Gustaf Gründgens

Hitler's Hollywood

Film journalist and critic Rüdiger Suchsland examines German cinema from 1933, when the Nazis came into power, until 1945, when the Third Reich collapsed. (A sequel to From Caligari to Hitler, 2015.)

A Physical History of 'M'

This documentary traces the "physical history" of Fritz Lang’s M, from its production and original distribution to the digital restoration used as the basis for this edition. It includes a look at the French-language version of M but was produced before the discovery of the English-language version.

Faust

In 1957 Gustaf Gründgens staged a new production of Goethe's Faust in which he once again played Mephisto, a part he had played since 1932. The brilliant production was a huge success and ran for a couple of years. In 1959 Peter Gorski captured the performance on film in his directorial film debut. Basically it is a registration of the production, but Gorksi did manage to accentuate the details of the acting by using enough medium and close-up shots which give a view on the acting you normally would not able to see in a theater.

A Glass of Water

Intrigue and scheming at the court of Queen Anne of England between liberal Lord Bolingbroke and Lady Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough. German comedy after the play of Eugène Scribe.

Friedemann Bach

During a house concert, the Bach family gets a visit by their son Wilhelm Friedemann, who has just given up his position in Dresden because he no longer could endure the reprisals of his superiors.

Uncle Krüger

An anti-British propaganda film from Nazi Germany which depicts the life of the South African politician Paul Kruger and his eventual defeat by the British during the Boer War.

Tanz auf dem Vulkan

Paris, 1830: Jean-Gaspard Debureau performs on the stage and delights his audience with song, wit and charm. He is, however, very unpopular with King Charles X, who is the target of much of Debureau's scornful jests. That would be a somewhat tolerable situation if it weren't for the fact that Debureau has fallen for a countess, who happens to be the King's mistress.

Love in Stunt Flying

Mabel is a successful pilot who hates sensational media, but falls in love with Jack, a womanizer journalist with conservative views on gender. When the two of them get married, they make a deal: Mabel will cease to fly as long as Jack doesn't interview any more women. But how long can they keep their pact?

Eine Frau ohne Bedeutung

Sylvia, the daughter of the pastor Kelvil, is lectrice to Lady Patricia and gets to know the young Lord Harford. They love one another, but their class differences forbid marriage. There's a sharp argument with the father, who afterwards wants to send the young lord abroad. Then Sylvia is offered money to disappear, unaware that she's already pregnant. 18 years later: Sylvia raised her son on her own as best she could. He is now known as Lord Harford, who, besides having the title Lord Illingworth, also has inherited his father's total estate and has now returned from India. Unaware of their identities, the father and son get to know one another; get into a fight; and the young man challenges the father to a duel. In order to prevent that from happening, the mother must now tell each of them the truth about their identities. The film is based on the theatre piece of the same name by Oscar Wilde.

Pygmalion

The poor, lower-class girl Eliza Dolittle sells flowers at London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral to passers-by. Her plain jargon, her headstrong way of expressing herself, fascinates the briefly passing-by language researcher and phonetics teacher professor Higgins. He meets a good acquaintance, colonel Pickering, who is also interested in science, and makes a wager with him: Higgins bets that he can accomplish that, within just six months, he can turn the squalid girl with grubby looks into a gentle lady of the London society with splendid manners and a likewise pronunciation. Eliza may not know what’s coming for her, but after some persuasiveness, she agrees to move into the fine house of the professor.

Joan of Arc

France in the 15th Century: The country is marked by the wars with England and internal power struggles. King Charles sees himself powerless against the state. As emerges from the people suddenly a young woman named Johanna, who claimed that the Archangel Gabriel to be appointed, to save France. First of all doubt the king in their words, but he remembers that the people through this "help of God" is gaining new courage. With the slogan "God and the Virgin!" pulls the revivified victorious army into battle against the English-Burgundian alliance. After Johanna King Charles is crowned at Reims, there breaks the plague over the country in. Now Johanna all the blame on the disaster: God would punish believe in the country for that a heretic; if Johanna were actual a holy, she would deal also with the plague. The waning faith weakens France, England is again on the rise. But Johanna is executed as a witch. Only years later annulled the verdict of the Holy and Johanna explained.

So Ended a Great Love

The political advisor to the French emperor Napoleon, and the Austrian emperor Franz I, arrange a marriage between Napoleon and the Austrian archduchess Marie-Luise in order to prevent another war.

Black Fighter Johanna

Germany under Napoleon. Johanna is travelling by stagecoach when one of its occupants, Major Korfes, is arrested by the French militia. Before capture, he gives Johanna a mysterious letter. To solve the mystery, she joins the German corps as the “Black Hunter”. A fantastic breeches role for the lesbian Marianne Hoppe, who two years later, married her gay film partner Gustav Gründgens to prevent persecution by the Nazis.

Le Tunnel

An engineer is hired to plan and oversee the construction of a undersea tunnel between Europe and the US. However, certain interests don't want to see the tunnel built and use every means at their disposal, including sabotage and murder, to stop its construction. French-language version of the 1933 German DER TUNNEL, q.v.

Der Tunnel

The engineer MacAllan designs a tunnel, which will join America and Europe together on the seabed. A group of American billionaires are financing the gigantic project, but the construction of the tunnel is proving to be as tedious as it is dangerous. MacAllan's worst enemy is the speculator Woolf, who had embezzled the money for the construction and who is attempting to cover up his crime by carrying out acts of sabotage. Also filmed in 1933 in a French-language version, LE TUNNEL, and remade in 1935 in England as TRANSATLATIC TUNNEL.

Love Story

A young German officer's (Wolfgang Liebeneiner) life is turned upside when he tries to end his affair with a married baroness (Olga Tschechowa) after falling for an innocent young singer (Magda Schneider). French version of Ophuls' Liebelei.

Liebelei

Vienna in the beginning of the twentieth century. Cavalry Lieutenant Fritz Lobheimer is about to end his affair with Baroness Eggerdorff when he meets the young Christine, the daughter of an opera violinist. Baron Eggerdorff however soon hears of his past misfortune...

The Countess of Monte Cristo

The two aspiring actresses Jeanette and Mimi are waiting for their big chance. But the real breakthrough is slow in coming. Jeanette especially desperately needs a big success, since her friend, the journalist Stephan, is about to lose his job. When the two have their chance to take a ride in a posh car during a shooting, Jeanette slams on the throttle and the two friends take off. Their aimless journey takes them to a fashionable winter sports’ hotel, where Jeanette reserves a name under “The Countess of Monte Christo”. Everything’s going dandy; no one suspects a thing. That is, until two impostors, Rumowski and “The Baron” take residence in the same hotel.

Yorck

The story of General Yorck von Wartenburg, a commander in the army of Prussian King Wilhelm, who defied the king's orders for the Prussian army to join Napoleon in his invason of Russia.

Luise, Queen of Prussia

Vehicle for one of the Weimar era's most beloved actresses: as the popular Prussian queen in 1806-1807, she presides over the humiliating Peace of Tilsit which Napoleon forces on the defeated Germans.

The Theft of the Mona Lisa

This German crime drama was based on a true story. Willy Forst stars as a poverty-stricken Italian glazier who falls in love with French hotel maid Rosa Valletti. Struck by the girl's resemblance to Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Forst manages to steal the painting from the Louvre in hopes of impressing his sweetheart. But when the girl proves to be a fickle sort, the crestfallen hero confesses his crime and is carted off to jail. Unwilling to admit that he'd been led astray by a woman, Forst claims that he stole the Mona Lisa to restore it to his native Italy, and as a result is hailed as a national hero! Raub der Mona Lisa was distributed in the U.S. by RKO Radio, under the title The Theft of the Mona Lisa.

M

In this classic German thriller, Hans Beckert, a serial killer who preys on children, becomes the focus of a massive Berlin police manhunt. Beckert's heinous crimes are so repellant and disruptive to city life that he is even targeted by others in the seedy underworld network. With both cops and criminals in pursuit, the murderer soon realizes that people are on his trail, sending him into a tense, panicked attempt to escape justice.

Danton

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.

Fire in the Opera House

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.

Hokuspokus

Hokuspokus is a 1930 German comedy film directed by Gustav Ucicky and starring Lilian Harvey, Willy Fritsch and Oskar Homolka. It was an adaptation of the play Hokuspokus by Curt Goetz.

Never Trust a Woman

A sailor falls for a music hall performer with marital problems, after having been at sea a long 12 years, only to learn the distressing news that she is his own sister.