Carl Froelich
As the title "The Queen's Heart" suggests, this early German black and white version of Mary Queen of Scott's eventful reign and death focuses on her emotional perception rather lyrically, with some songs, mainly by her.
1865. Katharina goes to a ball in Moscow. There she meets again Tchaikowsky, her first and only love. The young, who is now married to wealthy Michael Iwanowitsch Murakin, a man she does not love, has not forgotten Piotr Illich, the (not yet) famous composer. Both are still in love with each other but Piotr is engaged to Nastassia, a dancer, while for her part Katharina cannot leave her husband. Tchaikowky's first love then decides to sacrifice her happiness to the success of the composer, sponsoring him in secret. Something Piotr will learn only years after. When Katharina finds herself free at last it is too late: Tchaikowsky is dying of cholera and she only has time to close his eyes.
The story of a beautiful, vivacious gypsy girl and the two doomed men who fall for her.
Four graduates of an industrial design school team up and form a small business. The protagonist is so excited by the venture that she turns down the proposal of her dashing instructor. Time passes and her three partners lose interest in the business for different reasons. This leaves the heroine who has a change of heart and decides to forgo the business and marry the instructor after all.
In 1885, famous New York Metropolitan Opera singer Maddalena dall' Orto is scheduled to perform at a festival in the German residence of Ilmingen. It soon becomes obvious that she is non other than Magda von Schwartze, who left the town eight years ago against her father's wishes to become a singer.
Gabriele Bordersen, a woman from a good home, wants to see what real life is like among the common folk. With her stewardess Fanny Flint and the tour guide Simikry, she goes off to visit a sailors' bar. Fanny and Gabriele change clothes, which allows the stewardess to introduce herself as a fine lady. When Gabriele asks Fanny to leave with her, Fanny begs her to give her an hour more out of fear of embarrassment. Gabriele, however, is thrown out of the bar by the owner without money and papers; is picked up by the cops; and suffers a nervous breakdown, leading to her being sent to a hospital. No one believes in the slightest that she's really Gabriele Brodersen.
This film is a fascinating showcase for Emil Janning's theatrical play. He's a gentle school teacher who believes in his boys and is easily fooled about all things, while the other town officials want him dismissed. Curiously it's very hard to see what the film is exactly aiming for. Disaster strikes and the lax prof proves to be too far removed of the real problems of the world, on the other hand his enemies are shown in the most unsympathetic, satirical way denouncing the militaristic, bourgeois ideology of the Kaiserreich.
The jealous star conductor Montemayor knows that his beautiful younger wife, Winifred, is cheating on him with an American named Jack Mortimer. After the concert rehearsal, he takes a taxi to the train station, sees Mortimer and shoots him at an intersection from the backseat of his taxi. The shot is not heard during the traffic noise. The taxi driver, Sponer, sitting in his car with the now-dead Mortimer, goes into a panic.
The story of the rise to power of King Frederick II (aka "Frederick the Great") of Prussia of his military campaigns to make Prussia a major power in Europe.
A psychological study of three girls who enter a boys' school to prepare for their final examination.
Several inhabitants of a big appartment building get involved in a series of lawsuits.
The title of this heavily plotted German melodrama translates as "This One or None". Gitta Alpar stars as Eve, whose emotions are torn between two European princes, lifelong rivals who happen to be brothers. Eve prefers the nicer of the two princes, but this doesn't stop the other from aggressively stepping up his courtship. When the less agreeable of the two monarches takes control of the throne, he orders Eve to make an immediate choice between himself and his brother. Though old-fashioned in concept and execution, "Die - oder keine" benefitted from the charming presence of Gitta Alper.
A bank employee who stole money at work falls in the hands of a dangerous escaped convict whose girlfriend is going to help him out of this mess.
A sensitive girl is sent to an all-girls boarding school and develops a romantic attachment to one of her teachers. One of the earliest narrative films to explicitly portray homosexuality. Based on "Gestern und Heute" by German playwright Christa Winsloe.
It begins with a Tannhäuser performance and ends with the premiere of The Tales of Hoffmann. In between a young ingénue cast in her first big role, the Hoffmann rehearsals, the theatre director and his stage director exchanging cynicisms, a budding love affair. Gründgens at his most repulsive, trying to woo both lovers. And a hair-raising finale. Add to this some snappy dialogue and "pre-code" scenes that make you sit up and stare.
On the surface a straightforward tale of the search for a buried treasure, the film is a textbook example of German expressionism, with the passions of the protagonists conveyed as much through symbolism as action.
Andreas Rellnow decides to leave his troubled parents and pursue an artistic career. As a violin virtuoso, he quickly became popular and a first-class heart-breaker.
Two French spies, Baron d’Aubigny and Clemence de Montignon, blackmail German engineer Günther Ellinghaus with his gambling debts into handing over his construction plans for the new Ikarus engine. He flees to New York and works as a waiter. When World War I breaks, he signs on as a fireman on a Dutch ship and returns to Europe. He becomes a fighter pilot in Germany and faces the former spies as his enemies. After an emergency landing he is taken into their headquarters. He escapes an attempted murder and fights his enemies in an air battle. Both of them survive and after the war Ellinghaus offers them his hand in reconciliation.
On 2 December 1805 Napoleon Bonaparte succeed in the glorious "Three Emperors" at Austerlitz, the Austrian Empire to defeat. Condition of the peace treaty is the surrender of the country Tyrol to the French... Only 40 of the film's original 70 minutes remain.
The story of the great German composer, from his childhood through his great triumphs in orchestral and operatic music.
Klara and her father have been alone since her mother died. Her close friend Hans leaves for the military, and on returning as a fine young man, rushes to see Klara. As their families work to keep them apart, their love grows stronger and stronger.
A friend sacrifices himself, taking the blame for a murder upon himself. A guilty conscience will end up killing the real culprit.
