Karl Platen

Acting

Karl Platen

Born — Died

1877-03-05 — 1952-07-04

Place of birth

Halle an der Saale, Germany

Known for

Acting

Credits

60 titles

Known for

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

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

Asphalt poster
7.3

Starring 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

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

Film credits

1940s · 7 titles

No artwork available
9.0

Alexander and Poldi, the “Sunday Children”, work as a headwaiter and servant in the Palasthotel in a southern German spa resort. Like many people, they dream of one day being rich. But when their lottery ticket actually wins, their friendship is destroyed, when it turns out, that Poldi stopped buying tickets to save money. Both then fall in love with beautiful Steffi, whose aunt won’t hear of anything other than a marriage to a rich man. Steffi gives her heart to poor Alex, while Poldi actually receives a fortune. When a crook ends up taking his money away, Alex helps Poldi to convict the fraudster and get his money back.

Sonntagskinder

1941

Mistress Moon poster
7.5

Berlin's theatre crowd is excited about the new operetta "Frau Luna". But for the head of the city's vice police, who was invited to the dress rehearsal, the costumes for the ladies onstage are a bit too revealing. He demands the show be cancelled as offensive. The president of the Thusneldenbund has taken it upon himself to alert everyone about the growth of immorality in the capital. The theatre director Knopp has come up with an idea to convince these "fine" gentlemen to let the operetta go onstage again: He intends to win over the friendship of the moral police and then nothing will stand in the way of "Frau Luna" once more being performed.

Mistress Moon

1941

Romance in a Minor Key poster
7.0

A grieving husband tries to uncover the truth behind his wife's suicide, leading him to discover a tragic tale of infidelity and redemption.

Romance in a Minor Key

1943

No artwork available
10.0

Professor Dr. Burkhardt is a much celebrated surgeon. Obsessed with his career, he is always available when an unexpected operation comes up. That his personal life is suffering because of this obsession is something the successful doctor doesn't notice. His wife Vera, who, after the death of their three year old son, is always alone anyway, feels increasingly neglected. And the love, which she apparently isn't able to get from her husband, she seeks from Dr. Groone, her husband's assistant.

Du gehörst zu mir

1943

Rembrandt poster
5.5

Already a famous painter, Rembrandt van Rijn is commissioned to paint the Amsterdam Archers' Guild. But upon completion of the picture, the men of the guild feel duped, because they don't consider themselves flatteringly depicted in the painting. They therefore decline to pay for the work. During this dispute, the painter finds out his wife is close to death. He finds himself terribly lonely after her passing and suffers from depression until he decides once more to marry.

Rembrandt

1942

Fahrt ins Leben poster
6.2

The four sailing school cadets Gerhard, Fritz, Kurt, and Christian are close friends; there's hardly anything they don't do together. But when the charming Gerhard begins a romance with Charlotte, his comrade Christian's childhood sweetheart, a shadow falls over their close bond. Then, when the four young men are involved in an accident during a nighttime trip on the school ship's pinnace, their friendship is put to another severe test. While three of them manage to raise the money for the repairs, Kurt, unable to contribute his share, lies to his comrades, claiming he has already put the money into the communal kitty.

Fahrt ins Leben

1940

No artwork available
8.0

After a bad losing streak, Lisa Freyberg wants to sell her inherited horse stall. Trainer Roberts, however, is successful in making the stall profitable again. Lisa's new passion for horses, however, is proving to be a losing streak for her engagement to her estate neighbor Thermalen. She's hoping for a new victory with her horse Arabella and has the apprentice Otto bring the horse to the competition in Dresden. Otto, however, takes the train to Dresden with his first love, Ossi la Planta and leaves the job to the grooms. But neither the horse nor the grooms show up in Dresden!

The Man in the Saddle

1945

1930s · 26 titles

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

Gypsy Blood poster
10.0

Princess 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

Two Souls poster
7.0

Gustav 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

Fridericus poster
5.6

In 18th century Europe, King Friedrich II of Prussia leads his army through the seven-years-war with neighboring states, and after numerous near defeats, eventually brings a victorious army back to Berlin.

Fridericus

1937

No artwork available
9.0

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

No artwork available
7.0

Four school chums who meet yearly are missing their friend, who was working in a Stockholm bank and supposedly killed himself. But was it murder, instead?

The Fourth Did Not Show Up

1939

No artwork available
7.0

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

No artwork available
7.0

a music movie by Heinz Paul

Student Life in Merry Springtime

1930

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

No artwork available
6.0

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

Robert Koch, der Bekämpfer des Todes poster
6.6

Country Dr. Robert Koch is desperate: a tuberculosis epidemic is decimating the children in his district and no one is able to do anything about it. Every fourth child is already sick and the parents must helplessly watch as their young ones die. Now Koch is undertaking to find the cause of the tuberculosis --- something he has already been working on for years --- which has been causing this plague of illness. His work is made more difficult by envy; for example, that of his teacher, who was wounded defending his honor. But his greatest obstacle is the famous Berliner scientist and Reichstag deputy, Privy Councilor Rudolf Virchow: He is extraordinarily skeptical of Koch's theory, that the cause for tuberculosis is a bacteria.

Robert Koch, der Bekämpfer des Todes

1939

The Black Whale poster
8.0

Adaptation of Marcel Pagnol's 1931 play Fanny.

The Black Whale

1934

Barbarina, the King's Dancer poster
5.5

Prussian King Frederick II was keen to hire the dancer Barberina, who had already enjoyed great success in Italy and England, for the Berlin opera house.

Barbarina, the King's Dancer

1932

We're Dancing Around the World poster
6.3

No synopsis available yet.

We're Dancing Around the World

1939

My Heart Calls You poster
10.0

An opera company tries to get an engagement.

My Heart Calls You

1934

Ferryman Maria poster
6.8

A beautiful young drifter comes to a small village and battles Death itself to save the man she loves.

Ferryman Maria

1936

No artwork available
10.0

German romantic comedy from Carl Boese.

Men Before Marriage

1936

So ein Flegel poster
7.0

The 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

The Unknown poster
7.5

The 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

The Young Count poster
10.0

A young woman poses as a boy to ingratiate herself better with her strict aristocratic grandfather and to get him to better accept the new freer ways of the younger generation.

The Young Count

1935

Knockout – Ein junges Mädchen, ein junger Mann poster
7.0

Marianne is an accountant, but since she is so pretty the employment agency sends her to the theater. There, Max's gaffer falls in love with Marianne and persuades her to stay at the theater. Once he has to defend her against a professional boxer who harasses her. Although Max loses his position, but receives an offer from Box Manager Schmidtchen. When Max learns that Marianne is engaged, he goes to Schmidtchen's boxing school in Hamburg.

Knockout – Ein junges Mädchen, ein junger Mann

1935

Don't Lose Heart, Suzanne! poster
7.0

In the depression era unemployed Susanne tries to break into movies by working as an extra. She is ‚hired' to be kidnapped in a PR stunt that is supposed to hush over a suicide scandal. This soon gets her a real role in an artistic film.

Don't Lose Heart, Suzanne!

1935

Gilgi: One of Us poster
8.0

A young woman born illegitimately comes to terms with the challenge of getting married.

Gilgi: One of Us

1932

Hearts Are Trumps poster
6.0

Hotel tycoon Paulsen re-meets an old flame who mistakes him for a waiter. Paulsen's daughter Toni likes hotelier Reno and accepts to work for him as a waitress and chambermaid because she wants to be loved for herself, not her money.

Hearts Are Trumps

1934

No artwork available
8.0

An inventor works on coming up with a radio-television device, but can't get it to work properly. A slick con artist sees a chance to fleece gullible people with this device and encourages the inventor to keep working at it. One day in the lab, a freak accident results in the machine being able to look through any object and project that object on a TV screen. Unfortunately, some crooks hear about it and determine to get their hands on it. Complications ensue.

The World Without a Mask

1934

1920s · 25 titles

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

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

Asphalt poster
7.3

Starring 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

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

Anna Boleyn poster
6.9

The story of the ill-fated second wife of the English king Henry VIII, whose marriage to the Henry led to momentous political and religious turmoil in England.

Anna Boleyn

1920

People Among Us poster
7.3

Gerhard 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

Husbands or Lovers poster
5.6

A wife, bored by her overweight slob of a husband, gives in to the temptation of a slickly seductive poet.

Husbands or Lovers

1924

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

Steuerlos poster
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

Steuerlos

1924

Eva and the Grasshopper poster
9.0

Mary and Eva are best friends, although they couldn't be more different. Armand, Mary's fiancee, falls in love with the seductive Eva, who is busy becoming a revue star. When Eva fails and loses her money, Armand tries to help her out.

Eva and the Grasshopper

1927

Lady Hamilton poster
5.9

The married Lady Emma Hamilton has an ill fated romance with Admiral Horatio Nelson.

Lady Hamilton

1921

Warning Shadows poster
6.6

During a dinner given by a wealthy baron and his wife, attended by four of her suitors in a 19th century German manor, a shadow-player rescues the marriage by giving all the guests a vision what might happen tonight if the baron stays jealous and the suitors do not reduce their advances towards his beautiful wife. Or was it a vision?

Warning Shadows

1923

The Boy in Blue poster
8.0

A man searches for a cursed emerald belonging to his ancestor. Lost film, minor fragments survive

The Boy in Blue

1921

No artwork available
10.0

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

The Golden Butterfly poster
10.0

A restaurant cashier, who has a mutual attraction to the restauranteur, has a secret passion for dance. As soon as she finishes work she is off down to the dance studio for a practice. She has a chance meeting with a handsome impresario, who promises to make her into the greatest dancer the world has ever known.

The Golden Butterfly

1926

Her Dark Spot poster
8.0

When registering in a Berlin hotel, the beautiful Lilian realizes that she apparently has a doppelganger: She is arrested as a wanted jewel thief. Lilian decides to find the woman who is preparing her next coup in Nice.

Her Dark Spot

1929

Wenn du einmal dein Herz verschenkst poster
9.0

No synopsis available yet.

Wenn du einmal dein Herz verschenkst

1929

Man soll es nicht für möglich halten ... poster
9.0

No synopsis available yet.

Man soll es nicht für möglich halten ...

1922

Love poster
8.0

Based on Honore de Balzac’s story of Madame de Langeais. Costume drama about the infamous loves of the countess.

Love

1927

No artwork available
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

A Modern Dubarry

1927

Love's Carnival poster
9.0

No synopsis available yet.

Love's Carnival

1929

Children of No Importance poster
6.1

If watching a fellow facing indifference/rejection in the slums of Berlin didn't convey enough pathos, Gerhard Lamprecht gathered much of the same crew from Die Verrufenen and turned his attention to the city's population of unwanted children for the heart-tugging Die Unehelichen, released the following year. The trio of foster children at the center of Die Verrufenen are survivors who use their own resourcefulness to get by when the kids' guardians and the system itself let them down.

Children of No Importance

1926

An der Schönen Blauen Donau poster
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

An der Schönen Blauen Donau

1926

The Old Fritz II poster
6.5

Silent epic on the final years of Frederick II.

The Old Fritz II

1928

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Die Blumenfrau vom Potsdamer Platz

1925