Thea von Harbou

Writing

Thea von Harbou

Born — Died

1888-12-19 — 1954-07-01

Place of birth

Tauperlitz, Germany

Known for

Writing

Credits

40 titles

Thea Gabriele von Harbou was a German actress and author of Prussian aristocratic origin. She was born in Tauperlitz in the Kingdom of Bavaria. She is especially known for the 1927 science fiction film Metropolis directed by her husband Fritz Lang. She would often publish her screenplays as novels. In 1933, Lang fleed Nazi Germany as he was Jewish; whilst she made several Nazi propaganda films. She later married Ayi Tendulkar, a journalist of Indian origin - before dying in 1954.

Known for

Metropolis poster
8.1

In a futuristic city sharply divided between the rich and the poor, the son of the city's mastermind meets a prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.

Metropolis

1927

M poster
8.1

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.

M

1931

The Testament of Dr. Mabuse poster
7.6

After a detective is assaulted by thugs and placed in an asylum run by Professor Baum, he observes the professor's preoccupation with another patient, the criminal genius Dr. Mabuse the hypnotist. When Mabuse's notes are found to be connected with a rash of recent crimes, Commissioner Lohmann must determine how Mabuse is communicating with the criminals, despite conflicting reports on the doctor's whereabouts, and capture him for good.

The Testament of Dr. Mabuse

1933

Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler poster
7.7

Dr. Mabuse and his organization of criminals are in the process of completing their latest scheme, a theft of information that will allow Mabuse to make huge profits on the stock exchange. Afterwards, Mabuse disguises himself and attends the Folies Bergères show, where Cara Carozza, the main attraction of the show, passes him information on Mabuse's next intended victim, the young millionaire Edgar Hull. Mabuse then uses psychic manipulation to lure Hull into a card game where he loses heavily. When Police Commissioner von Wenk begins an investigation of this mysterious crime spree, he has little to go on, and he needs to find someone who can help him.

Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler

1922

Spies poster
7.3

The mastermind behind a ubiquitous spy operation learns of a dangerous romance between a Russian lady in his employ and a dashing agent from the government's secret service.

Spies

1928

Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge poster
7.6

When Kriemhild, thirsty for revenge, marries to Etzel, king of the Huns, she invites King Gunther and his court to visit them, intending to finally take the life of the man responsible of her disgrace.

Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge

1924

Behind the camera

Metropolis poster
8.1

In a futuristic city sharply divided between the rich and the poor, the son of the city's mastermind meets a prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.

Metropolis

1927

M poster
8.1

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.

M

1931

The Testament of Dr. Mabuse poster
7.6

After a detective is assaulted by thugs and placed in an asylum run by Professor Baum, he observes the professor's preoccupation with another patient, the criminal genius Dr. Mabuse the hypnotist. When Mabuse's notes are found to be connected with a rash of recent crimes, Commissioner Lohmann must determine how Mabuse is communicating with the criminals, despite conflicting reports on the doctor's whereabouts, and capture him for good.

The Testament of Dr. Mabuse

1933

Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler poster
7.7

Dr. Mabuse and his organization of criminals are in the process of completing their latest scheme, a theft of information that will allow Mabuse to make huge profits on the stock exchange. Afterwards, Mabuse disguises himself and attends the Folies Bergères show, where Cara Carozza, the main attraction of the show, passes him information on Mabuse's next intended victim, the young millionaire Edgar Hull. Mabuse then uses psychic manipulation to lure Hull into a card game where he loses heavily. When Police Commissioner von Wenk begins an investigation of this mysterious crime spree, he has little to go on, and he needs to find someone who can help him.

Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler

1922

Spies poster
7.3

The mastermind behind a ubiquitous spy operation learns of a dangerous romance between a Russian lady in his employ and a dashing agent from the government's secret service.

Spies

1928

Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge poster
7.6

When Kriemhild, thirsty for revenge, marries to Etzel, king of the Huns, she invites King Gunther and his court to visit them, intending to finally take the life of the man responsible of her disgrace.

Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge

1924

Destiny poster
7.4

As a young couple stops and rests in a small village inn, the man is abducted by Death and sequestered behind a huge doorless, windowless wall. The woman poisons herself in order to join him and is met by Death, who gives her three opportunities to prove that love is stronger than death, thereby freeing her beloved from his fate.

Destiny

1921

Phantom poster
6.9

Lorenz Lubota is a city clerk with no direction in life. One day on his way to work he is run over by a woman driving a chariot and he is immediately infatuated with her.

Phantom

1922

Die Nibelungen: Siegfried poster
7.7

Siegfried, son of King Siegmund of Xanten, travels to Worms, capital of the Burgundian kingdom, to ask King Gunther for the hand of his sister, the beautiful Kriemhild.

Die Nibelungen: Siegfried

1924

Woman in the Moon poster
7.2

A scientist discovers that there's gold on the moon. He builds a rocket to fly there, but there's too much rivalry among the crew to have a successful expedition.

Woman in the Moon

1929

Turandot, princesse de Chine poster
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

Turandot, princesse de Chine

1935

The Old and The Young King poster
6.0

The story of the stormy relationship between King Friedrich Wilhelm and his son, who later became known as King Frederick the Great of Prussia.

The Old and The Young King

1935

The Indian Tomb, Part II: The Tiger of Eschnapur poster
6.0

Rowland falls sick with leprosy while Mac Allan is captured by the Maharajah, who offers Irene a deal: one night with him in exchange for letting Rowland to be cured. She accepts, but tries to commit suicide.

The Indian Tomb, Part II: The Tiger of Eschnapur

1921

The Burning Soil poster
6.3

When farmer Rog dies, his eldest Peter takes over the farm while his youngest Johannes is determined for a better life: he becomes secretary to Count Rudenberg and starts courting his daughter Gerda. When he learns that the Count, who is terminally ill, has bequeathed a piece of land under which lies a petroleum field to his second wife, he courts her instead.

The Burning Soil

1922

Michael poster
6.4

A mature and visually elegant period romance that remains one of the earliest and most compassionate overtly gay-themed films in movie history. Based upon Herman Bang's 1902 novel, Dreyer's Michael refashions the classical Greek myth of Jupiter and Ganymede into a love triangle between an aging artist, Zoret, his protagonist Michael, and Princess Zamikoff, an aristocratic femme fatale as entranced by Michael’s youthful beauty as Zoret is.

Michael

1924

Journey to the Lost City poster
6.6

An exotic dancing girl of India inflames the passions of a traveling draftsman.

Journey to the Lost City

1960

The Indian Tomb, Part I: The Mission of the Yoghi poster
5.7

Ayan, Maharajah of Eschnapur, believes that his wife, Princess Savitri, has been unfaithful to him with officer Mac Allan. He decides to bury her alive, so he sends the Yogi Ramigani to England to look for Herbert Rowland, an architect; but when he orders him to build a tomb, Rowland refuses.

The Indian Tomb, Part I: The Mission of the Yoghi

1921

Annelie poster
7.0

On New Year′s Eve 1871 Annelie is born – 15 minutes too late, since her parents had calculated her birth to be exactly at midnight. These 15 minutes will again and again become the girl′s fate.

Annelie

1941

Four Around the Woman poster
6.0

Harry Yquem buys his beloved wife some jewelry in a place where underworld middlemen trade in fake and stolen goods. By chance, he spots a man with whom his wife had an affair in the past.

Four Around the Woman

1921

The Assumption of Hannele poster
6.2

The story of Hannele, an unhappy girl who is beaten by her stepfather and tries to commit suicide.

The Assumption of Hannele

1934

The Assumption of Hannele poster
6.2

The story of Hannele, an unhappy girl who is beaten by her stepfather and tries to commit suicide.

The Assumption of Hannele

1934

The Genius and the Nightingale poster
7.0

A biopic of soprano Maria Malibran (1808–1836). A beautiful singer, Maria Malibran, is forced to turn to the stage after her husband takes to gambling, and goes to Paris where she falls in love with a famous violinist. When her money-seeking husband reappears, the couple go to London, where they find happiness. A composer falls in love with Maria but when his affections are unrequited, he becomes broken, takes to drinking and dies.

The Genius and the Nightingale

1943

No artwork available
7.0

A romance between two temperamental singing stars. Highlights include a lengthy selection from Faust, with Gigli making a most impressive Mephistopheles. The plot takes a melodramatic turn towards the climax, with the lives of the characters mirrored in their on-stage behavior. Director Carmine Gallone was something of an expert in the field of filmed opera, as witness his Tosca, Rigoletto and Il Trovatore.

Mother Song

1937

The Finances of the Grand Duke poster
6.6

The likeable and carefree Grand Duke of Abacco is in dire straits. There is no money left to service the State's debt; the main creditor is looking forward to expropriating the entire Duchy. The marriage with Olga, Grand Duchess of Russia, would solve everything, but a crucial letter of hers about the engagement has been stolen. Besides, a bunch of revolutionaries and a dubious businessman have other plans regarding the Grand Duke. With the intrusion of adventurer Philipp Collins into the Grand Duke's affairs, a series of frantic chases, plots and counter-plots begins.

The Finances of the Grand Duke

1924

Hurra, ich bin Papa poster
7.0

Peter Ohlsen, a perpetual student, leads a dissolute life and has been living off his filthy-rich father for years. When Peter comes home drunk from a party with his friends yet again, he finds a three-year-old boy in his bed who had been left with his housekeeper along with a letter. The letter states that Peter is the boy’s father and that he is hereby entrusted with the child’s upbringing.

Hurra, ich bin Papa

1939

The Chronicles of the Gray House poster
6.5

Hinrich, the son of a feudal German landowner, falls in love with the beautiful daughter of one of his father's serfs despite opposition from both families. But when he actually offers marriage to her, this is going too far. The return of his brother Detlev, with an unscrupulous aristocratic bride of his own and a rival claim to their father's estates, proves to be the trigger for tragedy.

The Chronicles of the Gray House

1925

The Sovereign poster
5.7

Der Herrscher (The Sovereign) was based on Before Sunset, a play by Gerhart Hauptmann. The great Emil Jannings stars as Mathias Clausen, a self-made businessman who is forced to do a great deal of soul-searching when his wife unexpectedly dies. Determining to start life anew, he falls in love with his secretary Inken (Marianne Hoppe) and impulsively takes a vacation to Italy. Clausen's selfish grown children, not wishing to share their father's affections -- nor his money -- with his new wife-to-be, go to court demanding that Clausen be declared mentally incompetent. Upon finding this out, Clausen flies into a rage, leaving the audience to wonder whether or not he really as gone off his trolley. Der Herrscher was directed by Veit Harlan, more famous (or notorious) for his viciously anti-Semitic Jud Suess (1940).

The Sovereign

1937

Menschen vom Varieté poster
7.2

In a cosmopolitan city vaudeville theatre, meeting place of the most successful artistes, the art shooter gets in suspicion to have committed a murderous poster on his jealous partner. - Not particularly successful mixture of vaudeville theatre numbers, artiste's destiny and crime film tension, on an average produced and played. A production rotated in Budapest with the popular dancer La Jana.

Menschen vom Varieté

1939

No artwork available
10.0

The extended Steyer family lives together in a cottage in the mountains. The younger Steyer's wife Ludmilla wants money, and doesn't care if she must ruin the lives of the Steyer family to get it. Lost film.

The Expulsion

1923

No artwork available
5.0

A struggling composer gets one of his pieces into a film program and his wife captures the lead part in the production as well.

What Am I Without You

1934

Your Heart Is My Homeland poster
10.0

Magdalena Percht, the daughter of a mayor, returns to her mountain hometown as a young schoolteacher. Andreas, a wealthy sawmill owner and troublemaker, assaults her. When Magdalena discovers she is pregnant and faces harsh social stigma, Andreas's brother, Christian, agrees to marry her to save her from shame, and romance eventually develops between them.

Your Heart Is My Homeland

1953

Versprich mir nichts! poster
5.4

Maler Pratt, an artist, refuses to sell his paintings as he thinks that they still need improvement before being publicly exhibited, but his wife Monika thinks differently and sells them because she thinks they are good...and they need the money. As he only signs an "M" on his work, Monika has no difficulty in claiming she is "M", but problems arrive when she is commissioned to do a large mural and Maler refuses to help her out. However, his creative spirit gets the best of him and he does the mural which is widely acclaimed to be a great work of art. Felder , an art dealer, is not overly pleased with this turn of events as he has been pleading with Monika to divorce her shiftless husband and marry him.

Versprich mir nichts!

1937

The Stars of Variety Show poster
10.0

Theatre Colosseum prepares for the closing performance of the month. The magician Keats wants to avoid having to perform with Jack Carey, the well-known marksman, as the latter has seduced his wife, the beautiful dancer, Silvia Castellani. It is only thanks to the persuasions of Alice McLean, the manager of the acrobat sisters, that he finally decides to do his show. Carey starts wooing the second of the McLean-sisters, Gloria.

The Stars of Variety Show

1939

Covered Tracks poster
6.4

Séraphine and her mother arrive in Paris to visit the 1867 World Exhibition. In an overcrowded city they must be accommodated in separate hotels. During the night the mother, who wasn't feeling very well, gets suddenly worse. When next morning Séraphine goes to meet her every trace of her presence has disappeared and everybody denies having ever met her. The bewildered young woman must find someone who believes her. Previous version of So Long at the Fair (1950).

Covered Tracks

1938

I Was Jack Mortimer poster
6.0

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.

I Was Jack Mortimer

1935

The Broken Jug poster
7.2

Today is a fateful day for village judge Adam. Who broke Widow Kull’s jug fleeing head over heels after his nightly visit to her daughter? As the trial unfolds, it becomes clear to everyone that the judge himself is the culprit. Judge Adam twists and turns, invents countless explanations, and piles up the most absurd lies. But he is conducting a trial against himself—one he cannot win.

The Broken Jug

1937

Die unmögliche Frau poster
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

Die unmögliche Frau

1936

The Wandering Image poster
6.1

When Irmgard becomes pregnant from Georg, a free-love disciple, she decides, for the sake of her child, to pretend they are married. The secret plan is to wed his twin brother, John, who will pretend to be Georg in front of the priest. Soon after that happens, Georg disappears and is declared dead. Years later, Irmgard is trying to escape John, who is obsessed with her. In the mountains, she finds a stranger willing to protect her.

The Wandering Image

1920

Die Legende von der heiligen Simplicia poster
7.0

Simplicia has a reputation for healing through prayer and laying on of hands. Knight Rochus sets out "to see how long it takes to turn a saint into a sinner!" He sneaks into the monastery and forces Simplicia under his will.

Die Legende von der heiligen Simplicia

1920

No artwork available
10.0

Following the breakdown of her marriage to an artist, a female doctor goes back to her position at a hospital.

Die Frau am Scheidewege

1938