It's Friday evening. The lift repairman leaves the building and wants to finish his work on Monday. But he doesn't know there are four men in the building. They use the lift but stay in it about 100 meters from the floor. They have little oxygen and must survive…
A series of murders eliminates the poverty-stricken heirs to a 10 million-dollar fortune while Didi Dodel, the unsuspecting main heir, blithely escapes the attempts on his life. After a wealthy miser dies and leaves his fortune to Didi and five others, the five each hit upon the idea of eliminating Didi from the list (Didi does not know he has been named), but they do not realize how fate can step in and alter the best and worst of intentions.
A London slasher pack the suitcases of his victims before stabbing them to death in this adaptation of Edgar Wallace's 'Secret of the Black Suitcases.'
During the Cold War, an American scientist appears to defect to East Germany as part of a cloak and dagger mission to find the formula for a resin solution—but the plan goes awry when his fiancee, unaware of his motivation, follows him across the border.
A drama that illustrates a few days at a busy Hamburg police station.
Fu Manchu abducts a missionary doctor and forces him to surgically turn one of his hypnotized dacoits into a murderous doppelgänger of his arch-nemesis Inspector Nayland Smith of Scotland Yard as, part of a plan to become leader of the World's criminals
A serial killer who calls himself "The Laughing Corpse" dresses up in a skeleton costume and kills his victims with a poison-filled scorpion-shaped ring.
Small time crook Napoleone falls into an unlikely gang made up of a gangster, called The Baron, and his two cohorts, Agonia and The Captain, where Napoleone takes them to Rome where they shack up with a shady used car dealer caled Il Cajella to help finance their new life of crime by planing to rob a statue from the Vatican. But a big-time American gangster, named Joe Ventura, hears about the heist and wants the priceless statue for himself by having his mistress, Samantha, come onto and betray the woman-hungry Cajella to give the statue away to her.
The story of the last days of Austrian farmer Franz Jägerstätter (1907-43), who was executed by the Nazi regime because of his refusal to compromise with a perverse system.
Although the new head of the cultural department is trying his best and wants to spice up city life in terms of culture, neither the new musical nor a play bring the desired success at the City Theatre.
An Englishman in Holland gets involved in a murder case. It looks bad for him, but the wily Inspector Van Der Valk isn't convinced of his guilt.
London crime reporter Barney Blair has an appointment in his office with Janosch Kovac, the hotel detective at the Hotel Atlanta in San Remo. The informant wants to sell Blair some explosive background material, but it doesn't get that far because the man is stabbed to death beforehand. Blair goes to the hotel, where the film and music festival is currently taking place, to investigate the case himself and soon senses a big story.
A very stylized TV version of the Fassbinder play. The set consists of a few pieces of furniture in front of a large screen on which coastal scenery is back projected. Geesche is a nineteenth-century woman who wants to have a mind of her own. She defies convention and will do anything to achieve her freedom from oppression by her family and friends.
Shots are suddenly fired at a rally. A young man is arrested from the crowd. During questioning, he claims to have acted alone in order to make a statement. His court-appointed lawyer, Landau, suspects that his client is not telling him the truth. He begins to investigate the motives behind the crime and discovers that the boy is under the influence of extremist circles and ideas. But Landau cannot prove this influence of hatred and violence...
A black comedy about a female author of crime novels who becomes a victim of a macabre hoax.
Three female schoolteachers head down to a small village which has a small army detail. The village is raided for by bandits and the teachers are taken along to the bandits' camp.
In this intricately plotted crime comedy, Johannes Heesters plays the worldly insurance detective Peter Holm, who is determined to apprehend jewel thief Robert Makaroff. To this end, Holm travels to Copenhagen, where the Hungarian actress Lilly Hegedüsch is staying at a luxury hotel with her rare jewelry. While Holm is searching for Makaroff, Jenny, the sleuthing daughter of Holm's boss, arrives in Copenhagen. Since Jenny doesn't know her secret admirer Holm, numerous mix-ups and suspicions ensue before the rival detectives become lovers.
During a cattle drive, Don McGow leaves the herd in charge of his younger brother and rides off. When the herd is reported stolen he blames himself and goes in search of the thieves.
Vienna 1965. While visiting the Wax Museum a group of tourists stop in front of the figure of Prince Metternich. All of a sudden they find themselves brought back 150 years earlier during the Vienna Congress of 1814-1815. Before their eyes wide open, history is in the making. Gathered around the Tsar of Russia, Alexander I, the Kings of Bavaria, Würtemberg, Prussia and Denmark, are persuaded they are building the future Europe whereas they are being manipulated by foxy Chancellor Metternich, he himself under the thumb of cynical Count Talleyrand, the French representative. All those considerations come second though to partying and social life, which is all these aristocrats really want out of this congress.
The film depicts the fate of the residents of an apartment block in Prague’s Jewish quarter following the invasion by German troops in 1939. Among them is an elderly widow who had once disowned her son and now wishes to bring him to Brazil; there are also the owners of a stationery shop, who are driven to ruin by the German occupiers. The caretaker Glaser, who is of German descent, also comes under pressure when his son is arrested in a communist pub. To save his own skin, he informs on two young people who are active in the resistance.
When a vacationing couple in Tangiers runs into an old friend there, they discover that he is searching for his missing girlfriend who has been kidnapped by an international gang of white slavers.
An actress and her lawyer husband are so busy that their maid becomes the real mother to their six year old boy and at one point causes consternation by taking the child away to her home village.
Klaus murders women. After killing another girl, Klaus is spotted by his friend Kersten as he leaves his latest victim's house. Kersten gives him a ride and Klaus begins to plot the man's death. He's a witness, after all. Nobody else can say Klaus was there except Kersten. They decide to head to a party. Klaus' unhappy wife is there. So are a bunch of other people. Killing Kersten will be difficult. Then they all play a game called... Murder Party!
A villager is tempted by a sophisticated city woman and almost kills his wife in a boating accident.
Persuaded by Lysistrata, the women of Athens agree to withdraw all sexual favours from the men until the men agree to end to war with Sparta.
This bizarre comedy demonstrates - as a convincing example - how TV-commercials may be produced, sacrificing extensive amounts of money, bottomless creativity and even human life without any respect right to the finish.
Three men plot to assassinate the dictator of their country, but their plan fails and one of them is captured and imprisoned. Even after considerable torture and interrogation, the revolutionary maintains his silence as to the names of his accomplices. Soon he is killed, though no one seems to know who is responsible for his death. Four years later another regime has been established, and a former inmate of the dead revolutionary finds himself in a position of power. He now intends to find out who was responsible for the man's death. After this German tale first took the form of a radio play and then a stage production, character actor Peter Carsten decided to produce this film version.
A thief gets hold of some top secret papers and is chased around Europe by the sinister Organisation.
A baby is delivered to the Hamilton family, triggering a turbulent search for those responsible among six potential fathers.
A Saxon village in 1792: While the Prussians go against France, the haymaking takes place in the village and the resolute Marthe catches her daughter Ev with the village blacksmith Ruprecht in the hay.
As a painter in the court of King Carlos IV, Goya has attained wealth and reputation. He believes in King and Church, yet he is also a Spaniard who dearly loves his people. This contradiction presents him with a dilemma.
A renowned physician falls under scrutiny when it's discovered his assistant is a former Nazi.
A top-level meeting of the Eastern secret services is taking place in Prague. Martin, an agent who knows all the tricks of the trade, is tasked with obtaining the minutes of the conference for the West German intelligence service. And he does so via Zimra, his former lover. She is now the right-hand woman of the GDR intelligence chief. A life-threatening assignment, but Martin accepts it. His condition: Zimra is to be taken to the West. The ageing West German spy chief accepts. He has only one goal in mind: to finally defeat his opponent in the East. He coldly plans to use Martin and Zimra for his purposes...
Adaptation of Tolstoy story in which a female pianist is the center of a struggle between her husband and his violinist cousin ,a struggle that leads to a tragic conclusion.
Dr. Barbara Heim, a heart surgeon, and Gunter Heim, a well-known actor, have been married for seven years. They have a six-year-old daughter. Both partners are totally taken up by their work which is physically and mentally demanding. So there is little time left for family life and the strained relations worsen and finally plunge Barbara into a crisis - shortly before their seventh wedding anniversary. At this very point a child dies in hospital, prompting Barbara to ask herself in desperation if - and for how long she can put up with the double burden of career and family. On top of this, she notices that Gunter is starting to compare her to other women.
Christof Peleikis is a seasoned sailor who once served as a helmsman on many ships. Since having a wife and child, he works as a fisherman and lives in a small village. When a ship gets into trouble off the coast one day, Christof rushes to its aid. He manages to save the ship and its crew, but one of the helmsmen is killed. Christof is eventually persuaded by the alluring captain's wife, Evelyn, to take the man's place. Without saying goodbye to his family, he sets sail...
East Germany's contribution to the 1957 Cannes Film Festival was the wartime melodrama Betrogen bis zum Juengsten Tag. Had the film been released in the U.S., the title would probably have translated to Duped Till the Last. The film condemns the Nazi mindset by concentrating on a particularly odious cover-up. When his son is involved in the accidental killing of a girl, a Gestapo general pulls strings to save the boy from prosecution. The general manages to pin the blame for the killing on a group of Russians, whereupon he gives the men under his command carte blanche to round up and execute as many innocent Russians as they wish. This act of brutality is contrasted with the pangs of guilt suffered by the son and his co-conspirators.
A comet drops from the sky and causes a stir in Cadiz, Spain. A nihilistic drunk called Nada announces that very bad things are imminent. A herald gives orders that it is punishable to mention the comet.
The supposedly naive owner of the castle, Louise Strothmann von Auerheim, advertises that the entire family estate is for sale. This not only attracts the attention of her money-hungry relatives, but also a whole host of potential buyers, from porn factory owners to a retirement home company.
History of a Jewish family, the Oppermanns, in Berlin at the end of 1932, after Hitler has become the leader of Germany's strongest political party.
Women are being sent to an all male settlement. The marriages are planned in advance, but not everything goes according to plan.
Russia, 1905. Tuvia is the only Jew living in the village of Antevka. He is very poor but things change when, as a token of gratitude for a service rendered, he is given a cow and some food. Now, his wife, his seven daughters and himself have access to a better life. Tuvia sells his milk and his butter. Moreover, he is now able to give his daughters a dowry and marry them. But you can't buy happiness...
1944: Geneviève and René live in occupied Paris. They love each other, and the young woman looks fearfully at René's activities in the Resistance. She wants to stay out of it, and sometimes there are arguments about it. After one such argument, René goes to a meeting with a German comrade. While he is away, the Gestapo come to the house to take the resistance fighter Louise away. Geneviève intervenes and is arrested. The men of the resistance are very worried as she knows about a planned bridge demolition. René trusts her, and Geneviève does indeed withstand the torture. The bridge can be blown up as planned, contributing to a decisive defeat for the German army.
The underage Rosemarie is still too young to run her inherited farm by herself; but she's more than aware that her foster father and the farm's administrator, the farmer Schlieker, is constantly skimming from the farm's finances to line his own pocket. To put an end to Schlieker's scheme, Rosemarie asks her godfather, Professor Kittgus, for help. But when Kittgus confronts Schlieker, the farmer not only proves to be unreasonable but also violent...
A bank security expert plots with a call girl to rob the safety deposit boxes of three very different criminals from a high-tech bank in Hamburg.
German TV comedy.
Cincinnatus C., a thirty-year-old teacher, has been found guilty of the crime "gnostical turpitude", and will be executed in twenty days' time.
"A Guru Comes" - A failed opera singer rises to the leader of a new religious community. Satirical film about the new religious movements of the 1970s and 1980s.
A man takes in three a dog and three runaway girls.
The FBI sends agents to Jamaica to investigate arms smuggling to revolutionaries in Santo Domingo.
Film adaptation of the last part of Martin Walser's "Kristlein Trilogy": After the perpetually failing intellectual Anselm Kristlein had to make a living as a sales representative and advertising copywriter in "Halbzeit" and became a writer in "Das Einhorn" (filmed in 1977 by Peter Patzak), he now tries his hand as the owner of a pinball arcade in Munich, loses his wife's fortune, and returns to Lake Constance in a chaotic state of mind.
A diligent office worker and a cheeky sales representative are tasked by their boss with reserving a first-class hotel room with a bathroom for a visiting Hamburg exporter and his wife. A misunderstanding leads to non-stop confusion, because the office worker is spending his first wedding anniversary with his wife in the rented hotel room.
The authorities expect the case of Friedel Walter, alias "Dr. Mueller," to be a straightforward one: he was working as a doctor without proper credentials under a false name. But Mehlin, the man in charge of his case, knows that there is more to the story. When he was injured fleeing from a concentration camp, resistance worker Irene asked her medical student boyfriend Walter to give him medical care.
A gay man lives with a lonely old lady in a demolished house in Berlin. One day the old lady's daughter stands in front of the door and wants to bring her mother home.
A young woman inherits a massive industrial empire that starts a feud with her relatives.
Dutch police officer Van der Valk is pulled away for a private investigation for a friend of the chief of police to find the missing junior manager. When he gets to know his woman, he is fascinated by the thought of running away with her.
Hermann Krullmüller wants to wallpaper. He refuses the help of the housemaid's boyfriend, and of course everything goes wrong. His son Paulchen, who is always in the way, and the silly, giggling housemaid add to the general confusion.
When Sir John Falstaff decides that he wants to have a little fun he writes two letters to a pair of Window wives: Mistress Ford and Mistress Page. When they put their heads together and compare missives, they plan a practical joke or two to teach the knight a lesson. But Mistress Ford's husband is a very jealous man and is pumping Falstaff for information of the affair. Meanwhile the Pages' daughter Anne is besieged by suitors.