
Acting
Karl Platen
Born 1877-03-05 · Halle an der Saale, Germany
Acting credits
8.1In 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
10.0A young student, Stephan, inherits shares in a coal mine from his father. The mine is no longer profitable, and Stephan needs money to finance his studies, so he takes up work in the mine.
Morgenröte
1929
7.6After 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
7.7A young woman leaves behind her job, home and family to try to make it in the movie business. Features cameos from about three dozen German film stars of the era.
The Great Desire
1930
6.8A beautiful young drifter comes to a small village and battles Death itself to save the man she loves.
Ferryman Maria
1936
The stand-alone opera singer Carmen Casini dare not admit to her adult son, the spoiled race car driver Cecil, that she ruined her voice on a stormy day at the racetrack and that her career is thus at an end. Meanwhile, Cecil has fallen in love with the pretty Colette … without suspecting that her father, the wealthy Bartell, was a former lover of his mother and that he’s Cecil’s daddy. Thus, both Carmen and Bartell try to prevent the unfolding love-relationship between brother and sister, because this ain’t the Ozarks, you know! Only after the unhappy Cecil tries to commit suicide after an argument with his mother do Carmen and Bartell realize they still love one another. Suicide attempt be damned; let’s go out on a date! A movie that screams “Fun for the whole family.”
The Secret Lie
1938
a music movie by Heinz Paul
Student Life in Merry Springtime
1930
7.4As 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
7.3Gerhard Lamprecht sketches a cross-section of Germany's new post-war society, with its winners, social climbers, and losers, represented by the social microcosm of an apartment building. The gossip-mad Frau Mierig from the rear building gives the newly-arrived Frau Kaminski, the janitor's wife, a lively initiation into the tenants and their peculiarities.
People Among Us
1926
Ellen, the secretary to General Manager Rasmussen, marries her fiancé Norbert Larsen, who also works at the steelworks. They have a happy marriage until Norbert falls ill: Only a trip to the south can save him.
Das Opfer der Ellen Larsen
1921
German romantic comedy from Carl Boese.
Men Before Marriage
1936
Monika (German: Eine Mutter kämpft um ihr Kind, lit. 'A Mother Fights for Her Child') is a 1938 German melodrama film directed and written by Heinz Helbig. The story centers on a singer who relinquishes her illegitimate daughter to a German engineer in São Paulo to pursue her career, only to return eight years later as a celebrated film star and wife of a prominent surgeon, demanding custody after encountering the child on a film set.
Monika
1938
7.7Dr. 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
7.0Aimless Bohemians are encouraged to find their salvation in Arbeit (Work) in this propagandistic Nazi era German production.
Miss Liselott
1934
9.0a silent movie by Heinz Paul
Des Lebens Würfelspiel
1925
At the behest of the financially strapped Duke, his nephew, Crown Prince Rudolf, is to marry someone of suitable rank. But Rudolf has no interest whatsoever in his uncle's plans and works under his commoner's name as an engineer in a car factory. Then a certain Count Rasumirski appears before the Duke and explains that the famous operetta diva Vera Naldi is actually a Russian princess who knows nothing of her origins. They hatch a plan to marry Rudolf off to her. But at the theater, Rudolf falls not for the singer, but for the secretary. Instead, Rudolf's other uncle begins to take an interest in Vera. Then, however, it turns out that Rasumirski is an imposter and Vera is not a princess at all...
Frühlingsluft
1938
7.0The great Dr. Pfeiffer plays the little Primaner Pfeiffer. As the successful playwright Dr. Hans Pfeiffer, he is planning a play about school. In order to gather material, he takes the place of his brother, who is a primary school pupil. The seasoned doctor finds pleasure in the craziest of pranks, while his brother tries to fill the role of theater man in the big city. And then love intervenes for both of them.
So ein Flegel
1934
7.3Starring Betty Amann in her most famous leading role, Joe May's Asphalt is a luxuriously produced German Expressionist classic where tragic liaisons and fatal encounters are shaped alongside the constant roar of Berlin traffic.
Asphalt
1929
7.0Gustav Froehlich and Charlotte Susa play Rochus and Judith, the zwei menschen (two humans) of the title. Rochus' domineering mother insists that he enter the priesthood, but he is reluctant to break up his blissful romance with the fair Judith. A religious fanatic of the first order, the mother swears before God and her Church that Rochus will indeed take his vows. When this does not come about, she dies of grief, whereupon the guilt-stricken Rochus abandons Judith to become a priest. The girl subsequently commits suicide -- and it is Rochus who must officiate over her body during the funeral. This final scene was excised from the print of Zwei Menschen released in New York, leaving audiences hanging in regard to Judith's ultimate fate.
Two Souls
1930
10.0An honest German cashier gets stuck with a fake note, part of a scheme by two crooks to pass bad money.
The Counterfeit Bill
1935
5.9The married Lady Emma Hamilton has an ill fated romance with Admiral Horatio Nelson.
Lady Hamilton
1921
10.0Princess Stauffenstein has arranged a marriage for her grandnephew Poldi and orders him to meet his unknown bride Steffi. But he falls for alluring dancer Ilonka while his uncle Leopold, sent to reason with him, is enchanted by Steffi.
Gypsy Blood
1934
7.5The body of an unknown beautiful woman is fished out of the river and leaves the policemen wondering what drove the girl to such a grisly fate. The film then flashes back to months before, showing the torrid love affair between a young cabaret singer and a rich playboy that ultimately results in tragedy for the girl.
The Unknown
1936
7.2A 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