Erich Pommer

Production

Erich Pommer

Born — Died

1889-07-20 — 1966-05-08

Place of birth

Hildesheim, Germany

Known for

Production

Credits

41 titles

Erich Pommer (20 July 1889 – 8 May 1966) was a German-born film producer and executive. Pommer was perhaps the most powerful person in the German and European film industries in the 1920s and early 1930s. As producer, Erich Pommer was involved in the German Expressionist film movement during the silent era. As the head of production at Decla Film, Decla-Bioskop, and, from 1924 to 1926, at UFA, Pommer was responsible for many of the best known movies of the Weimar Republic. He later worked in American exile before returning to Germany to help rebuild the German film industry after World War II.

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

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari poster
7.9

Francis, a young man, recalls in his memory the horrible experiences he and his fiancée Jane recently went through. Francis and his friend Alan visit The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, an exhibit where the mysterious doctor shows the somnambulist Cesare, and awakens him for some moments from his death-like sleep.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

1920

The Last Laugh poster
7.8

An aging doorman, after being fired from his prestigious job at a luxurious hotel, is forced to face the scorn of his friends, neighbours and society.

The Last Laugh

1924

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

Faust poster
7.9

Murnau’s epic adaptation of Goethe’s tragedy stands with Fritz Lang’s Metropolis among the supreme achievements of German silent cinema. Gösta Ekman plays the alchemist who, his faith shaken in a time of plague, is offered the gift of healing and eternal youth… in exchange for his soul.

Faust

1926

Jamaica Inn poster
6.1

In early 19th-century Cornwall, young Mary Yellan travels to live with her aunt and uncle at the remote Jamaica Inn, where she discovers the inn is a front for a violent gang of wreckers who lure ships to their doom along the coast. As she becomes entangled in their crimes, Mary must fight to survive and uncover the truth behind the terror that haunts the moors.

Jamaica Inn

1939

Film credits

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

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari poster
7.9

Francis, a young man, recalls in his memory the horrible experiences he and his fiancée Jane recently went through. Francis and his friend Alan visit The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, an exhibit where the mysterious doctor shows the somnambulist Cesare, and awakens him for some moments from his death-like sleep.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

1920

The Last Laugh poster
7.8

An aging doorman, after being fired from his prestigious job at a luxurious hotel, is forced to face the scorn of his friends, neighbours and society.

The Last Laugh

1924

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

Faust poster
7.9

Murnau’s epic adaptation of Goethe’s tragedy stands with Fritz Lang’s Metropolis among the supreme achievements of German silent cinema. Gösta Ekman plays the alchemist who, his faith shaken in a time of plague, is offered the gift of healing and eternal youth… in exchange for his soul.

Faust

1926

Jamaica Inn poster
6.1

In early 19th-century Cornwall, young Mary Yellan travels to live with her aunt and uncle at the remote Jamaica Inn, where she discovers the inn is a front for a violent gang of wreckers who lure ships to their doom along the coast. As she becomes entangled in their crimes, Mary must fight to survive and uncover the truth behind the terror that haunts the moors.

Jamaica Inn

1939

Dance, Girl, Dance poster
6.4

Judy O'Brien is an aspiring ballerina in a dance troupe. Also in the company is Bubbles, a brash mantrap who leaves the struggling troupe for a career in burlesque. When the company disbands, Bubbles gives Judy a thankless job as her stooge. The two eventually clash when both fall for the same man.

Dance, Girl, Dance

1940

Die Nibelungen: Siegfried poster
7.8

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

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

The Dance of Death poster
7.0

In this apparently lost film, a beautiful dancer's sexual allure is used by an evil cripple to entice men to their deaths. Falling in love with one of the potential victims, she is told by the cripple that he will set her free if her lover, actually a murderer himself, survives and escapes a bizarre labyrinthe which runs beneath the cripple's house.

The Dance of Death

1919

The Blue Angel poster
7.3

Prim professor Immanuel Rath finds some of his students ogling racy photos of cabaret performer Lola Lola and visits a local club, The Blue Angel, in an attempt to catch them there. Seeing Lola perform, the teacher is filled with lust, eventually resigning his position at the school to marry the young woman. However, his marriage to a coquette -- whose job is to entice men -- proves to be more difficult than Rath imagined.

The Blue Angel

1930

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

Harakiri poster
5.7

The daughter of a daimyo, one forced to commit harakiri to secure her a future to choose her own destiny, falls in love with and marries a European officer. The officer returns to Europe but promises to come back for her and his new child, but when he comes back to Japan, he brings his European wife.

Harakiri

1919

St. Martin's Lane poster
7.4

Pickpocket Libby is protected by aging street performer Charles, who takes her into his troupe. Libby's dancing leads her to meet songwriter Harley and launch a stage career, while Charles is seemingly spurned by the waif he has helped.

St. Martin's Lane

1938

A Shot at Dawn poster
7.0

A Berlin policeman tracks down a group of diamond thieves in the outskirts by posing as a gang member.

A Shot at Dawn

1932

Vessel of Wrath poster
6.9

Ginger Ted, AKA Edward Claude Wilson, a drunkard and womanizer, and Miss Jones, a missionary, live in the Alas Islands. During a cholera epidemic, Ginger Ted and Miss Jones are sent to an outlying part of the islands to run a hospital; on their return, their motorboat breaks down, and they are marooned overnight on a small island.

Vessel of Wrath

1938

Vessel of Wrath poster
6.9

Ginger Ted, AKA Edward Claude Wilson, a drunkard and womanizer, and Miss Jones, a missionary, live in the Alas Islands. During a cholera epidemic, Ginger Ted and Miss Jones are sent to an outlying part of the islands to run a hospital; on their return, their motorboat breaks down, and they are marooned overnight on a small island.

Vessel of Wrath

1938

A Man Has Been Stolen poster
8.0

Lost film. A young man is kidnapped by his business competitors, but the jailer falls in love with the man she has to keep a prisoner.

A Man Has Been Stolen

1934

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

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

The Only Girl poster
7.0

English-language version of Ich und die Kaiserin. 'Germany, 1890. Duke falls in love with voice which is not that of empress, but of hairdresser.' (British Film Catalogue)

The Only Girl

1933

Fire Over England poster
6.2

In 1588, relations between Spain and England are at the breaking point. With the support of Queen Elizabeth I, British sea raiders such as Sir Francis Drake regularly capture Spanish merchantmen, bringing gold from the New World.

Fire Over England

1937

Burglars poster
6.4

The young wife of a rich old husband is prevented of a fling by a gentleman-burglar, who falls in love to her.

Burglars

1930

The Only Girl poster
6.2

A dashing marquis bends from his horse when he discovers a lost garter in the woods and falls. During his delirium he is serenaded by a little hairdresser. She is the person who lost the garter to begin with and has only come to get it back having borrowed it from her employer--the empress of France. The marquis mistakenly thinks he was nursed by the empress, herself, and decides to woo her.

The Only Girl

1933

The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrovna poster
7.1

This silent-screen classic, like many others produced near the end of the silent era, was both a theatrical extravaganza boasting an original orchestral score and an item which languished in obscurity for many years. When Carlo Piccardi took what was left of the score by Maurice Jaubert and re-created it, the existing footage was restored and paired with a new orchestral performance which was shown in Paris in 1988. The film's story concerns the travails of a woman who has been living quite comfortably as the mistress of a colonel in the Tsar's army in Russia. However, she eventually encounters a penniless young lieutenant and falls madly in love with him, as he does with her. Despite her best intentions of remaining with the colonel, and his intention to avoid trouble with his fellow soldiers, they cannot forswear this relationship, and tragedy is the inevitable result. The title refers to a moving incident in the story, and translates as "the wonderful lie of Nina Petrovna."

The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrovna

1929

Phantom poster
6.8

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

F.P.1 Doesn't Answer poster
6.5

F.P.1 is a huge airplane landing dock in the Atlantic where pilots making the transatlantic flight can stop. Yet a saboteur tries to sink the technical wonder in this classic German science fiction film from 1932. The film was also created with English and French speaking actors at the same time.

F.P.1 Doesn't Answer

1932

Bombs Over Monte Carlo poster
6.4

The captain of a battleship of a small Balkan country is fed up with following strange orders from the country's queen.

Bombs Over Monte Carlo

1931

Decameron Nights poster
9.0

A Saracen sultan's disguised son loves an amnesiac Moslem princess.

Decameron Nights

1924

Tartuffe poster
7.2

A young man shows his millionaire grandfather a film based on Molière's play "Tartuffe" in order to expose the old man's hypocritical governess who covets the young man's inheritance.

Tartuffe

1926

The Three from the Filling Station poster
6.1

Willy, Kurt and Hans are broke, so they sell their car and open a filling station. Then, they all fall in love with the same girl.

The Three from the Filling Station

1930

Music in the Air poster
5.6

A songwriter's young daughter (June Lang) begins to dream of stardom when she's offered the lead role in a new operetta.

Music in the Air

1934

Liliom poster
6.5

Two women love the same man in a world of few prospects. In Budapest, Liliom is a "public figure," a rascal who's a carousel barker, loved by the experienced merry-go-round owner and by a young, innocent maid. The maid, Julie, loses her job after going out with Liliom; he's fired by his jealous employer for going out with Julie. The two lovers move in with Julie's aunt; unemployment emasculates him and a local weasel tempts him with crime. Julie, now wan, is true to Liliom even in his bad temper. Meanwhile, a stolid widower, a carpenter, wants to marry Julie. Is there any future on this earth for Julie and Liliom, whose love is passionate rather than ideal?

Liliom

1934

The Spiders: Part 1 - The Golden Sea poster
6.0

In San Francisco, well-known sportsman Kay Hoog announces to a club that he has found a message in a bottle with a map drawn by a Harvard professor who has gone missing. The map tells of a lost Incan civilization that possesses an immense treasure. Hoog immediately plans an expedition to find it. But Lio Sha, the head of a criminal organization known as the Spiders, is determined to get the treasure for herself and plans a rival expedition.

The Spiders: Part 1 - The Golden Sea

1919

Die Ehe der Frau Mary poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Die Ehe der Frau Mary

1919

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

The Pleasure Garden poster
5.3

Two chorus girls at the Pleasure Garden Theatre follow different paths in love and fortune.

The Pleasure Garden

1925

They Knew What They Wanted poster
6.0

While courting a young woman by mail, a rich farmer sends a photograph of his foreman instead of his own, which leads to complications when she accepts his marriage proposal.

They Knew What They Wanted

1940

No artwork available
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

The Daughter of Countess Stachowska

1917

No artwork available
NR

Henry and Jeanne are lovers. They are shocked to discover that Henry’s mother once had an affair with Jeanne’s father, which resulted in a child—meaning they would be half-siblings. Overcome with shame, they decide to take their own lives, but they encounter an old ferryman who reveals yet another twist: Jeanne, too, is an illegitimate child.

Toteninsel

1921