Various Roles (archive footage)
Film journalist and critic Rüdiger Suchsland examines German cinema from 1933, when the Nazis came into power, until 1945, when the Third Reich collapsed. (A sequel to From Caligari to Hitler, 2015.)
Documentary feature about German actor Heinz Rühmann made shortly before his death in 1994.
Varius Characters
Konrad
Damiel is now married to Marion, runs the pizzeria “Da Angelo” and the two have a child. The solitarily remaining angel Cassiel is more and more dissatisfied with his destiny as a mere observer of human life and finally decides to take the great leap. As Karl Engel he soon gets into a dubious milieu and finds himself as the assistant of the German American Baker, who makes his money with shady arms deals and sends films east in exchange for weapons. Cassiel’s adventure turns into a “thriller” when he decides to put a stop to Baker’s game.
Self
Perret-Latour
himself
Kantor Leon Sternberger
Friebe, Eberts, Weber
Taxifahrer
Golfer
A musical comedy written by Heinz Erhardt and his son Gero Erhardt.
Kirchendiener / Butler / Edward / Ehemann
Narrator
Alfred Eisenhardt
Poliakoff
Roeder, Antiquitätenhändler
Gast
Konsul Jonathan Reynold
Davies
Hilary
Kapitän Wilhelm Ebbs
Captain Ebbs is an older, experienced seaman who has, however, only sailed on freighters. While his current old barge, the Martin Luther, has to go into the shipyard for an overhaul, the shipping company gives him command of the elegant cruise ship Julia to temporarily replace a colleague who has fallen ill. The rough Ebbs finds his way into his new job only with difficulty and initially puts his foot in his social mouth.
Sam Kinsale mit 80 Jahren
Elwood Dowd
Leslie Darwin
Dr. Alexander
Willy Loman
Televised version of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
Erik Braun
Small time crook Napoleone falls into an unlikely gang made up of a gangster, called The Baron, and his two cohorts, Agonia and The Captain, where Napoleone takes them to Rome where they shack up with a shady used car dealer caled Il Cajella to help finance their new life of crime by planing to rob a statue from the Vatican. But a big-time American gangster, named Joe Ventura, hears about the heist and wants the priceless statue for himself by having his mistress, Samantha, come onto and betray the woman-hungry Cajella to give the statue away to her.
Kommissar Maigret
After the theft of a priceless Van Gogh from a Parisian museum, Maigret follows his chief suspect to Lausanne where the suspect is found murdered.
Archilochos
An extravagant comedy with Heinz Rühmann.
Henry Schmidt
Pétepan learns that his money has been lost by Robinhoude brothers.He asks his assistants to withdraw his amount from the bank.
Peer Bille
Kurt Hoffmann's remake of his own 1953 movie based on the play by Curt Goetz.
Professor Hellberg
An episodic film, telling four erotic tales: Angela isn't sexually satisfied by her husband, so she simulates sleep-walking to visit her neighbor across the street every night; when his bathtub runs over, shy Peter gets to meet his sensuous neighbor Lolita; at a high-school reunion his former students pull a prank on Prof. Hellberg and make him believe he cheated on his wife while being drunk; Sybill has a good time during a break at the opera with the famous conductor Cramer.
Lowenthal
Passengers on a ship traveling from Mexico to Europe in the 1930s represent society at large in that era. The crew is German, including the ship's Dr. Schumann, who falls in love with one of the passengers, La Condesa. A young American woman, Jenny, is traveling with the man she loves, David. Jenny is fascinated and puzzled by just who some of the other passengers are.
Dr. Hiob Prätorius
Dr. Lancelot Dodd / Dr. Ivor Marmion
Prof. Dr. Traugott Hermann Nägler
A respectable professor inherits a house and money in Montevideo from his wild sister, on the condition that he himself behaves in a disreputable way.
Dr. Robert Stegemann
Father Brown
Father Brown is only too happy to interfere with the work of the police in solving tricky criminal cases, usually with resounding success. That's why the clergyman is transferred to a sleepy island called Abbott's Rock. At first, nothing happens there, but somehow Father Brown seems to be attracted to crime: Soon a gang of thieves is up to no good on the island. So Brown makes the headlines again, and is punitively transferred once more. This time he finds himself in a quiet Irish millionaire community.
Max Schilling
Max, a small time pick-pocket, has nothing to do with the ‘big’ crimes. But then he must find the murderer of Fred, his wife's brother.
Sebastian Schumann
When the wife of Sebastian Schumann left her family, he told his little daughter that her mother has died, because he thought that this was the easiest way for her to accept that her mother is now gone. But this was only the beginning of a lot of lies he tells her continuously, mostly about himself and his job. This way he also tries to hide away from her the fact that he had to quit his job as a traveler and is now paid much less than before.
Pater Brown
Father Brown starts solving crimes, much to the annoyance of his housekeeper, the police and especially his bishop, who is not amused by a priest playing detective.
Schwejk
Ludwig Fuchs
Dr. Ferdinand Bluhme
A drama directed by Paul Verhoeven.
Herr Buchsbaum
Mr. Buchsbaum, third class taxes employee, lives a peaceful life until the new chief immediately criticizes his work. His only confort is his stamps collection. Sadly, even this consolation and his peace are threatened by a new, charming, neighbour who teaches piano.
Increasingly infuriated, he discovers accidentally one evening that he has the ability to go through walls. With this power, he decides to settle the scores, firstly with his boss who downgraded him.
Carl Kringelein
Gustav Hartmann
Dr. Hermann Seidel
Thomas Träumer
A man takes in three a dog and three runaway girls.
Oberleutnant Matthäi
The search for a child murderer drags a once-respected detective into an all-consuming obsession.
Lutz Ventura
Margot is looking forward to moving into the old defense tower with her fiancé Lutz, a writer. Then the writer receives the news of his sister's death. Lutz is supposed to take in their children Traudl and Rudi and the dog Leo. Margot did not expect so much attachment...
Anton Wibbel
Wilhelm Voigt
The 1956 movie based on the theater play by Carl Zuckmayer based on the true story of cobbler Wilhelm Voigt who dressed up as a German military officer and, with the help of unsuspecting soldiers, took over the city hall in Köpenick and confiscated the city's purse.
Dr. Otto Dernburg
Otto Dernburg is forced by circumstances to dress up as a middle-aged woman.
Teddy Lemke
After Clown Teddy lost his son, he lost his gift for laughter. He opened a joke shop and lives above the shop. His landlady has had a foster son since birth, and Teddy decides to raise the child, who always believed that Teddy was his father. When the mother suddenly appears five years later and wants her son, Teddy decides to run away with the child and goes back onstage with his son. Will the family catch up with them, or will the mother never get her son back?
Albert Petit
Pittes Breuer
After many years on the oceans, sailor Hannes Wedderkamp has finally returned to Hamburg. On St. Pauli, Hannes sings songs from the sea in the hippodrome of his best friend Pitter Breuer on the Reeperbahn with the "Quetschkommode" songs and cares for the audience.
Director
Postman Titus Müller returns from his daily rounds with a letter that will change the course of his modest provincial existence.
Titus Müller
Postman Titus Müller returns from his daily rounds with a letter that will change the course of his modest provincial existence.
Emil Keller
Dr. Felix Schneider
Hugo Brinkmeyer
Producer
Amore e sangue (released in the U.S. as "City of Violence"), the 1951 Marino Girolami (billed as "John Wolff") West German/Italian romantic action adventure war thriller.
Producer
Peter Krüger
Producer
A wayward young woman running from her past is reunited with her sister after they became separated during the war. While she worked on the streets, the sister established a professional career as a psychologist.
Producer
André
Producer
Long before he played the corpulent Goldfinger, German actor Gert Froebe was a scarecrow-skinny comedian. In Berliner Ballade, Froebe makes his screen debut as Otto, a feckless Everyman who tries to adjust to the postwar travails of his defeated nation. Stymied by black-market profiteers and government bureaucrats, Otto begins fantasizing about a happier life at the end of that ever-elusive rainbow. Director R. A. Stemmle doesn't have to strive for pathos: he merely places his gangly star amidst the ruins of a bombed-out Berlin, and the point is made for him. Filmed in 1948, Berliner Ballade was later released in the U.S. as The Berliner.
Director
Producer
Producer
Der Herr vom andern Stern
Otto 'Quax' Groschenbügel
Director
Achim and Vera are friends and live an uncomplicated and happy life .... that is, until they get into their first serious argument on how they should spend New Year's Eve. Vera wants to celebrate with friends, while Achim wants to go off to a lonely mountain hut. And so, he goes off alone into the mountains. In the hut, he meets the student Susanne, with whom he spends New Years' Eve; gets to know well; and falls in love with. Unfortunately, through misfortune, they lose sight of each other afterwards...
Producer
Die Feuerzangenbowle from Director Helmut Weiss is based on the novel by the same name from Heinrich Spoerl and Hans Reimann that has turned into a cult German film. The film tells the story of a writer Johannes Pfeiffer who goes undercover as a student in a high school after his friends told him that he missed out on a great life experience since he was home schooled.
Dr. Johannes Pfeiffer/Hans Pfeiffer
Die Feuerzangenbowle from Director Helmut Weiss is based on the novel by the same name from Heinrich Spoerl and Hans Reimann that has turned into a cult German film. The film tells the story of a writer Johannes Pfeiffer who goes undercover as a student in a high school after his friends told him that he missed out on a great life experience since he was home schooled.
Peter Trost
Director
The successful writer Erich Eckberg lives with his wife Sigrid and their three children -- the twins, Knut and Michael and the daughter Gabriel -- on their estate "Sophienlund". On their sons' 21st birthday, Eckberg tells them the great family secret: Knut and Michael aren't his children (happy birthday, kids ... oh! and did I mention Santa Claus doesn't exist either?). But thankfully, the news gets better: their real mother died giving birth to them (guilt trip ... guilt trip!) and the Eckbergs decided to adopt the boys and bring them up in a proper family (no doubt so they could shatter their lives with this tale on their 21st birthday). But hey: it made everyone forget about the War going on outside the theatre, right?
Otto Groschenbügel
Hermann Knittel
A man comes into money unexpectatly. That's when the trouble starts.
Axel Roth
Himself
German propaganda film spinning a story around the popular radio broadcast "Wunschkonzert".
Producer
The daydreaming tailor Wenzel is fired from his job, because the fancy frock he was supposed to cut for the mayor, he instead made for himself. He is allowed, however, to take the frock, which he appropriated for himself and he puts it on as he leaves the shop. A puppeteer picks him up in his coach and addresses Wenzel as "Count". So is he received in Goldach, where people think he is Count Stroganoff, the ambassador to the Czar of Russia.
Schneidergeselle Wenzel
The daydreaming tailor Wenzel is fired from his job, because the fancy frock he was supposed to cut for the mayor, he instead made for himself. He is allowed, however, to take the frock, which he appropriated for himself and he puts it on as he leaves the shop. A puppeteer picks him up in his coach and addresses Wenzel as "Count". So is he received in Goldach, where people think he is Count Stroganoff, the ambassador to the Czar of Russia.
Director
Peter Ohlsen, Student
Hugo Bartels
Executive Producer
Der Florentiner Hut (The Leghorn Hat), a 1939 German film directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner
Theo Farina
Der Florentiner Hut (The Leghorn Hat), a 1939 German film directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner
Director
The stories' setup: a bunch of passive weaklings being dominated by two strong and ambitious women who fight for the same man.
Niels Korff
Friseur Felix Rabe
A classical art junk dealer and an almost bankrupt hairdresser who unexpectedly makes an inheritance go hunting behind thirteen chairs from which of a 100,000 DM contains which the rich aunt has hidden there.
Peter Pett / Patrick Pett
According to his last will, the rich American uncle of vacuum cleaner salesman Peter Pett only leaves his 5 million dollars to Peter if he is married happily. Otherwise the five million will fall to Peter's Scottish cousin Patrick.
Karl Kramer - Kellner
Writer
Heinz Rühmann plays the "model husband" who, when his bored wife threatens to leave him, embarks on an adventurous night.
Billy Bartlett
Heinz Rühmann plays the "model husband" who, when his bored wife threatens to leave him, embarks on an adventurous night.
Dr. John H. Watson / Macky McPherson
Two out-of-work private detectives disguise themselves as Holmes and Watson to gain attention and end up chasing counterfeiters and stolen stamps.
Toni Mathis
The Man Who is Talked About is the overly agreeable Toni Mathis (Heinz Ruhmann), a gent constitutionally incapable of saying the word "no" (or "nein," this being a German picture). Though he'd rather breeze through life without responsibilities or obligations, Toni agrees to study zoology in college because his uncle (Hans Moser) wants him to. Alas, despite the Herculean efforts by Toni's servant Hassler (Theo Lingen) to prepare his master for his final exams, Toni forgets to show up for the finals and is expelled post-haste. In desperation, his uncle arranges for Toni to get married, and once again our hero just can't say no. Trouble is, he falls in love with trapeze artist Bianca (Gusti Huber), whose father won't let her marry anyone except another entertainer. Undaunted, Toni studies a book on show business and tries out for the vaudeville stage, and the picture isn't even halfway over yet!
Schneidergeselle Zwirn
Christian Kempenich
David
Best friends David and Philip have to end their love affair with their mistress Aimée which they - not knowing of each other - share, because they are going to marry their sweethearts Gaby and Viola. Of course Aimée will not accept her defeat. She interferes the engagement of Gaby and David, which lead to some turbulence and change of horses before they all end up in their honeymoon.
Franz Angerer
On the occasion of a charity ball in Vienna a kiss of a famous actress should be auctioned. Misunderstandings between the manager of the film star, a record producer and a student lead too all kinds of mistakes, during which a student is mistaken for a prince in disguise and almost breaks his hapiness. - Quickly and expertly produced mistake comedy with a lot of singing desposits and an at than popular comedian line-up, which offers amusing surface entertainment.
Peter Bang
Willibald Riegele
A famous racing driver must give up his sport and take over the management of the porcelain factory on incentive of the vigorous grandmother as the last shoot of an old businessman's family. Unrecognized he is regulated as a worker what a love story with a 20-year-old worker arises from, who leads after incidents in the happy end. - After Franz Lehar's operetta produced comedy
Paul Normann
Peter Hilpert
A poor composer who should buy a property for his ambitious father-in-law finances with the money, nevertheless, an opera. Together with his friend who must play a husband to his strict rich aunt, he makes to himself a fun from the mistakes which cause her feints.
Aristides Nessel
Benjamin Cortes
Ruritanian power struggle with opera singing.
Hippolit
Czechoslovakian opera star Jarmila Novotna plays the title role in the Austrian tunefest Frasquita. Based on a Franz Lehar operetta, the story is the usual frothy nonsense. Dolly (Charlotte Daudert) is engaged to marry Hyppolit (Heinz Ruhmann), but she's really in love with Harold (Hans Heinz-Bollman). Hyppolit is likewise enamored of another, namely Frasquita (Jarmila Novotna). Alas, Dolly and Hyppolit must go through with the wedding, despite the dictates of their hearts. That there's a happy ending all the same comes as a surprise only to the characters on the screen.
August Pipin
Dr. Hans Pfeiffer/ Erich Pfeiffer
First adaptation of Heinrich Spoerl's novel.
Pelotard
Ballettmeister Eddy Blattner
Kadett Heini Jäger
While out dancing, two sailors fall for the same girl.
Amadori
Peter Frank
After the death of his uncle, the owner of the Rhine based Bockelmann Sparkling Wine, Peter turns up for the reading of the will. Justus Bockelmann, a producer of mineral water, is confident he will inherit the business, but ‘for reasons of moral rectitude’ he has no intention of running an ‘alcoholic business’. The opening of the will comes as a surprise to all the potential heirs.
Didier
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.
Willy Streblow - Rennfahrer
Fred Holmes
The fast-driving daughter of a car manufacturer keeps Berlin's most pricey lawyer busy as she keeps getting into scrapes.
Gustav Diestelbeck
The adventures of smart soldier Gustav Diestelbeck include managing his superior officer, competing for the canteneer's daughter, evading punishment for discipline faults and hosting Prinz Willibald during his visit to the regiment.
Heinz Schmidt
In this German comedy, an enterprising American uncle comes from Chicago goes to the tiny town of Groditzkirchen to make a fortune on credit even though he only has $10 to his name. To do so, he enlists the aide of a bank clerk and begins posing as a millionaire.
Wittek
Leopold Pichler is a very orderly and trustworthy chief cashier who is asked by his boss to get a large sum of money from the bank which the boss urgently needs on a trip to Vienna. Due to some circumstances, getting the money takes a little longer than expected and the director leaves for Vienna without it. But Pichler sees himself as a reliable man, and so he and his assistant Wittek follow the director to Vienna with the money kept in a bag. In Vienna, the two provincials however are mistaken for guests of the director and spend an evening at a posh night club. But when it transpires that the director actually won't come to the night club that evening, Pichler and Wittek have to pay the bill with the money from the bank. And their subsequent attempts at reimbursing the money lead to situations of ever-increasing hilariousness...
Peter Bergmann
A mousy bank clerk is married to an ambitious woman.
Erster Offizier Peter
The captain of a battleship of a small Balkan country is fed up with following strange orders from the country's queen.
Hans Herfort
A man in bad sorts hires a burglar to later kill him, then changes his mind when his fortunes turn and must find the contracted murderer before it is too late.
Sérigny
The young wife of a rich old husband is prevented of a fling by a gentleman-burglar, who falls in love to her.
Hans
Die Drei von der Tankstelle, meaning The Three from the Gas Station, was advertised as a German operetta when release and with it’s star studded cast would become the forerunner of Musical films. Even today the soundtrack of the comic harmonists is popular in Germany.
Benjamin Cortez, Kapellmeister
