Walter Rilla

Grisly strangulations in London alert Nayland Smith of Scotland Yard to the possibility that fiendish Fu Manchu may not after all be dead, even though Smith witnessed his execution. A killer spray made from Tibetan berries seems to be involved and clues keep leading back to the Thames.

The son of a British racehorse owner conspires with a bookie to ruin the odds of his father's thoroughbred winning an important event.

An elaborate bank robbery takes place and the gangsters succeed although the FBI had been warned. Jerry Cotton, who is considered accountable for this major failure, loses his badge over this. Being the man he is, Cotton doesn't let the evil-doers forget that he has unfinished business with them.

Based on an actual murder case in Frankfurt after the war, the film tells the story of the murder of Rosemarie, a prostitute, and how she ended up strangled in her apartment.

Mommsen Gymnasium director Taft secretly places his nephew as a spy with the difficult class of Pepe Nietnagel. During the celebration for the 100th anniversary, a simulated fire forces the school to shut down for a week. The director's attempt to get a tough teacher assigned by the department of education results in the exact opposite because of Nietnagel's intervention.

A mineral is discovered which can turn metal to gold or humans into zombies. When the mineral is stolen, secret agents are sent in to get the mineral back!

A ring of counterfeiters is flooding the country with phony money, and suspicion falls upon a wealthy playboy who may--or may not--have amnesia.

The first victim is the butler of South African millionaire Wexler, who hires hard-hitting private eye Steve Martin for protection. Once at Wexler’s palatial Cape Town estate, Martin meets the patriarch’s family, close associates – and possible suspects. When it’s discovered that the key to the killing may lie in an old war photograph, Martin sets out on a mission to unravel the identities of the men in the picture before they become target two through VICTIM 5.

Sumuru, the beautiful leader of the all-female kingdom of Femina, plans to use her women to take over the world.

An American reporter smells a story when he is stranded in an Iron Curtain country where the local dictator is using gamma rays to transform children into mutated henchmen.

Vienna, 1956. After Soviet tanks crush the Hungarian uprising, soldier-of-fortune Michael Reynolds is hired to help a threatened Hungarian scientist escape from Budapest.

A young sailor finds himself trapped in the labyrinthine mansion of his occultist uncle, along with a number of eccentric and mysterious relatives who all seem to be harboring a dark secret.

Yankee charter pilot Morris inadvertently finds himself in the midst of thieves who have purloined a costly antique jade figure from an exhibit. He tracks the thieves to Battersea, where he rescues the fair Germaine from their unsavory clutches, and the Buddha boosters gain only jaded justice.

A serial-killer is murdering the ladies of a night club. Detective Gray is seeking for the killer but can only find a lot of gangsters. And the killer is about to act again...

The evil Dr. Mabuse develops a death ray with which he threatens the world.

British Captain Terence Stevenson (Robert Donat) accepts an assignment even more dangerous than his everyday job of defusing unexploded bombs. Fluent in Romanian and German and having studied chemical engineering, he is parachuted into Romania to assume the identity of Captain Jan Tartu, a member of the fascist Iron Guard. He makes his way to Czechoslovakia to steal the formula of a new Nazi poison gas and sabotage the factory where it is being manufactured.

John Forrest is anticipating a quiet retirement spent penning detective fiction when he learns that a priceless collection of jewels belonging to a foreign potentate, Prince Homouska, has just vanished from the safekeeping of the Stamford Assurance Company. Aided by his butler, his Cockney assistant and his (initially) unwilling wife, Forrest sets out on the trail of the thieves.

A scruffy garbage boy becomes the pupil of famed gunfighter Talby, and the stage for confrontation is set when the gunman overruns the boy's town through violence and corruption.

Private eye Edward Mercer travels to Venice to locate a man due a reward for his aid in the war. Shortly after arriving, he becomes the prime suspect in the murder of his local contact. In his quest to clear his name, Mercer uncovers a conspiracy. Even the local magistrate seems to be working against him, and Mercer begins to suspect the man he came to find is behind it all.

A British colonial policeman in Africa investigates a murder in a hospital up river.

An Italian engineer who had made a strategically important invention to ward off enemy aircraft is killed in a robbery. As the plans have presumably fallen into the hands of spies, secret service captain Bergall is given the task of recovering the papers. Bergall initially adopts a false name and appears as Mr. Gran, whom nobody knows. Under this name, he rents a room in the Hotel Danieli in Venice and makes the acquaintance of the shipowner's daughter Viola Dolleen. With her help, he is able to eliminate Captain Gordon, who is also interested in the plans. When Gran learns that the plans are now in the possession of the art dealer Tschernikoff, who wants to sell them to Gordon, he immediately travels to Rome, visits the art dealer Titian and pretends to be Gordon. In the art dealer's remote villa, events come thick and fast...

An archaeologist stumbles into the territory of an evil crime syndicate and struggles to set things right.

The romantic story of Hungarian pianist Franz Liszt, whose scandalous love affair forced him to abandon his adoring audiences.

An extravagant comedy with Heinz Rühmann.

A troupe of French actors on tour in Normandy become involved in the events of WWII.

A scientist experimenting with suspended animation decides to use himself as a test subject. Before he is frozen, his wife is killed, and he is suspected of her murder. a murder suspect.

A financier plots to become the richest man in the world by marrying off his daughter to the son of an Arab sheik.

Nick, an American gambler, arrives in San Paolo and falls in love with Colleen, an American tourist, after she loses all of her money at the casino. Nick flees with Colleen after they are framed for murder and he tries to track down the real killer.

Candlelight in Algeria is a 1944 British war film directed by George King and starring James Mason, Carla Lehmann and Raymond Lovell. This drama follows the exploits of Eisenhower's top aide, Mark Clark, and other important Allies as they journey to an important meeting held on Algeria's coast. The precise location of this vital secret gathering is upon a piece of film which must not fall into enemy hands

In this musical, a tempermental opera singer falls in love with a hearing-impaired young woman.

A newspaper reporter finds himself drawn into the aftermath of a racetrack robbery.

France 1944: American pilot Philip Sturgess is shot down but found by a resistance group. In the neighborhood Sturgess meets another American and shortly thereafter the British Major Barton, called “Reiher”. He claims to have fled a German prison camp. Shortly before leaving for Spain to escape the Nazis, Sturgess discovers that Barton has written a letter to Germany. This confirms the suspicion that he could be a German spy…

An elderly Jewish man from Manchester, travels to Nazi Germany to seek the mother of a young German refugee that has attempted suicide. In Germany, Mr. Emmanuel’s efforts to seek out Hertha Rosenhein are greeted by a wall of silence from the scared Jewish community and anti-Semitic hatred from many Germans.

Rupp (Jannings) is a former butcher, made rich in the meat packing industry as a result of the reversal of fortunes brought on by WWI. He is crude, uncouth and uneducated. His son, Fred, is the apple of his father's eye and is an auto enthusiast. The widowed Rupp falls in love with a former aristocrat, Helen, now down on her luck and pawning her last heirloom. He proposes marriage and she accepts in order to save her ailing mother who needs a monetary influx to avoid death. Her former boyfriend, Platen, warns Helen against Rupp's intentions - he and Rupp are enemies, Rupp having caused his being fired for protecting a chorus girl against Rupp's unwanted advances. Meanwhile, Graf, a shyster, arranges purchase of a near bankrupt auto manufacturing firm, Phoenix, to Rupp's great advantage with practically no monetary recognition to Graf, who swears revenge. Rupp comes upon his son begging Helen not to marry his father but to return to Platen.

Bank director Ernst Rose, owner of the Hamburg bank Traven & Co., is asked to go to the airport earlier than expected to pick up his daughter Silvia. When he arrives, he realizes too late that he has walked into a trap. He is overpowered by kidnappers and abducted. The gang around Alexander Ford and his men want to rob three and a half million from the bank vault at the weekend. But it can only be opened with four keys, which are in the hands of four so-called key holders. Under the direction of criminal Ford, all those involved become puppets in a game of life and death.

After the tragic death from malaria of her beloved husband his rich widow Helga Vanroh travels restlessly around various Mediterranean countries. In the luxurious surroundings of a hotel in Monte Carlo Mrs. Vanroh keeps apart from society, until one evening she decides to visit the casino. There a young man attracts her curiosity and compassion.

Thomas Mann's witty and intimate story of a irresistible scoundrel.

A young man living in Africa is send to Hamburg by his parents to learn about business. There, he falls in love with the mistress of a friend.

The Grimm brothers Wilhelm and Jacob, known for their literary works in the nineteenth century, have their lives dramatized. Wilhelm fights to write something entertaining amongst the sea of dry, non-fiction books they write and he sets about collecting oral-tradition fairy tales to put into print. Their life story is countered with reenactments of three of their stories including "The Dancing Princess," "The Cobbler and the Elves" and "The Singing Bone."

Dr. Mabuse has been locked away for years in an insane asylum. Suddenly crimes start occurring and no one knows the culprit. A detective goes to visit the Doctor to find some sort of clues to the robberies.

A melodrama about a painter who is infected with syphilis, refuses treatment, turns to the use instead of narcotics, and withers away.

The fate of a French aristocrat is revealed in this historical costume drama, who, in 1792, finds herself confronted with the choice of either standing with her peers or becoming a revolutionary.

The already successful tenor Mattei is discovered after he already retired into private life. Der Wiener Staatsoper place a significant part in this musical comedy drama.

Andy and Sebastian want to make a lot of money in a quick and easy way. Inspired by the movies, they become private investigators. Their first case happens to be about a beautiful girl called Annabella. But being a private investigator is a more demanding job then Andy and Sebastian had initially thought. Their female acquaintances Annabella, Christa, and Micky also have their share in Andy′s and Sebastian′s problems. The two wannabe detectives become more and more entangled in things that prove to be too much for them.

Lydia is a spoiled young woman who thinks she can get anything for money. One day she causes an accident in which a motorcyclist is killed. At the trial she meets prosecutor Dan O'Bannon. She is sentenced to prison for manslaughter.

German silent film

In 1908, Sultan Abdul Hamid rules the Turkish Empire, but he is faced with the threat of revolt by the Young Turk party. He allows Hilmi Pasha, the leader of the Young Turks, to return from exile and form the country's first constitutional government. With tensions still growing, chief of police Kadar Pasha assassinates Hassan Bey, the leader of the Old Turk party, and makes it look as if a Young Turk committed the crime, in order to give Abdul an excuse for arresting the Young Turk leaders. Meanwhile, Abdul becomes infatuated with a visiting Austrian singer. When she rejects his advances, she endangers both herself and her fiancé, a Turkish officer who also knows who really shot Hassan Bey.

Dr. Stefan Donat, a doctor from Frankfurt, unexpectedly becomes the sole heir to his wife Agnes' estate after she dies of a terminal illness, even though they had been divorced for years. The change in the will in Stefan's favor was made on the day Agnes died in her apartment between 4 and 6 pm. The original heiress, Mingo Fabian, contested the will. She is 23 years old, Agnes' cousin and was also friends with Stefan Donat. She finds this step very difficult, but her lawyer, Dr. Bernburger, persuades her to take it, as he wants to marry her. The body is exhumed and shortly afterwards Dr. Donat is arrested on suspicion of murder...

The film starts with a woman on the run from her millionaire husband giving birth to a daughter in the home of a washerwoman. The woman dies in childbirth, but the baby survives. The washerwoman leaves the baby in a horsedrawn Parisian taxicab (No. 13). The paperwork of the birth is lost in a huge tome. Sixteen years pass. The tome is bought by a poor student. One day his bookshelf collapses, and the tome opens at the page where the paperwork has been hidden. The student realises that the paperwork relates to a millionaire who has spent the last sixteen years looking for his pregnant wife. The student traces the washerwoman, and he tricks her into confessing what she has done with the baby. Meanwhile, the baby has been adopted by the cab driver and his wife, and has grown into Lili Damita.

Captain Justin Mollenard works for a company that sells armaments to the Far East. After an eventful stay in Shanghai, where he and his cargo are the victim of a malicious attack, he returns to his hometown of Dunkirk. Mollenard receives a frosty welcome from his wife Mathilde, who resents the way in which he has neglected his family for so many years. Mollenard’s only wish is to get back to sea as soon as he can, but a sudden heart-attack leaves him paralysed and entirely in his wife’s power...

A musical-comedy directed by Carl Boese

Based on the play by Lion Feuchtwanger.

This is a real curiosity; at best a reasonable film, but also a charming little gem. There is a story (in the line of "A Star is Born"), but this merely serves as an excuse, as it is more importantly a kind of moving encyclopedia of about 35 stars making their debut in a talkie (although some of them had already made one talkie), of the technical sound possibilities and of film making. Besides all that, it is entertaining and sometimes hilarious and it has fine one-liners that split my side. The film is also remarkable for making mock of typical German film genres (like the overly sweet romances involving the military), of too heavy acting and of film making in general. I have to mention this one: a short, hysterically funny parody of "Der blaue Engel". What this film in fact says is: do not take any film too seriously. (J. Steed)

The film biography of Queen Victoria focusing initially on the early years of her reign with her marriage to Prince Albert and her subsequent rule after Albert's death in 1861.

Pontresina, Switzerland, at the beginning of the 20th century. A ski jumping competition is about to take place.

Continuing the story of 'Victoria the Great'.

A French violinist saves his beloved princess from the Russian revolution..

Ivan Petrov has one weakness in his life, and one love: his little black-eyed daughter, Tania. In fact, his entire career is devoted to her future happiness, though Tania remains ignorant as to his vocation. Done with cool deliberation, Petrov's all-consuming fear is that one day his lovely daughter will discover his true profession, and despise him for it...

Adventure film directed by Harold Huth.

Relations between middle-aged businessman Arthur Dahlberg and his young wife Anja are not at their best. So it occurred to them to leave their Hamburg home and go on vacation to the Côte d'Azur to revitalize their relationship. But Arthur Dahlberg, even on vacation, is obsessed with running his business. Meanwhile, Anya meets the young writer Roy Benter.

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 movie by Heinz Paul

Children's Souls Accuse You is a 1927 German silent drama film directed by Curtis Bernhardt and starring Albert Steinrück, Nathalie Lissenko and Walter Rilla. It was made with an anti-abortion theme.

Squire Pierre St. Laurent returns from wars in India to 17th-century provincial France to find his estate confiscated by governor Narbonne, for back taxes, and resold to Katrina, a Dutch Countess. Katrina offers to return Pierre's property if he will help her get possession of the 'Star of India,' a fabulous sapphire, held at the moment by Narbonne.

An assortment of international criminals plans to steal priceless Egyptian artifacts from a Cairo museum. MGM remake of Asphalt Jungle set in Egypt.

Did an 18-year-old immigrant from the slums murder his father in cold blood? The twelve jurors must find a unanimous verdict.

A gang of clever thieves kill a wealthy woman in hopes of stealing her gems. But the thieves aren't clever enough to ascertain the location of those gems, so they consult a phony spiritualist. Then they decide to dispose of the mystic by framing her for the murder.

Artonis is an acrobat employed in the circus owned by Elvira Starke. Apparently he confines his acrobatics to the bedroom, because he's carrying on two separate affairs on the trot: one with his boss Elvira, and one with the circus's beautiful equestrienne Kitty Rallay. Someone shoots Artonis dead.

Scampolo is a young, poor girl who lives on the island of Ischia. She falls in love with a young architect who hopes to win a design competition. Scampolo intecedes on his behalf with the minister and helps him to make his dream come true.

Film by Waschneck.

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

The spirit of the evil Dr. Mabuse takes over the body of a famous professor. The professor/Dr. Mabuse then begins a new crime wave that terrorizes the city.

During the eighteenth century the Empress of Russia sends her lover to kidnap her rival for the throne.

Gentlemen Among Themselves (German: Die fidele Herrenpartie or Herren unter sich) is a 1929 German silent comedy film directed by Rudolf Walther-Fein and starring Hermann Picha, Lydia Potechina and Maria Paudler.

The gorgeous 40-year-old Elsie Lindtner lives in a beautiful house, and is married to a respectable university professor. And yet, there’s something that nags her. She’s about to reach “the dangerous age”, when beauty begins to fade and boredom kicks in. She falls in love with a younger man and divorces her husband, but ends up hiding away in a country house where she can age in secret. (Stumfilm.dk)

In a small town, the dancer Inge Maria Torselli is very popular with the theater audience. Her father is a ballet master and trained her. Lieutenant Count von Arenheim falls in love with her. But his childhood friend Harald von Bodenstein is also at her feet. The lieutenant asks the father for his daughter's hand in marriage and in order to be able to get married, he applies for his release from the military. His superiors and his mother have certain prejudices against the dancer for whom the lieutenant wants to sacrifice his career. Meanwhile, his old friend Harald tries to forget his grief that Inge didn't choose him. The lieutenant's mother sets the condition that the dancer gives up the stage forever. (Bundesarchiv)

A young intellectual falls in love with a circus performer and decides to cultivate her into a lady and marry her. Eventually however she decides to return to her tightrope walker lover.

A young woman is abused or abandoned by the men in her life.

While working in England, an American surgeon Dr. John Marlowe is invited to Vosnia (a fictitious East-European country) to receive an award and demonstrate his life-saving surgery. Unwittingly caught in the middle of a dangerous and corrupt series of political events, Marlowe then becomes the object of a shoot-to-kill, vicious pursuit. Fleeing, he seeks help from an English-speaking actress, Lisa Robinson, and the two attempt to escape across the treacherous mountains of Vosnia.

"The Secret Power" - Hardly anyone who strays into the emigrant's restaurant "Strange Bird" would suspect that the porter once was a general, the waiter a prince and the cook an admiral, and that the lady at the bar is actually the princess Sinaide forced was leaving their home.

A musical cabaret singer meets a British agent and goes with him to Nazi occupied France to save an atomic scientist.

18th century English aristocrat Sir Percy Blakeney leads a double life. He appears to be merely the effete aristocrat, but in reality is part of an underground effort to free French nobles from Robespierre's Reign of Terror.

Martin Hollmann, a young gardener meets his significantly older wife's daughter from her first marriage. Liesbeth Kröger is from his generation and they both get along well straight away. Shortly after his wife's death, Martin brings Liesbeth into his house as a housekeeper, and they both fall in love. The couple live together and soon decide to get married when Liesbeth becomes pregnant by Martin. But now the tragedy begins, because when registering at the registry office, Martin and Liesbeth, in the form of a strict bailiff, are officially declared that they have committed incest in accordance with Section 173 of the Criminal Code.

A Spanish nobleman raises his only daughter as a boy, similarly to Greta Garbo in Queen Christina (1933). In adulthood, Juana's upbringing causes complications in her love life. Possibly an early example of genderqueer representation.

The troubled situation of a provincial actor and his actress wife who come to the city. The actor is suspected of attacking another actor who admires the actress.

'Please help me!' the young GDR refugee begs the passengers of the interzonal train 'D 106'. He has just jumped on the night train during an unforeseen stop - to get to the west as quickly as possible. He can't go back, and in less than an hour they reach the German-German border - without stopping. The passengers meanwhile begin to ask themselves serious questions: Am I helping the young man and risking my own safety? Or is that too dangerous for me? While people are racking their brains, not only is the train racing away, but time is too ...

Story of a Dutchman's flight across post-war Germany trying to locate the man who alone can clear him of a false murder charge. (BFI Website)

German produced silent drama made by the German subsidiary of First National Pictures with sets designed by the art director Leopold Blonder.

Behold the Man is the film of the Westminster Passion play produced each Easter by Catholic youth organizations with an amateur and anonymous cast. For the first time in Great Britain the censor has permitted the portrayal of Jesus on the screen, to be seen but not heard, the entire film being mimed to narrative.