Walter Steinbeck
This little-known German film retells the true story of the British ocean liner that met a tragic fate. Ernst Fritz Fürbringer plays the president of the White Star Line, who unwisely pressed the Titanic's captain (Otto Wernicke) to make the swiftest possible crossing to New York. Interestingly, director Herbert Selpin was arrested by the Gestapo during this film's production, and German censors banned the film for its scenes of panic and terror.
A retired rail official and his wife Amalie purchase a disused railroad wagon to convert it into a villa in the countryside. One day, Amalie discovers 25,000 Marks hidden behind a picture in the rail car. The money was put there by a Dutch couple, who tried to smuggle the money across the border during the train’s last journey. Sorely tempted to keep the money, Amalie turns it over to the authorities. The smugglers, who finally find the rail car after a long search, will be turned over to the cops, too.
Remake of the silent film of 1921: The lord of a castle disappears after the return of two feuding brothers from a noble family. Suspicion falls on the recently returned brothers.
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 wintry mountainscapes of Bavaria provide the backdrop for this airy German comedy. The story is set in motion when young clerk Boenecke (Richard Romanowsky) accidentally delivers a check to the wrong bank. Boenecke's boss Schumann (Walter Steinbeck) suspects the clerk of embezzlement -- especially since our hero has taken off on an extended Alpine vacation with his sweetheart Hilde (Magda Schneider). Before this comic chain reaction can be straightened out, hero and heroine have become entangled with a gang of female pickpockets. Essentially a "moonlight and strudel" confection, Winterachtstraum was perfect escapist entertainment for Magda Schneider's legions of fans.
Consul Petersen and his wife are desperate, because they lost their only child and can’t have another. At the same time, the maid Anna is expecting a child, whose father, Jurgen, works in a sawmill. When both of them lose their jobs, they fear they won’t be able to feed the newborn. Thus, they strike a deal with the Petersens, which works for both couples: Anna and Jurgen will receive a farm from the Petersens, free and clear; and the two will allow the Petersens to adopt the child. Anna and Jurgen marry and are quite happy; but when the child is finally born, Anna doesn’t wish to surrender him and flees with the child into the Wattenmeer.
Fred von Wellingen is a wealthy industrialist, part of a large family-owned corporation. Fred has fallen for Lia, a comely bartender in the Berlin Cabaret. He proposes to her, much to the horror of his family, which considers Lia and her unsophisticated father far below their caste. The family convinces Fred to give up the girl in exchange for increased position and income in the company. But Fred's lapse is momentary, and he again pursues Lia. But she, by this time, has learned of his erstwhile agreement and has agreed to marry someone else.
Dolly Haas is employed as a (supposedly male) servant at a Hotel.
Out of unlikely circumstances an underground ticket vending girl and a mail pilot fall in love.
The athletic young widow Antoinette Peterson gets into financial troubles when a business venture backfires and has to sell her car and her villa. On the road, she meets a stranger whose car she is able to repair and whom she later meets again as the buyer of her house. It is no one else than the venturer William P. Harrison to whom she lost her whole fortune in the first place. He offers her a bet: If she manages to stay for three months as his chauffeur and behaves accordingly, he would give her back her fortune. Although Harrison makes it as hard as possible for her, she keeps up. But they have already fallen in love with each other.
Though "blessed" with a complex title, which translates as Marriage with Limited Liability, this German comedy was adapted from the more simply titled stage play Causa Kaiser. Composer Georg Kaiser is unable to secure a divorce from his wife, so he "lives in sin" with his singer-sweetheart Causa. The girl's wealthy uncle dies, leaving her millions -- provided she is married to Georg Kaiser. Hoping to take advantage of a legal loophole, Georg seeks out another man named George Kaiser, intending to marry him off to Causa so that she can collect her legacy. Georg Kaiser # 2 is a middle-aged naif who can't understand why his new bride is so cold to him. When he finds out he's been duped by Kaiser #1, Kaiser #2 finds solace in the arms of another woman closer to his own age, which somehow leads to a happy ending for all concerned.
During lunch break at the movie studio, the extras rush to the canteen Hans Adalbert Schlettow, Maria Paudler and Luis Trenker are chatting. Eva von Loe a beautiful young extra rushes past; she is looking for her fiancé, Paul Wessel, who is also an extra. She has to return to the set where the famous director Regisseur Hall is shooting a scen. He is dissatisfied with his star, Carla Marventa, who is wrong for the scene he must photograph. Hall notices Eva, but laughs at her desire to replace Marventa. At that moment Conrad Veidt comes on the scene and assumes that Eva is the star.
