Theo Shall Movies
- 1938
The title Die Entfuehrung translates as The Abduction, but it's a comedy, so no one gets hurt. Marieleuse Claudine plays Suzanne, an impressionable young miss who frets over her mother Yvonne's (Lola Chlud) clandestine romance with a smarmy lothario. With papa (Walter Janssen) away on business, Suzanne decides to take matters in her own hands. She fakes her own kidnapping, stowing away on the yacht of family friend Gerard Frehl (Gustav Froelich). Though poor Frehl takes his lumps from the Law, it all turns out okay when Suzanne's mom comes to her senses and her dad realizes how neglectful he's been. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gustav Froehlich, Walter Janssen, (more)
- 1935
This ingenious crime drama demonstrates how to commit the perfect murder. The trouble begins when a playboy convinces a woman to leave her fiance and travel to Paris with him to get married. When the jilted lover learns that the playboy is really a heartless gigolo, he rushes to Paris and kills the villain. Then using a trick watch, he convinces the cops that he arrived after the murder. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Phillips Holmes, Aileen Marson, (more)
- 1932
The titular group is not a musical aggregation but a German acrobatic team. The lovely but unathletic Jenny Jugo is inadvertently signed on as one of the Jazzband Five. Failing miserably in rehearsals, she heads to a tavern for solace and liquid replenishment; here she meets handsome Theo Shall. When sneak thief Peter Lorre steals Shall's car, he implicates Jugo as his accomplice. This causes a rift in her new romance, but by film's end Jugo and Shall are back together--while the Jazzband Five place an ad for a new member. Released in Germany as Funf von der Jazzband, this breezy little comedy was written by Hermann Kosterlitz, who went on to Hollywood fame and fortune as writer/director Henry Koster. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Filmed simultaneously with the English version, this German-language film is considered by many to be technically superior. Greta Garbo, who was discovered by Louis B. Mayer in Berlin, spoke German well and her performance was highly praised. As the old lush Marthy, actress-writer Salka Steuermann (later Viertel) was perhaps not as striking as Marie Dressler, but her performance was highly praised. Veteran German star Hans Junkermann, in his only Hollywood film, took over from George F. Marion as Chris Christofferson, Anna's sailor father, and Theo Shall replaced Charles Bickford as the virile Matt Burke. The latter became famous in his native Germany as "the man who kissed Garbo." Completing the small cast, Herman Bing appeared unbilled as Larry, the bartender who serves Garbo her "viskey." The star herself often admitted to favoring this film over the English-language version and felt a great kinship with Belgian director Jacques Feyder. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi
- Starring:
- Greta Garbo
- 1930
Although His Glorious Night, MGM's 1929 talkie adaptation of Ferenc Molnar's Olympia, proved to be a box-office disaster (a failure chalked up by the studio to the vocal inadequacies of leading man John Gilbert, though this wasn't entirely the case), the studio was still committed to refilming the property in French, Spanish and German-language versions. The French version, Si L'Empereur Savait Ca, starred Andre Luguet, while the Spanish adaptation, Olympia, top-billed José Crespo. Olympia was also the name of the German-language version, which like the French adaptation was directed by Jacques Feyder. This time, Theodor Shall is cast as handsome Lieutenant Kovacs, the sweetheart of the lovely Princess Olympia (Nora Gregor). When the princess' snooty mother breaks up the romance, the embittered Kovacs threatens to tell the world that he has "ruined" the girl (not true!), making her unfit for marriage. To ensure his silence, the Lieutenant is promised a night alone with Olympia, just before the wedding. It is at this point that Kovacs proves he's a gentleman after all by marrying the Princess, which is what he intended to do all along. Olympia was remade in 1960 as A Breath of Scandal. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Nora Gregor, Theo Shall, (more)
