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...
In London at the turn of the century, underworld kingpin Mack the Knife marries Polly Peachum without the knowledge of her father, the equally enterprising 'king of the beggars'.
After completing work on the British musical Invitation to the Waltz, Lillian Harvey returned to her adopted country of Germany to star in the comedy-with-music Glueckskinder (Children of Fortune). Harvey plays Ann Garden, an unemployed actress who ends up in night court on a loitering charge. Here...
This is a real curiosity; at best a reasonable film, but also a charming little gem. There is a story (in the line of "A Star is Born"), but this merely serves as an excuse, as it is more importantly a kind of moving encyclopedia of about 35 stars making their debut in a talkie (although some of...
Lamenting Thebian women are waiting for the men to come back from war. God Jupiter is attracted to one of them: Alkmene. He goes to earth and tries to seduce her as himself: an old man. Failing in this, he disguises himself as Amphitryon (Alkemene's husband) and tries again. Next morning Amphitryon...
Baroness Marika von Korossy dresses up as a man, in order to compete in a horse race. Her victorious horse, Satan, will only allow her to ride him and throws everyone else off of him. That includes the dandy lieutenant Tibor von Denes, who immediately recognizes that Marika isn't a man. It isn't...
Lilian Harvey plays a young heiress in long-ago France named Madelon who is raised by her grandfather as a boy in order to frighten away fortune hunters. But when the old man dies, her guardian Cesaire wants to marry her off to the rich prefect Barberousse. She is tricked by Cesaire with the...
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...
Italian filmmaker Carmine Gallone was still in his "operetta" mode when he helmed 1938's Il Sogno di Butterfly (Dream of the Butterfly) Maria Cebotari plays opera diva Rosa Belloni, currently starring in a production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly. The plot thickens when Rosa's backstage life begins...
A story about a series of confusions, in which Paul Ritter, a bank employee, is unaware that the girl he's fallen in love with is the daughter of his boss. No one bothers to tell him and he gets jealous of the boss, who seems to have a very good relationship with the girl.
Charley Wyckham and Jack Chesney pressure fellow student Fancourt Babberly to pose as Charley's Brazilian Aunt Donna Lucia. Their purpose is to have a chaperone for their amorous visits with Amy and Kitty, niece and ward of crusty Stephen Spettigue. Complications begin when Fancourt, in drag,...
Musical vehicle for up and coming Dolly Haas, as a would be actress with a would be composer boyfriend. She sings,at one point, that she has the walk of (Lilian) Harvey, the mouth of Garbo and the legs of Dietrich.
The residents of the town of Ferrara are swept up in a tide of emotion and physical passion by the writings of a Renaissance author. Before long, the town is in chaos and it becomes difficult to keep track of which characters have been involved with one another. Is it any wonder the Germans...
