Erich Pommer

The intricate history of UFA, a film production company founded in 1917 that has survived the Weimar Republic, the Nazi regime, the Adenauer era and the many and tumultuous events of contemporary Germany, and has always been the epicenter of the German film industry.

In 1984, Academy Award winning composer Giorgio Moroder introduced Fritz Lang’s science fiction epic Metropolis to a new generation of filmgoers. Working in collaboration with film archivists globally, Moroder supervised a special reconstruction, with color tinting, fewer intertitles and newly restored footage. A pioneer in the field of digital music, Moroder backed this special edition with a throbbing new score, punctuated with pop songs from some of the biggest stars of the early MTV era: Freddie Mercury, Pat Benatar, Adam Ant, Bonnie Tyler, Loverboy and others.

Laslo Benedek interrupted his thriving Hollywood career to return to Europe as director of the German Kinder, Mutter und ein General (Children, Mother and the General). The film is set in Berlin during the last days of WW II. Desperate for manpower, Hitler has ordered that all able-bodied teenaged boys --some as young as 15 -- be drafted into the army. Frau Asmussen (Hilde Krahl) is one of five mothers who learn to their horror that their boys have been slated to be cannon fodder on behalf of the Third Reich. Asmussen and the other mothers head directly to the front to plead with the German generals for the lives of their sons. Not directly an indictment of Germany's involvement in (or incitement of) the recent war, Kinder, Mutter und ein General stresses the futility and heartbreak of all wars everywhere.

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.

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.

In coastal Cornwall, England, during the early 19th Century, a young woman who's come there to visit her aunt, discovers that she's married an inkeeper who's a member of a gang of criminals who arrange shipwrecking and murder for profit.

On the sidewalks of the London theater district the buskers (street performers) earn enough coins for a cheap room. Charles, who recites dramatic monologues, sees that a young pickpocket, Libby, also has a talent for dancing and adds her to his act. Harley, the theater patron who never knew Libby took his gold cigarette case, is impressed by Libby's dancing and invites her to bring Charles and the other buskers in his group to an after-the-play party. Libby comes alone. A theatrical career is launched.

On the sidewalks of the London theater district the buskers (street performers) earn enough coins for a cheap room. Charles, who recites dramatic monologues, sees that a young pickpocket, Libby, also has a talent for dancing and adds her to his act. Harley, the theater patron who never knew Libby took his gold cigarette case, is impressed by Libby's dancing and invites her to bring Charles and the other buskers in his group to an after-the-play party. Libby comes alone. A theatrical career is launched.

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.

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.

The film is a historical drama set during the reign of Elizabeth I (Flora Robson), focusing on the English defeat of the Spanish Armada, whence the title. 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.

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

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?

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 lost film.

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)

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.

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.

A nightclub waiter and a manicurist share the same room, he sleeps there by night and she by day. They've never meet , but they can't stand each other. Then they meet by chance, not knowing who's who and fall in love.

Two window cleaners help a girl who is trying to get to Hollywood.

Rival window cleaners Willy I and Willy 2 befriend Jou-Jou, an aspiring dancer, who has been tricked out of money by a con-man posing as an American movie mogul, and together they turn an old railway carriage into a "Villa Hollywood" for her.

A woman staying at a health spa (Lillian Harvey, goes to the theater every night to see "Quick" a comic performer, who wears clown make-up. She meets him off stage, without make-up and doesn't recognize him. He courts her, hoping she'll like him for himself but she maintains her crush on "Quick."

Lilian Harvey plays Eva, a young girl taking some time in a health spa and spending her evenings in the town's vaudeville theatre enamoured by a heavily made-up clown called Quick. Quick takes a shine to her and tries to woo her without make-up and masquerading as the theatre's manager. Unable to resolve her feelings for Quick and the theatre manager, Eva is angered when she finally learns that they are one and the same.

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

Fresh out of prison a small-time crook finds his girlfriend's dropped him, which sends him into a murderous rage.

Two inspiration sources appear clearly: contemporary American gangster movies and Alfred Döblin’s novel Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929).

In 1815, Tsar Alexander I romances a working-class glove seller, while his double takes his place at the Vienna Congress. English-language version of Der Kongreß tanzt.

Vienna glove-sales-lady Christel falls in love with Russian Czar Alexander. Austrian Prince Metternich tries to use this and other pleasant diversions to keep him out of the negotiation conferences of the 1815 Vienna Congress.

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

During an inquest after a woman is killed, the judge suspects his own son. The woman's lover had been friendly with the son and he was also supposed to be married to the judge's daughter.

When a prostitute is murdered in a cheap Berlin boarding house, an investigating judge suspects that the killer is her boyfriend, unaware that his own son and daughter are also mixed up in the case.

Simultaneously made French version of "Einbrecher": A wealthy old husband looks for the successor for his young wife.A devious gentleman burglar is one possibility he toys with.

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.

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

Willy, Kurt and Hans are broke, so they sell their car and open a filling station. Then they all fall in love for the same girl. Simultaneously filmed French version of the German musical, Die Drei Von Der Tankstelle.

Also known as Darling of the Gods, this was Emil Jannings' second talkie appearance. Jannings stars as famed operatic singer Albert Winkelmann, who is greeted with cheers, applause and romantic propositions whenever he performs in his native Vienna. But when he embarks on a tour of South America, tragedy strikes. The sweltering climate causes Winkelmann to lose his voice on stage, a disaster met with hoots and cat-calls. Dispirited he returns to Europe, where he soon learns that no one is aware of what happened in South America. Intending to retire so as not to be exposed to further humiliation, Winkelmann is goaded back on stage -- where, miraculously, his gorgeous voice returns.

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.

Originally Liebeswalzer, this German operetta was the third talkie vehicle for the effervescent Lillian Harvey. The plot is a typical Graustarkian affair, with Princess Eva (Harvey) preparing to marry a duke whom she's never met. Getting cold feet, the duke ducks the wedding, persuading a handsome young commoner named Bobby (Willy Fritsch) to take his place. The wedding goes on as planned, with Eva never suspecting that her new hubby is a ringer. Eventually, the false duke confesses everything, leading to all sorts of intrigue before a happy ending can be realized. Love Waltz was simultaneously filmed in an English-language version, which posed no problem for the British-born Harvey but caused a few uncomfortable moments for her Teutonic co-stars (eventually, Willy Fritsch was replaced by John Batton, who'd played a bit role in the German version).

Kitty Kellermann is put on trial for murdering her husband, a failed painter. When her counsel resigns from his mandate, the mysterious Peter Bille steps in, though it becomes apparent that he actually is not an advocate but Kitty's lover and moreover confesses the murder. The widow has to admit that the pictures by her deceased spouse sell much better, only for him to suddenly appear alive.

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.

A scientist, Professor Jakob ten Brinken, interested in the laws of heredity, impregnates a prostitute in a laboratory with the semen of a hanged murderer. The prostitute conceives a female child who has no concept of love, whom the professor adopts. The girl, Alraune, suffers from obsessive sexuality and perverse relationships throughout her life. She learns of her unnatural origins and she avenges herself against the professor.

One of the last great German Expressionist films of the silent era, Joe May’s Asphalt is a love story set in the traffic-strewn Berlin of the late 1920s. Starring the delectable Betty Amann in her most famous leading role, Asphalt is a luxuriously produced UFA classic where tragic liaisons and fatal encounters are shaped alongside the constant roar of traffic.

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.

Directed by Hanns Schwarz.

There is hunger in Siberia during the Russian Civil War. One day while dim-witted peasant Sergei is searching corpses for food, he meets a young woman looking for the town of Novokursk. She asks Sergei to help her get there, and to tell anyone they might meet that he is her husband.

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.

Patsy Brand is a chorus girl at the Pleasure Garden music hall. She meets Jill Cheyne who is down on her luck and gets her a job as a dancer. Jill meets adventurer Hugh Fielding and they get engaged, but when Hugh travels out of the country, she begins to play around.

During World War I, an Austrian officer is trapped behind the Russian lines. He tries to sneak through to his own lines, but is forced to take refuge in a small hotel, where he is hidden by the establishment's chambermaid. The two fall in love, but a Russian general makes the hotel his headquarters and sets his sights on the maid. In addition, the Austrian must find out the identity of a spy who is feeding the Russians military information that could lead to the destruction of the Austrian army.

God and Satan war over earth; to settle things, they wager on the soul of Faust, a learned and prayerful alchemist.

Two brothers follow very different paths after an accident at the factory where they both work.

Girl dressed up as a boy falls in love with a painter.

A French adventurer fights to save a woman in the life of prostitution.

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.

The murderer “Boss” Huller – after having spent ten years in prison – breaks his silence to tell the warden his story.

Silent romantic comedy set on a train.

Eva lives in the sinister Tower with her father, a mad inventor, and her grandfather. The aviator Wilfred Durian and his lovely wife live nearby in the town. But Durian's famous flight across the Australian desert was not all it seems... and when his 'dead' partner Arved Holl is rescued by Eva and comes to claim his former fiancée's hand, the whole house of cards is about to come tumbling down. Meanwhile, Eva's own family history is not quite as she had always believed...

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.

A famed artist fights his passion for a male model, until the young man falls for a woman.

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.

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.

The likeable and carefree Grand Duke of Abacco is in dire straits. There is no money left to service the State's debt; the main creditor is looking forward to expropriating the entire Duchy. The marriage with Olga, Grand Duchess of Russia, would solve everything, but a crucial letter of hers about the engagement has been stolen. Besides, a bunch of revolutionaries and a dubious businessman have other plans regarding the Grand Duke. With the intrusion of adventurer Philipp Collins into the Grand Duke's affairs, a series of frantic chases, plots and counter-plots begins.

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

One of the first movies made about the fairy tale Cinderella. The film is part of the current German expressionism. Because of that the film ends up being darker than the fairy tale itself.

In a distant Teutonic village, people dance and drink merrily celebrating a wedding feast. However, an elderly man tells the villagers that the valley where they live wasn't always happy but sorrowful. This was due to the tyranny of the master of the mountains who ruled the valley despotically.

A Glass of Water (German: Ein Glas Wasser) is a 1923 German silent historical film directed by Ludwig Berger and starring Mady Christians, Lucie Höflich and Hans Brausewetter. It premiered at the UFA-Palast am Zoo on 1 February 1923. It was based on a play of the same title by Eugène Scribe, set in England during the reign of Queen Anne. The film was very well received both commercially and critically on its release. It is considered one of the milestones of Weimar cinema

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.

As the police intensify their bemusing search on Doctor Mabuse's notorious band of gangsters, the deceptive, elusive hypnotist Mabuse simultaneously begins to close in on himself.

Doctor Mabuse is a criminal mastermind, doctor of psychology, and master of disguise, armed with the powers of hypnosis and mind control, who oversees the counterfeiting and gambling rackets of the Berlin underworld. He visits gambling dens by night under various guises and aliases, using the power of suggestion to win at cards and finance his plans.

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.

A little girl falls into the hands of a hypnotist the morning after the assassination of a jeweler. A visitor of the uncomfortable host confesses himself as the perpetrator, the girl can testify and delivers the two villains of the police.

Rowland falls sick with leprosy while Mac Allan is captured by the Maharajah, who offers Irene a deal: one night with him in exchange for letting Rowland to be cured. She accepts, but tries to commit suicide.

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.

Kornej is a young painter of primitivism. An art agent discover the works of Kornej and buy the whole collection. The art critic Moulin is very excited about Kornejs paintings and style. Kornej marries his childhood sweetheart Rita. They have a child that carries a mystic disease. Allt the money Kornej got from selling his collection is put into the care of the sick child. Rita leaves Kornej.

Malatti's father has unexpectedly survived the fall from the train and now vows to take cruel revenge on McAllan. In Lhasa, the old capital of Tibet, seat of the Dalai Lama and at the same time a "forbidden city" for all foreigners, there is another dramatic encounter between the engineer and Badhama. In a dark dungeon, he thinks he recognizes McAllan and tries to stab the man he holds responsible for all the misfortune. He does not realize who he is stabbing, killing his own daughter in the process. The Dalai Lama's servants arrest Badhama and throw him in the dungeon. Malatti's father is sentenced to death, while McAllan sees the light of day again and is released.

A method actress likes living out the roles she is playing in real life. To prepare for her new play, she enters the criminal underworld and ends up being implicated in a burglary of a Duke who is one of her suitors. The film was shot at the Babelsberg Studios in Berlin. The film received a generally positive reception from critics, although some were doubtful about the blending of farce and tragedy.

The sinister Count Oetsch scandalizes the aristocratic social gathering at Castle Vogelod as he announces his intention to "crash" the festivities. Baroness Safferstätt is expected shortly, and the guests are well-aware of the rumors that Count Oetsch murdered the baroness' late husband. Oetsch refuses to leave, vowing that he will reveal the identity of the real killer. Before the weekend is through, the Count and Baroness will reveal secrets too shocking to be believed!

The old man and McAllan then got into a physical altercation on the roof of a train that was moving at full speed, in which Malatti's father fell. McAllan assumes that his adversary died in the process. When a gang of rogue robbers board the train, McAllan's life doesn't seem worth a damn anymore. But then, almost out of nowhere, his faithful servant Lubzang appears and saves his master's life at the last moment. Malatti, also on board, falls into the clutches of the gang and is sent to Tibet by the sinister fellowsabducted to be offered as a sacrifice to the goddess Bhawani. However, a kind-hearted member of the gang of robbers takes pity on her and helps the exotic beauty to escape. A little later, Malatti meets Lubzang, who has meanwhile broken away from his master McAllan. He takes her with him.

The film depicts the marriage between the mad Charles VI of France and his wife Queen Isabeau.

In Calcutta, McAllan meets the beautiful Indian woman Malatti, with whom he immediately falls in love. The engineer quickly neglects his professional obligations and follows her. After some complications, the two of them finally get closer at her home, even if Malatti's father Badhama rejects this connection. Badhama only agrees to the planned marriage when he learns how wealthy this white man must be. After some time, McAllan returns to his large construction site, where things are going haywire. Many workers die in an explosion, and McAllan is now liable with his fortune. As a result, the engineer, who became impoverished overnight, suddenly becomes uninteresting for Malatti's father as a son-in-law, especially since with a solvent Japanese man who offers a lot of money for his daughter's hand,

Since completing a portrait of Genuine, a high priestess, Percy becomes irritable and withdrawn. He loses interest in painting and refuses to see his friends, preferring to spend his time alone with the portrait in his study. After turning down a wealthy patron's offer to buy the picture, Percy falls asleep while reading stories of Genuine's life. Genuine comes to life from the painting and escapes. The film's sets were designed by the Expressionist painter César Klein.

The film was an unauthorized adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but the source material went unrecognized by some of the German media due to changes in the characters' names. Released in 1920, this is one of Murnau's lost films. While the film itself does not survive, the scripts and related production notes do. Because the film is lost, its full length is unknown. Dr. Warren is the Dr. Jekyll character who changes into Mr. O'Connor, a parallel of Mr. Hyde. This transformation is brought about, not by experimentation with chemicals as in Stevenson's original, but through the supernatural agency of a bust of Janus (the Roman god of the doorway), which Warren / O'Connor purchases in the opening sequence as a gift for his sweetheart, Jane. When she refuses the gift, horrified, Warren / O'Connor is forced to keep the statuette himself...

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.

When last we saw Kay Hoog (millionaire adventurer, courageous hunk), he’d been beset with tragedy. Having escaped an ancient Incan city by the skin of his gleaming teeth, Hoog looked forward to a few years of settled life with his (amicably) captured Incan lovely, Naela. But the past struck quickly. Hoog’s arch-nemesis, the homicidal femme Lio Sha, murdered Naela on the very grounds of Hoog’s estate, prompting him to swear revenge upon her and her criminal organization, the Spiders. Now he must find them, as the Spiders continue their global quest for the Buddha-head Diamond. The head, it’s said, has the power to restore Asia to world dominance.

After her brother is sent to Siberia, Sonja heads to Moscow to participate in a revolution.

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.

Plot unknown

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.

Suddenly appearing in Florence, an evil seductress causes Cesare, the city's ruler, and his son to both fall madly in love with her. The son, killing his father before an order to torture the woman can be carried out, then turns the city's churches into dens of sexual debauchery. Acts of evil and corruption continue unabated until the arrival of Death, who brings with her a horrible plague which she is about to loose upon the city.

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.

A man's devotion for a woman brings about his ruin.

The story of a man destroyed by love.