The rise and inevitable fall of an amoral but naive young woman whose insouciant eroticism inspires lust and violence in those around her.
Adaptation of A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen.
Mrs. Elizabeth Bright Murdock hires Marlowe to find an old rare coin, the Brasher Doubloon, that belonged in her deceased husband's collection. Marlowe begins investigating, but quickly finds himself entangled in a series of unexplained murders.
The film was an epic portrayal of the life of Catherine the Great of Russia.
A world-famous pianist loses both hands in an accident. When new hands are grafted on, he is horrified to learn they once belonged to a murderer.
In post-war Europe, a diverse group of passengers aboard a U.S. Army train to bombed-out Frankfurt becomes involved in a Nazi assassination plot.
In Hungary, a rich baron discovers that there are extensive oil deposits underneath nearby properties owned by villagers. He manages to convince all the property owners to sell to him, except for a few properties owned by Jewish families. Infuriated at their refusal to sell to him, he attempts, with the help of some corrupt local police, to have the men charged with the murder of a local woman, who in reality actually committed suicide.
An adventurous young man goes off to find himself and loses his socialite fiancée in the process. But when he returns 10 years later, she will stop at nothing to get him back, even though she is already married.
During a dinner given by a wealthy baron and his wife, attended by four of her suitors in a 19th century German manor, a shadow-player rescues the marriage by giving all the guests a vision what might happen tonight if the baron stays jealous and the suitors do not reduce their advances towards his beautiful wife. Or was it a vision?
Deep in the forest lives the bitter Dr. Wislizenus, whose childhood sweetheart Maria committed suicide ten years ago. The visit of a childhood friend, he who wrote a poem about Mary, triggers a tragedy.
After a chance meeting at a train station, Henry and Stascha, unhappy with their circumstances, are determined to leave and be together.
In a poor neighborhood of a big city, a crippled mailman is in love with a maid who lives in his building. However, she is in love with a wealthy and handsome young man, who soon disappears. The mailman provides the maid with letters that get her hopes up... but tragedy will soon befall all three.
Musical retelling of the "Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves" Arabian Nights tale.
A young doctor gets stuck on a ship after treating an injured first mate. Later, he rescues a woman from plane wreckage, and with the help of the cook, he hides her away from the rowdy and dangerous crew.
In 1908, Sultan Abdul Hamid rules the Turkish Empire, but he is faced with the threat of revolt by the Young Turk party. He allows Hilmi Pasha, the leader of the Young Turks, to return from exile and form the country's first constitutional government. With tensions still growing, chief of police Kadar Pasha assassinates Hassan Bey, the leader of the Old Turk party, and makes it look as if a Young Turk committed the crime, in order to give Abdul an excuse for arresting the Young Turk leaders. Meanwhile, Abdul becomes infatuated with a visiting Austrian singer. When she rejects his advances, she endangers both herself and her fiancé, a Turkish officer who also knows who really shot Hassan Bey.
What Belongs to Darkness (German: Die Finsternis und ihr Eigentum) is a 1922 German silent drama film directed by Martin Hartwig and starring Karl Etlinger, Erra Bognar, and Fritz Kortner. The film's sets were designed by the art director Alfred Columbus.
Austrian actor Franz Huber, known for his impressions, is captured by the Gestapo and forced into plastic surgery to become Hitler's body double. Their plan is to poison Hitler and use Huber to take control of the Reich. Meanwhile, Huber's wife Anna sees her life coming undone as her husband has disappeared and her two sons are indoctrinated into the Hitler Youth.
The House on the Moon
When a reporter is killed under mysterious circumstances, the political cartoonist on his paper begins to investigate on his own. He finds that a vengeful industrialist may be trying to manipulate an international peace conference to stage a bombing attack on London.
A keen chronicle of the unlikely rise to power of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) and a dissection of the Third Reich (1933-1945), but also an analysis of mass psychology and how the desperate crowd can be deceived and shepherded to the slaughterhouse.
George Taylor returns from WWII with amnesia. Back home in Los Angeles, he tries to track down his old identity, stumbling into a 3-year old murder case and a hunt for a missing $2 million.
A psychological drama based on the popular Jekyll and Hyde theme involving a strict legal official. Based on the 1893 play "Der Andere" by Paul Lindau.
This pre-WW II German costume drama chronicles the French Revolution with a particular focus upon Danton, Robespierre, and Marat. It depicts the dramatic downfall and execution of Georges Danton in 1794 at the hands of Maximilien Robespierre. The film also presents an interesting, if not historically inaccurate, portrayal of Louis XVI.
In late nineteenth century Alfred Dreyfus, a French army officer of Jewish heritage, is falsely accused of espionage. Found guilty of treason he is drummed out of the army and sent to prison on Devil's Island.
Suspicion surrounds a lieutenant for killing his father; based on Dostoevsky's novel.
The film depicts the marriage between the mad Charles VI of France and his wife Queen Isabeau.
Professor Mauthner, after many years of exile (having emigrated in 1933 to the USA), returns to Germany in 1948. He can in fact return to his teaching post, but the rejection and petty intrigues of his reactionary colleagues and students make his work almost unbearable.
The reporter Peter Zabel stumbles upon the sinking of the luxury yacht Orplid in Hamburg on August 14, 1949. The ship went down with a wedding party run by artists on a pleasure trip from Hamburg to Scotland . In spite of good weather and no technical problems. Out of personal curiosity, Zabel starts researching. Could the sinking of Orplid have political reasons? A German political thriller and film noir inspired by Carol Reed's "The Third Man".
A melodrama about a painter who is infected with syphilis, refuses treatment, turns to the use instead of narcotics, and withers away.
The fate of a French aristocrat is revealed in this historical costume drama, who, in 1792, finds herself confronted with the choice of either standing with her peers or becoming a revolutionary.
This is the German-language version of the British film The Love Storm (1931).
Loosely based on the story of the singer Nellie Melba...
Arnold Horn, a young idealistic chemist, discovers a compound that can be used for the production of an effective deadly poisonous gas. Against his will the chemical factory starts production of the poison gas to increase the value of their shares.
A girl becomes an unwilling witness in her parents' scandalous divorce case.
Documentary about director Fritz Korner
A professor discovers a way to separate the soul from the body.
This is a real curiosity; at best a reasonable film, but also a charming little gem. There is a story (in the line of "A Star is Born"), but this merely serves as an excuse, as it is more importantly a kind of moving encyclopedia of about 35 stars making their debut in a talkie (although some of them had already made one talkie), of the technical sound possibilities and of film making. Besides all that, it is entertaining and sometimes hilarious and it has fine one-liners that split my side. The film is also remarkable for making mock of typical German film genres (like the overly sweet romances involving the military), of too heavy acting and of film making in general. I have to mention this one: a short, hysterically funny parody of "Der blaue Engel". What this film in fact says is: do not take any film too seriously. (J. Steed)
Two poor musicians rise from rags to riches. Money, fame and their love for the same woman begin to crumble their friendship, revealing the true natures of both men--one noble and kind, the other a greedy, ruthless beast.
A Nazi propaganda film made to promote anti-Semitism among the German people. Newly-shot footage of Jewish neighborhoods in recently-conquered Poland is combined with preexisting film clips and stills to defame the religion and advance Hitler's slurs that its adherents were plotting to undermine European civilization.
German expatriate Fritz Kortner plays the largest role, as an anti-Nazi schoolmaster who helps a downed American flyer (John Archer) reached Allied lines with vital war information. As usual, the Nazis are incredibly stupid and lead-footed, enabling the flyer to accomplish his mission.
A pharaonic tragedy to the content that spans six different eras. In the first episode, the emergence and dramatic end of the love story between the pharaoh's daughter Princess Amnertis and her beloved Tirhaka is told until the latter comes to a violent death. From this drama arises a curse, which in the following episodes has had far-reaching effects over the centuries. Everyone who possesses the skull of the long-lost pharaoh's daughter must die violently until the day the skull is sunk in the sea.
In 1915 during the First World War, a British secret agent is killed while stealing secret Turkish plans for the Gallipoli Campaign but manages to pass his information to an American journalist.
Mata Hari, die rote Tänzerin (English: Mata Hari: The Red Dancer), often shortened on release to Mata Hari, is a 1927 German silent drama film directed by Friedrich Feher and starring Magda Sonja, Wolfgang Zilzer and Fritz Kortner. It depicts the life and death of the German World War I spy Mata Hari. It was the first feature-length portrayal of Hari.
The young, dissolute Mathias, in conflict with his father, doesn't hesitate to set fire to his father's forge. When he returns to the farm after many years and falls unhappily in love with the maid Anna, Mathias stirs things up again...
The film traces the individual stages in the life of Ludwig van Beethoven.
Young peasant Paul's life is one of poverty and hardship from an early age. His lifelong struggle as he is forced to take on the responsibility of caring for his dysfunctional relatives prevents him from experiencing personal happiness, love, or a life for himself.
An exploration of the misery of youth. A student, his friends, and the girl he loves all suffer due to the harsh and unforgiving nature of the adults in their lives.
Just before wowing international critics and moviegoers with his adventure romp Fanfan la Tulipe, director Christian-Jaque dashed off the lampoonish Barbe-Bleue. Ostensibly the story of the famed wife-killing potentate Bluebeard (Pierre Brasseur), this lighthearted costumer begins as the title character is poised to march down the matrimonial aisle for the eighth time. Barbe-Bleue's newest spouse Aline (Cécile Aubry) is kept in line by her husband's claims of murdering her predecessors. But when Aline opens the famous locked door to the equally famous hidden room, both she and the audience are in for quite a surprise. The frivolous nature of Barbe-Bleue is underlined by its pleasing utilization of the French Gezacolor process.
Weltbrand is the first part of the two-part silent movie Christian Wahnschaffe.
This documentation of a Kortner stage rehearsal shows in detail and fascinatingly how Kortner developed psychological tensions with meticulous precision in linguistic expression and gestural construction.
In this sequel to the original story, Monte Cristo count Edmund Dantes (Martin Kosleck) returns to Paris to get revenge but soon finds himself pursued by a cruel policeman (John Loder). The count's brave wife Haydée (Lenore Aubert) throws the cop off her husband's scent by dressing up as the masked avenger herself and proving that she too is most competent with a sword.
Fritz Kortner performs a monologue.
A man is found dead on the small German island of Sylt. There is speculation that it may have been a murder, motivated by romantic jealousy. The man who is to be accused of the crime becomes despondent and aimless, abandoning his wife and children.
The Maharaja of Odhapur goes on a trip to Europe and meet the young dancer Ellen Esmond. In her London accommodation, the Savoy Hotel, the Indian prince can prove to be a gallant gentleman and protect Ellen from an intrusive theatrical agent. The Maharaja asks the artist to entertain his guests the following evening with her dancing skills, including England's representatives in India. The maharaja is thrilled with both the person Ellen and her dance performances. His brother Bhima, who was always in the shadow of the Maharajah, drinks excessively and also is also magically attracted to Ellen Esmond.
The Earl of Essex, a person favourite of the Queen, is in jeopardy of losing his relationship with the monarch after secretly marrying one of the Queen's ladies-in-waiting.
A three-part historical film: the first episode takes place in ancient Egypt, the second is based on the Hugo novel La Fin de Satan, and the third takes place during the 1917 Russian revolution. Lost film, minor fragments survive
Originally named "The Clairvoyant" presenting the many talents of parapsychologist Elsbeth Günther-Geffers. First banned, later extensively reworked.
Peter the Great, having become Tsar of Russia, using his shipbuilding knowledge acquired in a foreign country to establish a navy, and being able to use it, provokes a war with Sweden, defeating that country at the Battle of Poltava. This battle marks a turning point between Peter and Russia. His only son turns out to be a coward, meets a refugee girl and makes her his Empress, alienating himself from the church and many nobles. All these factors lead to a conspiracy...
German-language version. "Atlantic" is a drama film based on the sinking of the RMS "Titanic" and set aboard a fictional ship, called the "Atlantic". The main plotline revolves around a man who has a shipboard affair with a fellow passenger, which is eventually discovered by his wife. The ship also has aboard an elderly couple, Heinrich and Anna Thomas, who are on their anniversary cruise. Midway across the Atlantic Ocean, the "Atlantic" strikes an iceberg and is damaged to the point where it is sinking into the Atlantic. The German version was filmed at the same time as the British version, with each scene first being filmed in English for the British version, then the same scene being filmed in German by a German cast, using the same sets.
Filmed in Austria for the hundredth anniversary of Beethoven's death, this 1927 silent film tells the story of the German genius' eventful emotional life. Presented in a restored version and with rearranged music, a biopic to be savored with ears wide open.
When Professor Horski learns that his wife has published a volume of novellas under his name entitled "Wife" he feels compromised and is angered at her. But as he reads them, he finds that they are great. Also, he reads in them a warning to himself: one should not neglect one's wife for the sake of academic work. The film is considered to be lost.
Two couples arrived to the village where an old legend of a ghost with the deadly kiss circulates in.
The Hitler Gang adopts the style of a gangster film as it charts Adolf Hitler’s rise from small-time politico to dictator of Germany.
A man tries to find the true culprit when his friend is accused of murdering a moneylender.
At the height of Reign of Terror Maximilien Robespierre orchestrates the trial and execution of several of his fellow leading French revolutionaries including Georges Danton.