Fritz Rasp

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.

A scientist discovers that there's gold on the moon. He builds a rocket to fly there, but there's too much rivalry among the crew to have a successful expedition.

Rival gangsters from Chicago move to London and attempt to extort money from rich Britons.

When a suspicious man bribes Emil with chocolate in return for a bundle of cash, the young lad thinks of a plan to catch him.

The ghost of a hanged man returns to fulfill his promise. All of his accusers must die!

When Hamburg ship's mate Klaus Brandt catches a thief one night at the port, his downfall is pre-ordained. For the thief turns out to be a young, attractive woman and the otherwise upright sailor allows her to slip away. Jenny is the star of a local dive bar, with a side-line in smuggling.

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.

Both Scotland Yard and an amateur American sleuth are tracking a master criminal known as The Frog. This moniker refers to the bulging-eyed mask worn by the evildoer, and is reflected by the frog icons painfully tatooed onto the forearms of his henchmen. The trail leads to the country manor of an enigmatic, steely-eyed nabob, whose repressed son has eyes for the artistes at the Lolita cabaret, and whose lovely daughter captures the fancy of both the American playboy and the villain himself. Murder, kidnapping and seduction ensue.

Thymian Henning, an innocent young girl, is raped by the clerk of her father's pharmacy. She becomes pregnant, is rejected by her family, and must fend for herself in a harsh, cruel world.

In London at the turn of the century, underworld kingpin Mack the Knife marries Polly Peachum without the knowledge of her father, the equally enterprising 'king of the beggars'.

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.

During a dinner given by a wealthy baron and his wife, attended by four of her suitors in a 19th century German manor, a shadow-player rescues the marriage by giving all the guests a vision what might happen tonight if the baron stays jealous and the suitors do not reduce their advances towards his beautiful wife. Or was it a vision?

In the Crimea, the Reds and the Whites aren't done fighting, and Jeanne discovers that the man she loves is a Bolshevik (when he kills her father). Penniless, she returns to Paris where she works for her uncle. Soon after, her lover Andreas is in France to organize the sailors in Toulon. So also is a thief, traitor, and libertine, Khalibiev, who wants to seduce Jeanne. His schemes, Jeanne and Andreas's naivete, and a lost diamond bring the lovers to the brink of tragedy.

After the death of the owner of the house Lina Braake is living in, the house is accrued to the bank. During the complete refurbishment of the building, the 81-year old woman is thrown out of her flat and is put in an old people′s home. There she meets 84-year old Gustaf. Together, the lively seniors come up with a plan to trick the bank with a smart credit fraud and take their revenge. They need the money to buy a country house on Sardinia and leave Germany for good. Although their coup proves to be successful, the bank soon finds Lina. But due to her old age she cannot be tried anymore.

Kurt Hoffmann's remake of his own 1953 movie based on the play by Curt Goetz.

A talk with actor Fritz Rasp about his career.

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson look into reports that a huge, vicious hound has killed Lord Charles Baskerville and that Lord Henry Baskerville is the next to be killed.

A strange, red circle appears on the neck of a man saved from the guillotine. What is its mysterious meaning? Tragically, it turns out to be something of a family curse, as each generation thereafter bears the same sign, which in turn leads to blackmail and murder.

Strange fortune hunters are behind a girl's murder in this Edgar Wallace tale.

Dr. med. Job Prätorius enjoys great popularity among patients, doctors and students alike thanks to his kindness and philanthropy. Only his colleague Prof. Speiter begrudges him his success. When his patient Maria Violetta wants to commit suicide because of an extramarital pregnancy, Prätorius takes care of the young woman. When he tries to gently prepare her father for the news, the latter considers Praetorius to be a more than welcome admirer of his daughter. As a deep affection develops between the doctor and his patient, the two eventually marry. Their private happiness fuels Prof. Speiter's envy. With the help of Praetorius' mysterious factotum Shunderson, he finally believes that he can uncover some dark secrets from the doctor's past. But Praetorius manages to refute all the accusations in a court of honor with wit and astonishing revelations.

In late nineteenth century Alfred Dreyfus, a French army officer of Jewish heritage, is falsely accused of espionage. Found guilty of treason he is drummed out of the army and sent to prison on Devil's Island.

1865. Katharina goes to a ball in Moscow. There she meets again Tchaikowsky, her first and only love. The young, who is now married to wealthy Michael Iwanowitsch Murakin, a man she does not love, has not forgotten Piotr Illich, the (not yet) famous composer. Both are still in love with each other but Piotr is engaged to Nastassia, a dancer, while for her part Katharina cannot leave her husband. Tchaikowky's first love then decides to sacrifice her happiness to the success of the composer, sponsoring him in secret. Something Piotr will learn only years after. When Katharina finds herself free at last it is too late: Tchaikowsky is dying of cholera and she only has time to close his eyes.

A shifty lawyer is threatened with death within two days by a criminal who supposedly died in Australia.

Suspicion surrounds a lieutenant for killing his father; based on Dostoevsky's novel.

The story of the Renaissance-era Swiss physician, alchemist and astrologer Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, better known to the world as Paracelsus.

In the year 1810, the Tyrol is suffering under French occupation. A servant, who believes himself oppressed and disenfranchised by the peasants, dreams of being allowed to play Christ in the yearly Passion Play. Instead, he is forced to play Judas and soon the lines of reality blur: he betrays the location of Andreas Hofer, hidden by the farmers, breaks under the weight of his guilt and suffers Judas' fate.

A murder trial becomes a farce when a widow tries to convince the district attorney that she didn't drown her husband, with the help of an eccentric lawyer.

After WWII, Berlin lies in ruins. For Gustav, Willi and their friends the rubble provides an adventurous, dangerous playground. Especially for Gustav, it helps pass the time, as he longs for his father's return from a POW camp. One day a stranger arrives, looking helpless and hopeless.

Viktor Schott, daredevil and womanizer, is charged by his father, a jeweler, to go to Istanbul and purchase a valuable emerald necklace from a rich Persian and to bring it back by ship to Marseille. A pair of criminals are watching him and attractive Delia, with whom Viktor is in love, is used as bait. His boyhood friend Sibyl, who is in love with Viktor, warns him of the criminal ship owner and the captain, who intend to steal the jewel during a masked ball on board. Shortly before reaching the coast of France, an explosion causes the ship to capsize.

Alois, Wendelin, Schani and Franz operate an auto repair shop in Vienna. One evening, Alois fishes the suicidal Hannerl out of the Danube and takes her to live with him. The timid and taciturn woman soon disappears however, and with her, a large amount of cash out of the shop's cash register. A disappointed Alois wishes to forget about her, but his three friends look for Hannerl and the money. As it turns out, she's married to the smuggler Kerrylis, who forces her to take part in his business; that's why she tried to kill herself. When Kerrylis is found dead, Alois is suspected of being the murderer.

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.

Amy Dorrit spends her days earning money for the family and looking after her proud father who is a long term inmate of Marshalsea debtors' prison in London. Amy and her family's world is transformed when her employer's son, Arthur Clennam, returns from overseas to solve his family's mysterious legacy and discovers that their lives are interlinked.

The neglected young wife of a workaholic businessman looks for love.

A stylized fairy tale in which a farmer sells his soul to Satan in exchange for prosperity.

Moritz Stiefel faces expulsion due to poor marks. When he is caught with an essay titled “Shame and Lust”, he is indeed kicked out – instead of classmate Melchior Gabor, who actually penned it. Gabor was drawing on his experiences with neighbourhood girl Wendla. Then Wendla turns up pregnant. Stiefel descends into despair ... Exploitation between Eros and Thanatos in this “sexual tragedy of youth” based on Frank Wedekind’s play. Setting the film in the 1920s provided a chance to explore “modern” youth culture, complete with cigarettes, jazz music, the gramophone, and a goodly bit of alcohol. Richard Oswald, a master of films of manners and young sex beginning in the 1910s, fully explores the temptations of the youthful body, even early childhood flirtatiousness. At the same time, with his target audience in mind, the film laments the bigotry and double standards of the adult world.

Notorious jewel thief Roger "Tiger" Brown sneaks into the trust of diamond dealer Thomas Morland. Not only does Morland's jewels appeal to him, but also his fiancée, Lady Edith Trent. But when Morland acquires the largest diamond in the world in Amsterdam, Brown decides against Edith and for the diamond, takes it and runs away.

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)

German-Italian crime drama with a racing milieu: The International criminal, "The Paw", who kills his victims with a prosthesis, has struck again! An engineer, who has designed a new racing car for the Italian firm Alberti has been found beaten to death. The plans for the car have been stolen. Rappis, the firm's director, takes part in the race and hits the finish line at the same time as the German racer, Peter Kruger. Then Rappis is found beaten to death, too.

Director William Dieterle's 1956 film biography of classical composer Richard Wagner stars Carlos Thompson, Yvonne De Carlo, Rita Gam, Alan Badel and Valentina Cortese.

Adventure film based on a Rilke poem.

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.

1933 German film.

Adaptation of Goethe's historical play "Götz von Berlichingen and the Iron Hand", set in the Holy Roman Empire.

Sally Pinkus is an German-Jewish boy who takes a job as a shoe store clerk after being expelled from school for goofing around. Soon fired for trying to court the owner's daughter, Pinkus lands another job in a more 'upmarket' shoe salon, only to be fired again, before charming a rich benefactress to fund his ultimate dream: Pinkus' Shoe Palace.

The clever Zacharias Bräsig is a good friend to all and tries to help out, where he can. Bräsig also meddles in the relationships of young people, so that by the end of the film, there's a double marriage.

"Comedians" - Axel Swinborne is a celebrated stage star. Although much in demand, he now wants to recover and travel by train on vacation. He leans out of the window at full speed, as happens a momentous mishap: his jacket gets tangled on the window lever so unhappy that it ejects the suction force out of the window.

A foal runs away from its native pasture, falls into a swamp and is rescued by the circus dancer Arabella. The stud owner, a young gentleman rider, names the animal after its rescuer Arabella. Arabella then becomes a celebrated racehorse, and when the circus performer and the gentleman rider meet again, they fall in love.

Directed by Aleksandr Razumnyj.

A shoemaker and his wife become the parents of a little girl, but they cannot find anyone willing to be the godfather of the newborn. The oppressive landlord also refuses to accept the burden. Only Michael, a young traveler whom the cobbler picks up on the side of the road, agrees to become the girl's godfather. From then on, Michael lives and works with the cobbler's family. When the landowner dies suddenly as a result of a stroke, a rumor spreads that the cobbler poisoned him. But with Michael's help, his innocence is proven.

"Tropical Nights" - The young violinist Alma comes to Simbali with an orchestra led by conductor Zangiacoma, hired for a series of performances at the Schomberg hotel. Both the conductor Zangiacomo and Schomberg are obsessed with Alma. One evening, when Alma is, as usual, forced to entertain the guests she meets Mr. Heyst from his island Sourabaya, where he lives in solitude. He takes Alma to his place on the island.

A traumatized man returning home from war discovers that his wife has slipped into the underclass.

Adaptation of Ibsen's play Vildanden.

A mirror in a creepy old Bavarian castle has the magical ability to reveal the future of whoever looks into it while the full moon shines brightly. A series of characters looks into the glass to learn their fate, and most are unhappy with what they learn. In the end, the hero smashes the glass and then commits suicide. After he is dead, the mirror magically reassembles itself into a whole as before.

One of the last of the silent Sherlock films.

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.