Max Haufler

The burial of an old woman leads to several complications among family and friends.

A German living in India during World War II is blackmailed by the English to impersonate an SS officer on board a cargo ship leaving Japan for Germany carrying a large supply of rubber for tyres. His mission is to disable the scuttling charges so the captain cannot sink the ship if they are stopped by English warships.

Josef K wakes up in the morning and finds the police in his room. They tell him that he is on trial but nobody tells him what he is accused of. In order to find out about the reason for this accusation and to protest his innocence, he tries to look behind the façade of the judicial system. But since this remains fruitless, there seems to be no chance for him to escape from this Kafkaesque nightmare.

A mother wants to buy a bike for her son, but she doesn't have enough money.

Four American soldiers stationed near a German village face death in the rape of a local girl and are defended by outside counsel Major Steve Grant.

The further trials of the wealthy Emmentaler farming family Jowäger and their neighbors, adapted from the second volume of the 19th century novel by Jeremias Gotthelf (pen-name of Albert Bitzius).

Three bums get played by the devil.

The trials of the wealthy Emmentaler farming family Jowäger, adapted from the 19th century novel of the same name by Jeremias Gotthelf (pen-name of Albert Bitzius), which was also published in two parts.

They live behind the rails of the classification yard in a small and shabby hut. They take the days as they come, refuse to work on principle and pinch together their livelihood. The three tramps Dürst, Barbarossa and Clown are content with what they have and ignore the outside world, and so far they have fared well. Until now...

The farmers of a village decide to postpone the construction of a new school in profit of a concentration to cheese production. From a novel by Jeremias Gotthelf.

The search for a child murderer drags a once-respected detective into an all-consuming obsession.

Widowed baker Zürrer has to raise his three children, who all turn out to be disappointments to him in various ways.

The old and sick detective superintendent Bärlach has to investigate the murder of his colleague Ulrich Schmied, who was murdered in the middle of the country road.

The film traces Uli's progress from his humble peasant surroundings to the homes of the wealthy and prominent. The characterizations are convincing, and the comic interludes surprisingly subtle and believable for a Swiss film. The no-star cast doomed Uli Der Knecht from the start so far as American distribution was concerned. It was another matter in Switzerland, where the film was one of the year's top moneymakers. Uli der Knecht was based on a novel by Jeremias Gottbelf.

The paths of guests and employees cross at the Palace Hotel in St. Moritz: A chambermaid experiences financial difficulties. A guest has been robbed. A thief is caught. An assistant cook is promoted to waiter. And there’s no shortage of love in this small world of the great Hotel Palace. Keeping an orderly eye over proceedings is the hotel’s beautiful patron, whose heart is in the right place.

Schaggi Streuli was not his real name. Born Emil Kägi, he had little luck in the first 30 years of his life. As the sixth child of an alcoholic and also a divorce goof, it wasn't easy for Schaggi Streuli. After that he tried unsuccessfully as a pickle in Ticino and a butcher offshoot. His only consolation, acting. And as it turned out later; also his calling.

If any one man is responsible for the rejuvenation of the postwar Swiss film industry, that man was director Leopold Lindtberg. Matto Regiert (Madness Rules) was co-adapted for the screen by Lindtberg from a novel by Friedrich Glauser. Heinrich Gretler stars as Police Constable Studer, the hero of several of Glauser's most popular works. This time, Studer must solve the murder of the director of an insane asylum -- and it's not (surprise, surprise) the most likely suspect, manic-depressive patient Herbert Caplaun. For box-office purposes, Matto Regiert stresses a romantic subplot involving Caplaun and nurse Irma Wasem.

This drama is set in Switzerland and chronicles a fight between an innkeeper and her husband, a chronic adulterer. The trouble begins when she wants to adopt a French orphan and he doesn't.

A man in his fifties returns from America to his native village. Everyone knows that in the New World he served a lengthy prison sentence for manslaughter. He retreats to an isolated quarry in the woods he inherited. There he lives like a hermit, gruffly disencouraging anyone to come near the place.

Venice Film Festival 1939