A scientist, Professor Jakob ten Brinken, interested in the laws of heredity, impregnates a prostitute in a laboratory with the semen of a hanged murderer. The prostitute conceives a female child who has no concept of love, whom the professor adopts. The girl, Alraune, suffers from obsessive sexuality and perverse relationships throughout her life. She learns of her unnatural origins and she avenges herself against the professor.
As a young couple stops and rests in a small village inn, the man is abducted by Death and is sequestered behind a huge doorless, windowless wall. The woman finds a mystic entrance and is met by Death, who tells her three separate stories set in exotic locales, all involving circumstances similar to hers.
Out of love for his adoptive mother, Carl Brenner allows himself to be accused and imprisoned because of an illegal operation carried out by Doctor Stefan Brenner, the legitimate son of Mrs. Brenner. A few years later, Stefan died of alcoholism and Carl made a name for himself under his name.
A Czarist courier has to get across the Siberia frontier, threatened by Tartar invaders and a treacherous Russian helping them. Strogoff encounters several colorful characters along the way. German language version of the French film Michel Strogoff, adapting the novel by Jules Verne.
If watching a fellow facing indifference/rejection in the slums of Berlin didn't convey enough pathos, Gerhard Lamprecht gathered much of the same crew from Die Verrufenen and turned his attention to the city's population of unwanted children for the heart-tugging Die Unehelichen, released the following year. The trio of foster children at the center of Die Verrufenen are survivors who use their own resourcefulness to get by when the kids' guardians and the system itself let them down.
A Russian officer rescues the wanted anarchist Vera Maretskaja. A romance arises between them, but the secret police arrests the officer in a restaurant and expels him to Siberia on charges of aiding the revolutionaries.
The gorgeous 40-year-old Elsie Lindtner lives in a beautiful house, and is married to a respectable university professor. And yet, there’s something that nags her. She’s about to reach “the dangerous age”, when beauty begins to fade and boredom kicks in. She falls in love with a younger man and divorces her husband, but ends up hiding away in a country house where she can age in secret. (Stumfilm.dk)
The Ethiopian King offers his daughter to a powerful Pharaoh to secure peace between the two countries.
Carmine Gallone and Amleto Palermi’s The Last Days of Pompeii 1926 stages in sumptuous colour tinting the epic fall of the ancient city buried by Mount Vesuvius’ eruption. Adapted from Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s love story, the film was innovative in its special effects and an early major box-office hit. A beautiful tinted restoration print was prepared using photochemical processes by Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia-Cineteca Nazionale in the mid-1990s and the premiere screening of the restoration print was held in the amphitheatre in Pompeii, followed by a screening at the major restoration festival ‘Il Cinema Ritrovato’ in Bologna in 1998.
The film focuses on the leadership of the Great Powers of Europe in the days leading up to the outbreak of the First World War.
In 1812, during the French period, large parts of Germany are occupied by the troops of Napoleon. Several paramilitary Freikorps units battle the French forces, among them the Black Brunswickers led by the 'Black Duke' Frederick William of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. After the War of the Fifth Coalition, the Black Hussars are pursued by Napoleon throughout the country, but frequently take refuge with the noble-minded German people.
Vanina loves rebel leader Octavio, who gets caught. He gets a pardon and marries Vanina. When he is captured again, Vanina helps him to escape prison. They are both caught, and after his execution she dies from grief.
Romantic pursuits seem to end only in tragedy at the Royal Circus where three men fall for the trapeze artist Ziska.
It was not just the children who were treated badly by the wealthy Weimar republic. Robert Kramer is released from prison but struggles to adjust to civilian life. His father disowns him, his wife has left him for another man. There is no work. He eventually arrives in a shelter for the homeless, and seeks salvation through Emma, a prostitute.
A millionaire steals an ancient idol causing some natives call upon him a terrible curse.
Depression musical comedy about an unemployed barber who pretends to be a wealthy automobile magnate.
This epic adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo was directed by Henri Fescourt, and stars Jean Angelo, Lil Dagover, Pierre Batcheff, the beautiful Marie Glory, and Bernhard Goetzke as the Abbé Faria.
In the very old-fashioned town of Ostend suddenly 13 suitcases are delivered to the Grand Hotel, with a note, that O.F. will be here soon and needs 6 rooms. This event, probably the biggest in 300 years, starts a small wave of modernisation, yet everybody is wondering who O.F. is.
Country Dr. Robert Koch is desperate: a tuberculosis epidemic is decimating the children in his district and no one is able to do anything about it. Every fourth child is already sick and the parents must helplessly watch as their young ones die. Now Koch is undertaking to find the cause of the tuberculosis --- something he has already been working on for years --- which has been causing this plague of illness. His work is made more difficult by envy; for example, that of his teacher, who was wounded defending his honor. But his greatest obstacle is the famous Berliner scientist and Reichstag deputy, Privy Councilor Rudolf Virchow: He is extraordinarily skeptical of Koch's theory, that the cause for tuberculosis is a bacteria.
Maria Sinclair, the wife of the British consul, is about to visit her husband when she is arrested by the Chinese. General Hai Lung, who is in charge, offers to give her husband his life if she would promise to stay with him instead.
Moritz Stiefel faces expulsion due to poor marks. When he is caught with an essay titled “Shame and Lust”, he is indeed kicked out – instead of classmate Melchior Gabor, who actually penned it. Gabor was drawing on his experiences with neighbourhood girl Wendla. Then Wendla turns up pregnant. Stiefel descends into despair ... Exploitation between Eros and Thanatos in this “sexual tragedy of youth” based on Frank Wedekind’s play. Setting the film in the 1920s provided a chance to explore “modern” youth culture, complete with cigarettes, jazz music, the gramophone, and a goodly bit of alcohol. Richard Oswald, a master of films of manners and young sex beginning in the 1910s, fully explores the temptations of the youthful body, even early childhood flirtatiousness. At the same time, with his target audience in mind, the film laments the bigotry and double standards of the adult world.
In Calcutta, McAllan meets the beautiful Indian woman Malatti, with whom he immediately falls in love. The engineer quickly neglects his professional obligations and follows her. After some complications, the two of them finally get closer at her home, even if Malatti's father Badhama rejects this connection. Badhama only agrees to the planned marriage when he learns how wealthy this white man must be. After some time, McAllan returns to his large construction site, where things are going haywire. Many workers die in an explosion, and McAllan is now liable with his fortune. As a result, the engineer, who became impoverished overnight, suddenly becomes uninteresting for Malatti's father as a son-in-law, especially since with a solvent Japanese man who offers a lot of money for his daughter's hand,
Malatti's father has unexpectedly survived the fall from the train and now vows to take cruel revenge on McAllan. In Lhasa, the old capital of Tibet, seat of the Dalai Lama and at the same time a "forbidden city" for all foreigners, there is another dramatic encounter between the engineer and Badhama. In a dark dungeon, he thinks he recognizes McAllan and tries to stab the man he holds responsible for all the misfortune. He does not realize who he is stabbing, killing his own daughter in the process. The Dalai Lama's servants arrest Badhama and throw him in the dungeon. Malatti's father is sentenced to death, while McAllan sees the light of day again and is released.
The old man and McAllan then got into a physical altercation on the roof of a train that was moving at full speed, in which Malatti's father fell. McAllan assumes that his adversary died in the process. When a gang of rogue robbers board the train, McAllan's life doesn't seem worth a damn anymore. But then, almost out of nowhere, his faithful servant Lubzang appears and saves his master's life at the last moment. Malatti, also on board, falls into the clutches of the gang and is sent to Tibet by the sinister fellowsabducted to be offered as a sacrifice to the goddess Bhawani. However, a kind-hearted member of the gang of robbers takes pity on her and helps the exotic beauty to escape. A little later, Malatti meets Lubzang, who has meanwhile broken away from his master McAllan. He takes her with him.
Nazi historical drama about Duke Karl Alexander of Württemberg and his treasurer Süß Oppenheimer.
A biographical film of Otto von Bismarck, the Prime Minister of Prussia, and how he and his policies - including aggressive war - helped to unite Germany.
The demonic Rasputin is poisoned but survives to continue seducing in evil ways, in this historical thriller.
A detective falls for a Japanese girl living with her uncle and cousin. When the girl's uncle is murdered, the detective must find out who killed him.
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.
A French violinist saves his beloved princess from the Russian revolution..
A Japanese doctor, on a secret mission to Paris for his country, becomes romantically involved with a cabaret singer at a Parisian nightclub. His entire mission is put at risk when he kills a rival for her love, a French journalist and blackmailer. (This film was a heavily re-shot 76 minute version of the 1933 film Typhoon but with a dramatically altered plot from the original where the Japanese are now portrayed as unsympathetic villains. The new version was approved by German censors and released in 1934 although its critical reception was poor. It is possible that Wiene, who had left for Budapest in 1933 following the Nazi rise to power, did not personally work on the new version). From Wikipedia.
The story of Madame du Barry, the mistress of Louis XV of France, and her loves in the time of the French revolution.
Prussian King Frederick II was keen to hire the dancer Barberina, who had already enjoyed great success in Italy and England, for the Berlin opera house.
Lavish adaptation of Wilhelm Hauff′s fairy tale: Young charburner Peter Munk dreams of joining the upper class. He makes a deal with the sinister Holländer-Michel, who offers to trade Peter′s human heart for one made of stone. Once he has the "cold heart" in his body, Peter eventually strikes a fortune and enjoys great wealth, but at the same time, he becomes a bitter and emotionless man – and, having lost all traces of humanity, even murders his wife Lisbeth. Only then does Peter Munk finally realize what has become of him, and he decides to regain his real heart from Holländer-Michel.
Film by Andersen.
Film by Heuberger.
Film by Georg Jacoby.
Siegfried, son of King Siegmund of Xanten, travels to Worms, capital of the Burgundian kingdom, to ask King Gunther for the hand of his sister, the beautiful Kriemhild.
In a transport museum, the items on display begin to tell their stories. Most interesting is the history of the Pullman car. In the beginning, it served as transport for a princely family; then became the headquarters car for the military high command; and then, most adventurous of all, it ended up with a circus. Converted to a bar, it finally had its day and was supposed to serve as a placard carrier. Luckily, the museum saved it from this sad fate.
Ayan, Maharajah of Eschnapur, believes that his wife, Princess Savitri, has been unfaithful to him with officer Mac Allan. He decides to bury her alive, so he sends the Yogi Ramigani to England to look for Herbert Rowland, an architect; but when he orders him to build a tomb, Rowland refuses.
Rowland falls sick with leprosy while Mac Allan is captured by the Maharajah, who offers Irene a deal: one night with him in exchange for letting Rowland to be cured. She accepts, but tries to commit suicide.
"Truth Wins" - A history film that is particularly elaborate in terms of its features and that attempts to illustrate the perpetual victory of the truth about the lie in three epic episodes.
The film is based on real events and reveals the tragic episodes from the life of the Austrian biologist scientist-materialist Paul Kammerer (1880-1926), hunted by regressive scientists and Catholic reactionaries who committed suicide.
"Guilty" - Thomas Feld returns home after 16 years in prison to find his wife Magda and daughter Maria fell in the hands of Peter Cornelius, the owner of a cabaret. Lawyer Frank Peters falls in love with Maria.
In 18th century Europe, King Friedrich II of Prussia leads his army through the seven-years-war with neighboring states, and after numerous near defeats, eventually brings a victorious army back to Berlin.
A demon, a reaper, and the ghost of a prostitute read gothic short stories and act them out.
The Czar charges a man to deliver a message to the Grand Duke behind enemy lines. On his way he encounters a number of adventures.
The director and co-writer Lupu Pick plays musician Erik Paulsson, who loses his beloved son after a peaceful yet critical poetry reading is raided by the tsarist forces. Paulsson, beside himself with grief, kills the officer responsible and is sentenced to life, which will mean 18 years in prison before he is free again. While he is inside, by a strange quirk of fate, his daughter Karin falls in love with writer Sebald Brückner, the son of the state prosecutor, who indicted Paulsson and is a staunch advocate of the death penalty. The conflict between the fathers does not impair the relationship of the young couple. However, when Sebald’s long-desired success on the stage is threatened by a vengeful theatre director who had sexually harassed Karin, he is enraged and kills the other man in a fight. The prosecutor now must face the blow of losing his own son to the death penalty.
When Kriemhild, thirsty for revenge, marries to Etzel, king of the Huns, she invites King Gunther and his court to visit them, intending to finally take the life of the man responsible of her disgrace.
Gabriela Farnese, a famous singer, visits Bombay to find her mysterious doppelganger, the dancer Concha.
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...
Dr. Mabuse and his organization of criminals are in the process of completing their latest scheme, a theft of information that will allow Mabuse to make huge profits on the stock exchange. Afterwards, Mabuse disguises himself and attends the Folies Bergères show, where Cara Carozza, the main attraction of the show, passes him information on Mabuse's next intended victim, the young millionaire Edgar Hull. Mabuse then uses psychic manipulation to lure Hull into a card game where he loses heavily. When Police Commissioner von Wenk begins an investigation of this mysterious crime spree, he has little to go on, and he needs to find someone who can help him.
A Saracen sultan's disguised son loves an amnesiac Moslem princess.
Prosecutor Leander is known for his heavy-handed and unyielding pleadings, demanding draconian punishments, often even the death penalty, for every accused offender. One day, he will experience first-hand how complex some legal assessments can be. Love and passion, hatred and jealousy can drive even the most righteous people to actions they would never normally commit. Therefore, not everyone who commits a crime is necessarily a criminal.
In the Kentucky hills, a schoolteacher becomes caught in a bitter feud between a widower, his crippled son, and a reclusive hermit. Accusations and jealousy drive her into hiding, leading to love and revenge. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, this 1926 romantic drama is now considered lost and remains one of the BFI’s most sought-after missing films.
Crime film based on Nikolaus Lenau's poem "Die Marionetten."
The last and only surviving silent film by director and actor Yevgeny Chervyakov. The film adaptation is distinguished by the accuracy of the psychological characteristics of the numerous characters (Chervyakov himself played the episodic role of an officer magnificently), the detail of everyday sketches of life in Germany and Russia, and the conveyance of the atmosphere of the events of the First World War and the Civil War. Parts 3 and 5 of the film have been lost.
The story of the Renaissance-era Swiss physician, alchemist and astrologer Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, better known to the world as Paracelsus.