Directing
Lothar Mendes
Born 1894-05-19 · Berlin, Germany
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Lothar Mendes (19 May 1894 – 25 February 1974) was a German-born screenwriter and film director. who began his career as an actor in Vienna and Berlin in Max Reinhardt's famous troupe. He went to America in the early 1920s and there he remained until 1933, directing more than a dozen features, mostly frothy comedies, while under contract to Paramount. His films included the last silent film made in America, The Four Feathers (1929) and the murder mystery Payment Deferred (1933) starring British expatriate Charles Laughton. After Hitler ascended to power, Mendes travelled to Britain in 1934 to work at Gaumont-British Pictures, directing films with Sir Michael Balcon producing. Under that banner, he directed Jew Süss (1934) starring one of Germany's most famous emigre actors, Conrad Veidt. Mendes' Jew Suss is not to be confused with the later Nazi film of the same title (1940) which is a Reich-made, virulently anti-Semitic film that deliberately contorted the exiled German-Jewish writer, Lion Feuchtwanger's original novel of the same name, on which Mendes' film was based. Mendes' 1934 film version of Feuchtwanger's novel received strong notices at the time, and was considered an important and early film in exposing the origins of the violent anti-semitism of the then-newly empowered Nazi Party; in particular, it was praised by Albert Einstein and the Jewish American leader, Rabbi Stephen Wise, who encouraged its distribution in America under the title Power, though the film itself did not attract an audience in Depression America. In 1936, Mendes directed his best-known film, the H.G. Wells short story, The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936) starring Sir Ralph Richardson, for which Wells himself co-wrote the adaptation. His last British film was Moonlight Sonata aka The Charmer and starred the aging piano legend Paderewski as himself; it's notable for containing rare performance footage of the legendary pianist, then in exile from his native Nazi-occupied Poland. By 1941, Mendes had returned to Hollywood where he co-directed the pro-British International Squadron (1941), one of several films on the Eagle Squadron of American pilots who volunteered to fly in the Battle of Britain before the US entered the war. His last feature films were patriotic World War II fare with such stars as Rosalind Russell as a Navy reconnaissance pilot who must fly one more mission before getting married in Flight for Freedom (1943) and Edward G Robinson as a man who may or may not have married a spy in Tampico (1944). He retired from films in 1946, and the remaining decades of his life remain murky. "A competent, dependable director," comments film historian Larry Langman, "he never achieved the critical success in America that came to some of his compatriots."
Acting credits
Behind the camera
6.5An elderly business tycoon, believed to be dying, decides to give a million dollars each to eight strangers chosen at random from the phone directory.
If I Had a Million
1932
6.3The true story of the exploits of the RAF's (Royal Air Force) foreign legion battling the German Luftwaffe (Nazi Germany's Air Force) during the early months of 1941 during WWII before America officially entered the war at the end of the year when Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan and Hitler declared war on the United States. The United States then drafted all of their airmen and fighter pilot aces into the United States Air Force for their own combat missions against the Luftwaffe
International Squadron
1941
6.0An ordinary man, while vigorously asserting the impossibility of miracles, suddenly discovers that he can perform them.
The Man Who Could Work Miracles
1936
5.9This 1930 film, a collection of songs and sketches showcasing Paramount Studios' contract stars, credits 11 directors
Paramount on Parade
1930
8.0"Basher Bill," a retired prizefighter turned criminal, pretends to reform by joining a Salvation Army shelter in London run by a pious wraith named Elizabeth. Attracted to Elizabeth (although he is engaged to a street girl named Annie), Bill confesses to a bank robbery, has a spiritual revelation, and decides to go straight. His cast-off sweetheart reports him to the police; then, contrite, she warns Bill of the impending danger. Bill is captured immediately, but he escapes and sacrifices his life to save Elizabeth and the Salvation Army nursery when the rest of the gang use them as a human barricade against the police.
The Street of Sin
1928
6.6A young bareback rider in a circus is in love with a trapeze artist, but he has two problems: he drinks too much and he's fallen under the spell of a "vamp" who's nothing but trouble for him.
Dangerous Curves
1929
7.2This drama offers a few slices from the lives of those who live, work, and travel upon a luxurious trans-atlantic ocean liner.
Luxury Liner
1933
5.7Bank clerk William Marble is desperate for money to pay his family's bills. When his wealthy nephew visits, Marble asks him for a loan, but the young man refuses. Marble decides to kill his nephew. It is a twisted path to justice after Marble is transformed by the crime he committed and the wealth he gains.
Payment Deferred
1932
7.0In this romantic tale Paderewski, the famed pianist, and two other plane crash survivors are guests of a Swedish baroness. Interwoven throughout this gentle and charming story are exquisite piano solos performed superbly by the elderly pianist, Paderewski.
Moonlight Sonata
1937
No synopsis available yet.
The Monk from Santarem
1924
6.2Broadway gossip columnist Gilbert Archer investigates his friend's murder, finds clues linking it to a valuable Da Vinci painting, putting himself and Patricia Foster in danger from those after the artwork
The Walls Came Tumbling Down
1946
5.0An Englishman (Richard Arlen) fights in the Sudan after receiving white feathers of cowardice from his fiancee (Fay Wray) and friends.
The Four Feathers
1929
5.8A fictionalized biopic about aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart. A female pilot breaks the Los Angeles to New York record and attracts the interest of the U.S. Navy, who want to send her on a spy mission.
Flight for Freedom
1943
5.7A historical satire critical of the rising tide of Anti-Semitism in Germany. Based on the novel by Lionel Feuchtwanger, Jew Süss is the story of life in the 18th-century Jewish ghetto of Württemberg. Süss works himself out of the ghetto and into a position of power with the help of an evil duke.
Jew Süss
1934
6.7A story of of the captain of an oil tanker during World War II, Captain Bart Manson, who rescues Katherine Hall when her ship is sunk by a German U-boat.
Tampico
1944
4.6A society gigolo goes after a rich mother and her daughter, but tries to find true happiness with his girlfriend, who is neither rich nor in "society."
Ladies' Man
1931
6.0A delightful pre-code cocktail recipe. Take three couples (add gin and tonic), their several divorces and the seven children/stepchildren of their intermarriages and blend thoroughly, and you have a mixture a too-young-to-believe Frederic March will try to straighten out.
The Marriage Playground
1929
5.5Fredric March essays a dual role in this story of a ne'er-do-well who impersonates his brother when the latter dies.
Strangers in Love
1932
9.0A vaudeville magician team is broken up when Carlee, an ex--circus performer, becomes infatuated with socialite Hilda Schmittlap. Meanwhile his vaudeville partner, Claire, has chosen a new partner, but her "heart isn't in it" because she is disconsolate over Carlee. Curious about her new act, Carlee attends a performance and sees Claire nearly killed when she fails to substitute fake bullets for real ones. Rushing to her aid, Carlee realizes how much Claire means to him.
Illusion
1929
7.6Paramount's first all-talking picture, Interference was dismally directed by Roy Pomeroy, whose lofty status as the studio's "technical wizard" did not necessarily qualify him to be a director. Evelyn Brent heads the cast as scheming Deborah Kane, who sets out to blackmail Faith Marley (Doris Kenyon), the above-reproach wife of Sir John Marlay.
Interference
1929
Bound for Africa the next day, Captain Ferréol visits Gilberte Boismartel, his former sweetheart who is now married to Rochemore, a French magistrate, to return her love letters. Leaving he witness the murder of Rochemore.
A Night of Mystery
1928
10.0No synopsis available yet.
Love Is Blind
1926
9.0Francis, the result of a clandestine marriage between the Duke of Chatsfield and a peasant girl, after being raised in a monastery following his parents death assumes his title but falls victim to a pair of schemers leading to much heartache before all is set aright before the fadeout.
The Prince of Tempters
1926
10.0No synopsis available yet.
S.O.S. Die Insel der Tränen
1923