person (the bitter, misanthropic cynic who Frederick II had become by the end of the 1750s) as can be imagined. Acting is good. Gebühr looks the part and does what can be done withe the material given him. Bernhard Minetti (as count Wallis) is impressive. The plot is clunky and unevenly paced. Sets and costumes are fine, and there are even some open air shots. One scene surprised me: Having visited a village that the enemy has looted and burned down, the king orders a lieutenant to take a platoon of soldiers and retaliate by looting the manor house of an Austrian sympathiser. The lieutenant refuses to obey this order, telling the king that he enlisted as a Prussian soldier and not as a murdering marauder. Frederick immediately makes him a captain. I wonder how this bit - evidence of von Molo's liberal leanings - got past the censors: The Wehrmacht did not normally encourage independent thinking and would of course go on to commit far worse atrocities than those shown in 'Fridericus'. In any case, the scene is one of the few redeeming features of what otherwise is a pretty mediocre picture.
