"Their heavenly life comes a halt on the evening when they go out to celebrate Halfdan's birthday, a prostitute (Anousaki) is duly purveyed for his rite of passage. The ship company owner O. P. Andersen (Kjærulff-Schmidt) blows in with his spoiled daughter Lone (Borchsenius) and his omniscient secretary (Weiding). An overhaul is grudgingly implemented and most of them are prove incompetent and summarily fired by Andersen, although Lone needs to be rough-housed by a macho man like Knud to be meek and smitten (a glaring mismatch to propagate homegrown masculine prowess)."
-
Martha
1967 [DANISH]
Comedy / Drama / Family / Romance
Plot summary
The oldest ship in the fleet, Martha, and her jolly crew, must race Harald and win, or it's the scrappers next.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
April 20, 2023 at 02:07 PM
Director
Top cast
Movie Reviews
Cinema Omnivore - Martha (1967) 7.0/10
Cult movie, indeed
As previous commentators have so rightfully pointed out, Martha is the true cult-movie of the merchant marine... but not only in Denmark. It has had - and still has - a tremendous impact in Sweden as well, with Martha-societies arranging Martha-evenings (complete with a showing of the film itself and a nice dinner with nothing missing except perhaps the Brottsjösill. The (Swedish, in fact) traditional Aquavit brand O P Andersson tend to be available in abundance, though. Among the seafarers in Sweden, Martha has been known since the early 70:s, and more or less illegal thirdhand VHS-copies was distributed widely along with the first-hand movies and VHS-tapes. Recently, a DVD-version - with new and (hopefully) improved Swedish translation - is available with some extra goodies. Sadly, the translation from Danish to Swedish is somewhat lacking in accuracy, at least on the VHS-copy I've seen. The Danish phrase which means "steady she goes!" is translated into the Swedish equivalent of "She sails beautifully!" which is a shame, really. I've learned that Martha is shown to students as well, which is very good indeed.
I cannot give praise enough to this film. For many seafarers, it is THE movie, strangely accurately showing the seamen's life of bygone days - albeit with a humorous twist or two - better than any serious-faced documentary.
excellent film
This as an excellent film. In this film you see Ove Sprogøe, Poul Bundgaard and Morten Grundwald together for the first time. Later on the three of them would go on to create the biggest success ever in danish movie-history: "Olsen-banden". The scenes where the dead-drunk danish sailors return to the ship and find their boss there are excellent.