Hans Zesch-Ballot

Rival gangsters from Chicago move to London and attempt to extort money from rich Britons.

Jack Manningham tries to drive his wife Bella out of her mind with cunning heartlessness. He hides things he previously gave her for safekeeping, makes household items disappear only to find them in the most unlikely places, and puts words in Bella's mouth that she never said. All to convince her that, like her deceased mother, she is suffering from a split consciousness and delusions of persecution.Jack Manningham has his reasons. He doesn't want Bella to realize that he returns via mysterious paths over the rooftops to spend hours searching for treasure in the carefully locked upper floor. Fate has linked Jack to the old house since the day he committed a murder in it. The gas light, whose glow diminishes when a lamp is lit in the house and brightens when it is extinguished, puts Bella on the trail of the strange connections for the first time.

Leah Weiss, a Polish Jew, was first forced into prostitution at Auschwitz. Afterwards, she was victimized in medical experiments. Now, twenty years later, German war crimes prosecutors hope she will be their star witness. But can she stand up to the shame, the publicity, and the reliving of those experiences?

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

Pauline Pittelkow, a widow in her prime, lives in Berlin with her daughter Olga and her younger, still unmarried sister Stine. No one takes offense at the fact that the righteous woman has had an older count as a lover for years. For an evening together, the count brings a baron friend, his nephew Waldemar von Haldern and the actress Wanda. Waldemar, raised in a cold home, and the smart, solid Stine develop a deep, earnest affection for each other. The wise-beyond-life Mrs. Pittelkow does not look kindly on this ill-mannered union. She thinks that a light love affair is acceptable, but deep feelings cause pain. Despite all tradition, Waldemar wants to take Stine as his wife. The resistance of his family and Pauline drives him to take a momentous step.

Double murderer Dr. Crippen is using every means possible to search for a manuscript that he suspects is in the possession of the daughter of the man who was executed in his place.

An aging truck driver finds smuggled money and becomes involved with a hijacking crowd.

A disillusioned Wehrmacht officer named Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler on 20 July 1944.

No synopsis available yet.

A motorcycle gang in post-war Germany wreaks havok on a town, until one of their members begins to have second thoughts after a run-in with the police.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

The young lieutenant Hans Rudloff is engaged to the daughter of a councilor of commerce. However, he is in love with the flower arranger Anna. In order to marry her, he is even prepared to resign from his post. But gossip and intrigue don't exactly make things easy for the two of them.

No synopsis available yet.

German big game hunter brings elephants back from Africa safely through enemy lines, but they go on a stampede in Berlin. Filming began during WWII in Germany, but production was stopped because story showed Third Reich police and military having problems coping with an elephant stampede; after the War, it got completed by its originator, and exported to the US with English dubbed, while removing all references to its 1940s German origins!

Karl Geschwandtner, a porter in a large hotel, has only one wish: one day, he'd like to be the lord and master, as the saying goes: to be the porter and 'ruler' in the hotel. And luck helps him to temporarily fulfill his dream. But Karl doesn't just take over running the hotel, he feels the need to stick his nose in the life of his hotel guests, too. There are couples, who don't want to be put together or apart. When a valuable jewel goes missing, he plays detective and only succeeds in helping the thief to rob the hotel guests at his leisure. Pretty soon, chaos reigns at the hotel; there's massive confusion. Even the newspaper seller, Wally, whom Karl secretly loves, is slowly starting to mistrust him. When the director of "Hotel Europa" finally returns, he throws Karl out, who thereupon simply rents a room as a guest.

A diligent office worker and a cheeky sales representative are tasked by their boss with reserving a first-class hotel room with a bathroom for a visiting Hamburg exporter and his wife. A misunderstanding leads to non-stop confusion, because the office worker is spending his first wedding anniversary with his wife in the rented hotel room.

Prince Alexander loves the commoner Vera and defies his uncle the Tzar as well as his peers by arranging his wedding. But Vera leaves him because she does not want to be the cause of him spending the rest of his life as a social outcast.

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!

An interfering mother plans husbands for her three daughters as they come of marriageable age. However she pays no attention to her daughters own feeling until the eventual intervention of her husband manages to bring things to a happy conclusion.

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In Bremen, a ship is launched, which was built by Thomas Holk. That evening, he gets to know the middle-aged widow Ada Rasmus, who flirts heavily with him. The next day, Thomas travels to Hallbad on vacation and the two lose sign of each other. In this rural idyll, he gets to know Krist and falls in love with her. He takes her back with him to Bremen and his aunt introduces her into society. Her natural charms enchants everyone and the beautiful widow Ada swears revenge. She finds a way to bring Ada into a painful situation with Dr. von Cremona, and, to top it all off, a man’s coat is found in her room.

Based on an 1884 novel by Julius Stinde, it is a family chronicle set in late nineteenth century Berlin.

Azerbaijan, 1919. The British hope to secure control of the vast oil fields around Baku by launching a series of terrorist attacks on them. Hans Romberg, a German who is working as a security officer, battles with the British chief agent Captain Forbes and his associates. (Description from Wikipedia)

A continuation of the film "Familie Buchholz": To Wilhelmine Buchholz, the concept of a marriage based on love is somewhat scary, although she hears again and again that this is the "modern" method to a happy marriage. Her daughter Betti seems to agree, as she shows no interest in her middle class companions; she only loves the painter Holle. To once again restore family harmony, Mr. Buchholz sends his wife and daughters to Helgoland. But Wilhelmine has to return early to Berlin to look after things while Betti and Holle continue onward. On Helgoland, they secretly marry.

Axel Roth is happy in his marriage and with his job. But his mother-in-law wants more for her daughter and manages to sow discord. When the two of them use cunning to secure an invitation to a high-society gathering at the general director's house, Axel's wife loses an expensive borrowed brooch there. From now on, he has to work day and night to pay off the jewelry...

In 1885, famous New York Metropolitan Opera singer Maddalena dall' Orto is scheduled to perform at a festival in the German residence of Ilmingen. It soon becomes obvious that she is non other than Magda von Schwartze, who left the town eight years ago against her father's wishes to become a singer.

The film is an adaptation of the 1891 operetta Der Vogelhändler by composer Carl Zeller, with libretto by Moritz West and Ludwig Held, though it incorporates few of the original songs, using them mostly instrumentally or in the background. The plot follows Adam, a Tyrolean bird seller in 18th-century Rhineland, who hopes to marry his beloved Christl, a postmaster's daughter; to secure his future, she arranges for him to perform at court, but complications arise when she is mistakenly suspected of an affair with a philandering prince.

The sensitive, music-loving son of a German general reluctantly attends a military academy and after warning a fellow officer to stay away from the cadet's attractive young stepmother, lands up being charged for murder.

This 1936 film tells the story of the doings of foreign agents in Germany and their allies among the German population. Having placed an ad in a local paper looking for "contact with bigwigs in German industry", enemy agents Morris and Geyer end up making contact with an engineer named Brockau. Brockau has developed an improvement in turning oil into gasoline and that's just what these enemy agents are looking for. Brockau, for his part, needs money, because his girlfriend is a selfish cow who demands more and more toys and trinkets, which has put our naive little nerd deep into debt. Brockau, however, is not the only unwitting maroon to fall into the clutches of the evil agents: the former bank agent Hans Klemm, now doing his service in the Wehrmacht, ends up being contacted by an agent from the other side and ends up getting blackmailed into working for them.

A Czarist courier has to get across the Siberia frontier, threatened by Tartar invaders and a treacherous Russian helping them. Strogoff encounters several colorful characters along the way. German language version of the French film Michel Strogoff, adapting the novel by Jules Verne.

1900: Much to the chagrin of Baron Uhlendorff in Schoneberg, the city of Berlin is expanding. But what is much worse is that his son George is in love with Traute, the daughter of the master carpenter Schradecke. So the son must leave for South America as a diplomat and Father Schradecke has to intercept his letters to his daughter. Traute is inconsolable; 1913: The early days of the small artisans have now given way to them becoming big businessmen. Traute continues to wait for George in spite of the stubborn proposing by the carpenter Paul Buttner.

Since her father died, rich and carefree Jacqueline Topelius makes magazine covers and causes social gossip with her flirtatious adventures around Europe, leaving a string of admirers behind without much concern. Her sister June, living in Paris, is all the contrary but they love each other just the same. Everything changes when Jacqueline meets Dr. Michael Thomas, who rejects her at first. Now she must choose, and also face the consequences her past life may have on their future together.

After a passionate affair in Paris, adventurer Sascha Demidoff can no longer forget Sitha, the beautiful Maharani of Eshanpur. He travels through the wilderness of India to the maharaja's palace, where Sitha still returns his passion. But when his connection to her becomes apparent, he finds himself exposed to the revenge of the deceived maharaja. It is only with Sitha's help that he narrowly escapes from a ravenous tiger in the predator courtyard and flees with her from the palace to Berlin. Meanwhile, the architect Fürbringer is waiting for a message from Eschnapur, where he has been promised the construction of several large buildings. However, Fürbringer's friend and first draughtsman Sperling returns from India without having achieved anything. When Fürbringer's fiancée, Irene Traven, discovers that the maharajah is in Berlin incognito, she gains access to him and manages to get the prince to award her fiancé the building contract...

The Berlin lawyer Dr. Lessner (Karl Ludwig Diehl) is involved in a murder case. His wife, movie star Christa (Kitty Jantzen), allegedly had an affair with singer Juan Navarro (Harry Hardt), who was found dead in front of Dr. Lessners house. Christa is arrested ...

As the Austro-Hungarian empire comes closer to defeat in the Great War, a young lieutenant tries to rescue the standards of his Maria Isabell regiment from falling into enemy hands.

A renowned actress rescues a small theater, which is on the verge of bankruptcy.

The film follows the life story of Johann Augustus Suter, the owner of Sutter's Mill, famous as the birthplace of the great California Gold Rush of 1848.

Gottfried Jonathan, a small civil servant, lives as a lodger and is roommates with the blonde Käthe. Although she tries very hard, she can’t find a job and can no longer afford her rent of 40 marks. Jonathan secretly loves Käthe and decides to raise the necessary money for her.

Set on the Hungarian plains and in romantic Budapest, the film follows Rose Barsony’s spirited dancer-singer and Wolf Albach-Retty’s young noble as they navigate love, song and national pride. When the aristocratic family’s fortunes are threatened by the heir’s prodigality, veteran estate manager Károly Sugár steps in to safeguard the daughter’s inheritance. Against a backdrop of blooded horses, vineyard laborers and patriotic pageantry, the couple’s romance unfolds through musical numbers and colorful travelogue sequences that celebrate Hungary’s landscape and culture.

On their way to a boxing competition in Buenos Aires, the criminal investigator Harry Winkler from Berlin and Conny Steven of Scotland Yard, meet in Lisbon. Both have a 90 minute break before their ship leaves for South America. They end up meeting Ilse Siebeck, a young woman and through her become part of a criminal mystery. Ilse's uncle is murdered and Harry Winkler is quickly able to determine that the man who murdered her uncle is the exact same man who murdered his father a few years earlier.

After the death of his wife and mother of his 17-year-old daughter Gisela, Consul Brückmann is now in his second marriage to the beautiful Peruvian Tessa. She is only ten years older than Gisela, and the two have a very friendly relationship. At a ball, Gisela dances with the charming Fernando Alvarez, but she shows no interest in his advances. Tessa, however, recognizes her childhood sweetheart in him. The consul invites Fernando to his table, but neither of them let on. When Alvarez later comes to her house on business, Brückmann is absent and Tessa gives in to his advances. They plan to return home together. Tessa then learns that the train she thought her husband was on has derailed. Now she knows that she still loves him. When he stands in front of her, she tells him everything. Deeply hurt, he wants to let her go. Only Gisela manages to bring them back together.

On the eve of the Great War, an expatriate German working in Latin America learns that the Fatherland is in peril, and risks various obstacles to get back to Europe to join the ranks of fighting men.

Remake of the silent film of 1921: The lord of a castle disappears after the return of two feuding brothers from a noble family. Suspicion falls on the recently returned brothers.

Sabine Heitmann, the young boss for the shipping company Heitmann, has become friends with Michael, the First Officer and Helmsman of the ship, the "Sabine Heitmann". He only knows Sabine by her first name and doesn't know that she's the boss. When he discovers the fact, however, he gets pissed and refuses to accept his promotion to Captain. Then the shipping company gets a lucrative offer: In a competition with another shipping company, they need to reach Baltimore in 18 days and pick up some freight. Whoever can move their rear ends faster, gets the very profitable contract from an American firm (correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't this sort of thing sink the Titanic?). Together with Michael, Sabine comes up with a plan, which should have them win the contest. The upshot? She wins back his heart and he becomes Captain.

The Impossible Mister Pitt is a 1938 German adventure crime film directed by and starring Harry Piel. It also features Willi Schur, Leopold von Ledebur and Hilde Weissner. It was shot at the Babelsberg Studios in Berlin and on location off the coast of Split in Croatia.

A stressed American millionaire is advised by his doctor to take some downtime and rest in the German countryside. The tycoon is so impressed that he buys an estate and turns it into a resort where other businessmen can take holidays from their stressful lives. In the process he falls in love with the estate's former owner.

'Love and the First Railway' is what this movie's title would mean in English. This is one of those films that depicts fictional characters participating in an historic incident. The actual first railway was built in England, of course. But according to this movie, the first railway (in Germany, at least) was built from Berlin to Potsdam, in 1838. I haven't the faintest idea if that's correct, but the people who made this movie do seem to take a great deal of interest in historical accuracy, so I'll take their word for it. Anyway, a title at the beginning establishes that this movie is set in 1838.

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.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

This is essentially a "Kraft durch Freude" propaganda film though the organization is never mentioned. A company's three day outing might very well be the last because bankruptcy is just around the corner. The people on the trip have all their individual problems and wishes, too. This episodic film might sound quite promising considering the basic idea but its script is determinedly optimistic and leads everything and anything to a happy end. The dramatic parts are finished in a rather implausible way, the comedic are terribly predictable. There's a badly misjudged singing scene in the bus, some bavarian shtick, the Regensburger Domspatzen are singing in Augsburg and so on...

No synopsis available yet.

Director Burckhardt is found shot just after making the moves on Gisela Ostercamp, the wife of a business colleague. When the criminal investigator Haupt inspects items in the apartment of the dead man, he comes to the conclusiong that Gisela herself is the murderess and accusations start flying between the married couple. The murdered man's brother, the lawyer Burckhardt, steps up to act as defense counsel for the woman, with whom he has learned to love in the meantime.