Ernst Legal

In his film version, Curt Goetz shifts the focus away from the poetic output towards the young Friedrich Schiller himself: on the misery of his soul whilst a pupil of the ducal military academy, his opposition to the strict physical drill and the narrow intellectual confines of the "Karlsschule", his juvenile passion for the works of Shakespeare, Klopstock and Lessing, his anger at unjust authorities, his devotion to women, and finally his inability to cope with financial matters

Charley Wyckham and Jack Chesney pressure fellow student Fancourt Babberly to pose as Charley's Brazilian Aunt Donna Lucia. Their purpose is to have a chaperone for their amorous visits with Amy and Kitty, niece and ward of crusty Stephen Spettigue. Complications begin when Fancourt, in drag, becomes the love object of old Spettigue and Sir Francis Chesney.

A villager is tempted by a sophisticated city woman and almost kills his wife in a boating accident.

A 19th-century London cabaret singer is deported to prison in Australia. Her crime? Taking the blame when her lover bounces checks.

Karl Kramer is a waiter in a beach hotel on the Baltic Sea. But he has completely different plans in mind for the future. Before he marries Grete Wernicke, the daughter of the hotel manager, he wants to have enough money himself.

The Italian mountaineer Carel wants to be the first man to stand on the top of the Matterhorn. Since the climb is very difficult, he agrees to try it together with the British mountaineer Whymper. But due to an intrigue this agreement is dropped and the two man try it on the same day with two different teams and then disaster strikes.

Melodrama set during wartime.

Shortly after WWII, the DEFA Studios produced a series of operas and operettas which belonged to the classical German musical heritage. This enchanting film, the very first opera production of DEFA, stands out because of its lavish decor and costumes, its outstanding actors and their masterful voices of that time.

In 1948, students from Berlin University take part in the filming of a movie about the 1848 revolution as extras. A dispute arises between Else and Heinz, who tends to dismiss the revolution as a comical affair. Two fiercely opposing camps form at the university. But Heinz begins to reflect, and reading about a young student who lost his life in the turbulent days a hundred years earlier slowly changes his attitude. The conclusion of the filming at the Wartburg also reunites him with Else.

William MacPhab loses seven-pounds in the stock market and decides to slap the man who was responsible for the stock manipulation that caused him to lose his money. Astor Terbanks, the stock-market manipulator is surprised the next day when he gets soundly slapped by MacPhab, and the latter promises to deliver one more a day for the next six days. Terbank's daughter, Daisy, is amused by the procedure and is attracted to MacPhab.

Cheeky Jette is a typical Berlin girl. Together with her mother, she performs couplets in a Berlin suburb theatre every night. Then, a young Austrian baron, who is worshipping Jette, enables her to audition for Königstädtisches Theater. Although she at first fails with an aria from an opera, Jette wins over the hearts of the board members with her fresh style when she performs a cheeky couplet that was written by Barsch, the stage manager of the suburb theater.

Diederich Heßling is scared of everything and everyone. But as he grows up, he comes to realize that he has to offer his services to the powers-that-be if he wants to wield power himself. His life motto now runs: bow to those at the top and tread on those below. In this way, he always succeeds: as a student in a duel-fighting student fraternity and as a businessman in a paper factory. He cajoles the obese district administrative president Von Wulkow and wins his favor. He slanders his financial rivals and hatches a plot with the social democrats in the town council. On his honeymoon with his rich wife Guste, he finally finds a chance to do his beloved Kaiser a favor. And when a memorial to the Kaiser is unveiled in the town where Diederich lives and works, he delivers the address. He stands behind the lectern in the pouring rain, saluting his Kaiser. The crowd is dispersed. Everything is laid in ruins...

A poet is hired by the owner of a wax museum in a circus to write tales about Harun al Raschid, Ivan the Terrible and Jack the Ripper. While writing, the poet and the daughter of the owner, Eva, fantasize the fantastic stories and fall in love for each other.

This film is a fascinating showcase for Emil Janning's theatrical play. He's a gentle school teacher who believes in his boys and is easily fooled about all things, while the other town officials want him dismissed. Curiously it's very hard to see what the film is exactly aiming for. Disaster strikes and the lax prof proves to be too far removed of the real problems of the world, on the other hand his enemies are shown in the most unsympathetic, satirical way denouncing the militaristic, bourgeois ideology of the Kaiserreich.

When the dancer Carmen visits the bullfighter Antonio, who has stabbed a gypsy, in prison, she meets the dragoon brigadier José. The two immediately take a liking to each other, and from that day on, José often visits the café where Carmen dances. When Carmen injures another dancer in a jealous quarrel, José is ordered to arrest her...

While on leave in Berlin during the Second World War, a soldier named Hans meets a young woman named Monika. They fall in love and make plans for a future together after the war. Yet their later attempts to find an apartment and get married are hindered by the housing shortage and they have to stay separately with relatives.

Heinz Rühmann plays the "model husband" who, when his bored wife threatens to leave him, embarks on an adventurous night.

Paris, 1830: Jean-Gaspard Debureau performs on the stage and delights his audience with song, wit and charm. He is, however, very unpopular with King Charles X, who is the target of much of Debureau's scornful jests. That would be a somewhat tolerable situation if it weren't for the fact that Debureau has fallen for a countess, who happens to be the King's mistress.

A man and a woman struggle to stifle their love for each other, even after he moves away to travel the world and she marries a suitor.

Anna Jobst is the daughter of a rich, conservative farmer. Living on the bank of the Moldau, she wishes nothing more than follow the river to Prague, the "Golden City". After arriving, she quickly falls into a bad crowd.

Two dubious characters disguise themselves as Holmes and Watson to gain attention and end up chasing counterfeiters and stolen stamps.

An actress and her lawyer husband are so busy that their maid becomes the real mother to their six year old boy and at one point causes consternation by taking the child away to her home village.

Penniless Peter Schild looks for work when arrived in Germany. Working as a private eye he has to observe a young lady who is willing to marry an unemployed actor against the will of her parents.

Remake of a 1929 German film by the same title about a man and a police dog.

"The Man with the Paw" is what people call the very successful banker Wiegant, who is desperately in love with Lena Kroning, the wife of the lawyer Hugo Kroning. So as to be nearer to her, Wiegant hires her husband to be the bank's lawyer. Shortly thereafter, Wiegant is suspected of having conned the Countess Steindorff during a telephone conversation; but he never did. During the relevant period of time, he was with Lena "having tea" (uh huh), which he conceals from the lawyer-husband, so as to protect Lena.

The first partly colored German fairy tale film directed by Fritz Genschow. The film has a frame story shot in black and white and a middle section in color that tells the story of Little Red Riding Hood, who is sent by her mother to her grandmother with cake and wine. On the way there, it passes through the dark forest. She meets the wicked wolf, to whom she reveals the location of her grandmother's house. The wolf rushes to her grandmother's house, eats her whole, puts on her hood and lies down in bed. When Little Red Riding Hood arrives, he eats her too. The "Uncle Hunter" appears as a rescuer in uniform and frees them both from the wolf's belly.

Intrigue and love affairs at the court of the Saxon King Augustus the Strong, who can bend a horseshoe with his bare hands and is fighting with the Swedish King Charles XII for control of Poland. When Charles marches against Russia with his troops and suffers defeat, the way is clear for Augustus, who gains the crown of Poland. But he is already old and ill. When he dies in Warsaw, his heart is brought to Dresden by Saxon horsemen.

Der Florentiner Hut (The Leghorn Hat), a 1939 German film directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner

Historical drama portraying the life of German baroque architect Andreas Schlüter.

France at the time of the Restoration. The young country gentleman Rastignac comes to Paris to study. He takes up residence in a poor boarding house, where his father Goriot, who has been excluded by his daughters, also lives. The penniless Rastignac is anxious to gain a foothold in Parisian society. His cousin advises him to take the rich banker's wife Delphine, one of Goriot's daughters, as his mistress, which he does. At the same time, however, he falls in love with the laundress Yvette. He is unable to make up his mind when boarding house guest Vautrin suggests a third option: To marry Victorine, the disinherited daughter of a millionaire, and kill her brother in a duel in order to get his inheritance after all. Rastignac agrees. This is his downfall. Instead of high society, he ends up in the gutter.

A grieving husband tries to uncover the truth behind his wife's suicide, leading him to discover a tragic tale of infidelity and redemption.

The underage Rosemarie is still too young to run her inherited farm by herself; but she's more than aware that her foster father and the farm's administrator, the farmer Schlieker, is constantly skimming from the farm's finances to line his own pocket. To put an end to Schlieker's scheme, Rosemarie asks her godfather, Professor Kittgus, for help. But when Kittgus confronts Schlieker, the farmer not only proves to be unreasonable but also violent...

After the death of Napoleon, colonel Montaner plots to restore the Empire, but falls in love with Lise, a beautiful dancer.

A Nazi propaganda film meant to glorify German history and to persuade people that the Teutons weren't barbarians but had a notable culture of their own. The topic is embedded into a little story line of an academic giving a lecture.

1944 film.