A small, mountain town.  The populace here has long lived off the artisanal production of axes.  But due to a glut of cheap, factory goods, the business magnate Brugger is no longer able to sell his axes and he dies before a complete economic collapse.  His daughter Anna wants to marry Thomas Volderauer, a friend of her father's, who wishes to once more bring work to the town by moving his metal working factory there.  Thus Franz, the son of old Atzinger, has no chance with Anna; especially as his father implores Anna to marry Volderauer.  Embittered, Franz leaves the town.  In order to earn money, Franz ends up as a tourguide for wealthy tourists and notices that their ice picks aren't good for anything, except maybe cutting ice for their fancy cocktails.  He realizes that the manufacture of high quality ice picks, for example, could be good business for his town.  He therefore returns there and organizes resistance to the demolition of the town forge. 

Ein kleiner Gebirgsort. Die Menschen haben dort lange Zeit von der handwerklichen Herstellung von Äxten gelebt. Doch durch eine Schwemme billiger Fabrikware kann der Handelsherr Brugger seine Äxte nicht mehr absetzen, er stirbt noch vor dem wirtschaftlichen Zusammenbruch.  Seine Tochter Anna soll nun Thomas Volderauer heiraten, einen Freund ihres Vaters, der mit seiner Metallfabrik wieder Arbeit ins Dorf bringen will. Da hat Franz, der Sohn des alten Atzinger, keine Chance, sogar sein Vater beschwört Anna, Volderauer zu heiraten, und Franz verlässt verbittert das Dorf. Um Geld zu verdienen begleitet er Hochtouristen und stellt fest, dass ihre Eispickel nichts taugen. Die Herstellung guter Ware könnte also ein Geschäft für sein Dorf sein. Er geht zurück und organisiert den Widerstand gegen den Abbruch der Schmieden.

THERE IS A NEWSREEL ALONG WITH THE FILM, JUST AS GERMAN AUDIENCES MIGHT HAVE SEEN WHEN THE MOVIE WAS FIRST SHOWN (except this newsreel may not be contemporary to when the film was released).

DVD-R IS IN GERMAN WITH NO SUBTITLES (except for the Newsreel).

QUALITY (of feature film only): 

·        Digital Quality? - no

·        Sharpness of picture? - some softness and snow, but very watchable quality film

LENGTH OF FEATURE FILM:  77 mins

LENGTH OF NEWSREEL:  12 mins