Kristina Soderbaum Movies
One of the Nazi era's great female stars, blonde, blue-eyed Kristina Söderbaum was the typical modest and selfless maiden so favored by the regime. Having studied in Berlin with legendary actor Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Söderbaum skyrocketed to fame in Veit Harlan's Yugend (aka Youth [1938]), in which her character kills herself when small-minded neighbors drive her young lover away. She married Harlan soon after and automatically joined the inner circle surrounding the feared minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels. With Harlan directing and another prominent Nazi sympathizer, Thea Von Harbou, supplying the screenplays, Söderbaum went on to star in heavy-handed, government-sanctioned melodramas such as Die Reise Nach Tilsit (1939), a Nazi distortion of an Hermann Sudermann novel filmed earlier in Hollywood as Sunrise (1928); and Jud Süss (aka Jew Suss [1940]). The most notoriously anti-Semitic film of the entire Nazi period, Jud Süss was an overt attempt to persuade the public of the inferiority of the Jewish people and somewhat resembled The Birth of a Nation (1915) in both execution and tenor. Söderbaum, in the Lillian Gish role, is ravished by a sub-human Jew and once again commits suicide, this time by drowning herself. Arriving soon after the Kristalnacht, Jud Süss was the perfect cinematic appeal for the establishment of concentration camps. As would be well-documented after the war, Söderbaum actively campaigned for the role, a fact that she came to regret. As the writer Joseph Wulf observed of Nazi era films in general and Jud Süss in particular: "It is not surprising that the question is still constantly raised as to whether the actors who took part in these films were responsible or not for the murder of millions of people." While everything was crumbling around the regime in the early '40s, Minister Goebbels ordered the fatigued German military to aid in creating a series of expensively mounted films depicting former glories of the "Arian Race." Once again, Söderbaum took an active part , starring in such pompously produced and directed melodramas as Der Grosse König (aka The Great King [1942]), about Frederick the Great; Die Goldene Stadt (aka The Golden City [1942]), filmed on location in occupied Prague; and, especially Kollberg (1943), a colossal production by Harlan, set during the Napoleonic wars and literally filmed in between British and American bombing raids. As Cinzia Romani notes in her definitive book on the subject, Tainted Goddesses, "a print of the film was dropped by parachute into the German Atlantic fortress at La Rochelle, France, where an audience of bewildered soldiers watched the premiere of the last of UFA's super-productions." Strangely, Söderbaum's popularity remained somewhat intact in the early post-war years but she reportedly refused all offers because Harlan was banned from working by the Allied occupation forces. Acquitted three times for collaborating with the past regime, Harlan was finally allowed to resume work but although they continued to make films, the couple was definitely past their prime. Widowed in 1964, Söderbaum continued to accept an occasional role in both films and television and was last seen in Night Train to Venice, a low-budget 1994 thriller starring Hugh Grant. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi- 1993
- R
Everyone on the train to Venice is quite naturally wrapped up in their own concerns. Martin (Hugh Grant), a journalist, is determined to see to it that his book on the neo-Nazis gets into the right hands. Others are on their way to celebrate the Carnivale in Venice, a huge city-wide costume party. A more sinister passenger is found in the watchful man (Malcom McDowell) who never seems to converse or join with any of the others on the train. When a group of skinheads takes over the train, the passengers seem hardly to have noticed. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Hugh Grant, Tahnee Welch, (more)
Karl May chronicles the life of the extremely popular 19th-century German novelist who lived from 1842 to 1912. Karl May's copious output included dozens of adventure novels set in the American Wild West; they are distinguished by their sympathetic portrayal of Native Americans, and many feature the beloved Native American character Winnetou. May was among the most popular novelists ever to have written in the German language, and the idyllic simplicity of the rustic life portrayed in his works is thought to have inspired the early Nazis, who would probably have horrified May. In the last 12 years of his life, he was involved in a series of lawsuits to clear his name from a number of libelous assaults. These charges came after he had achieved prominence as a cultural figure and his prior conviction and imprisonment for petty theft was discovered. The movie catches up with him in the midst of his fight against these slanders. This film is the second in director Hans-Jurgen Syberberg's German Trilogy, consisting of Ludwig, Karl May and Hitler - Ein Film Aus Deutschland. In order to highlight the continuity between May's vision and the Hitler regime, all the actors in the film were either prominent during the Nazi era, or began their careers then. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kristina Soderbaum
- 1959
This routine melodrama by Veidt Harlan tells a well-worn tale of friction between a little eight-year-old girl and her new stepmother (Kristina Soederbaum). After her widowed father remarries, the girl makes life as unbearable as she can for her stepmother. Nothing seems to be able to change her attitude which is not improved after her stepmother gets pregnant. It is only when the stepmother is in the hospital to deliver twins and faces the danger of dying that the little girl realizes her behavior was wrong and is finally able to accept her life as it is. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kristina Soderbaum, Hans Holt, (more)
- 1942
Controversial Nazi-era filmmaker Veidt Harlan was the guiding hand behind Die Goldene Stadt. The heroine (Kristine Soderbaum) is a naïve farm girl who wants nothing more out of life than to visit the "Golden City" of Prague. Once arrived, she quickly falls into a bad crowd. She is ultimately disowned by her father and abandoned by her beau. Distinctly xenophobic in tone, Die Goldene Stadt doesn't stand the test of time too well. Lensed in Agfacolor, the film was based on Die Gigant, a play by Richard Billinger. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1940
Leon Feuchtwangler's novel Jud Süss was originally about a powerful ghetto businessman who believes himself to be a Jew. Süss's ruthless business practices result in the betrayal of an innocent girl, for which he is arrested and sentenced to be hanged under the anti-Jewish laws of the 18th century. While he waits to be executed, Süss discovers he is not Jewish. Rather than turn his back on the people of the ghetto with whom he'd grown up, Süss courageously refuses to declare his "Aryan" status, even though it means he will die on the gallows. The Feuchtwangler book was designed in roundabout fashion to strike a blow against anti-Semitism. But when Jud Süss was filmed in Germany at the behest of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels in 1940, its original message was twisted and perverted into an argument in favor of "ethnic cleansing." As played by Werner Krauss, Süss is not only genuinely Jewish, but also an amalgam of every vicious caricature ever concocted by the anti-Semitic propagandists of the past two centuries. With hooked nose and greasy beard, Krauss portrays Süss as a whining, wheedling, hand-wringing subhuman rapist; small wonder that Krauss was proclaimed an Actor of the State by the Nazis. The final scene of Jud Süss shows a screaming, protesting Süss being hanged in the public square; the scene is directed to cast Süss' tormenters in an utterly sympathetic light, and perhaps even to invoke cheers from an impressionable audience. Though disgusting beyond belief, Jud Süss should be seen at least once, if only to show what a dangerous weapon film can be in the hands of hate merchants. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ferdinand Marian, Werner Krauss, (more)
- 1938
Though it was accepted as standard entertainment upon its first release, the German Jugend (Youth) has in recent years been perceived as an implicitly pro-Nazi tract. Adapted by Thea Von Harbou from a controversial 19th century play by Max Hulls, the story concerns a young girl named Annchen (Kristina Soderbaum), who from childhood onward has had her judgment warped by the self-righteous proclamations of a fanatical priest (Eugene Klopfer). After her first sexual experience, Annchen is so overwhelmed by guilt that she commits suicide, profoundly affecting the lives of those closest to her. Some critics have suggested that the film advises its audience to beware false prophets-except those wearing brown shirts and armbands, who will lead the populace from the opiate of religion to the glories of National Socialism. The fact that Jugend was directed by Kristina Soderbaum's husband Viet Harlan, one of the German film industry's leading torch-bearers for the Third Reich, has not been a point in its favor. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kristina Soderbaum
- 1938
Director Veit Harlan, one of the most conspicuous banner-wavers for the Third Reich, manages to suppress his political beliefs in the straightforward mystery melodrama Verwehte Spuren (Covered Tracks). The film is based on a true story, wherein all traces of the existence of a bubonic-plague carrier were obliterated by the nervous authrorities so as not to endanger the success of the 1867 Paris World Exposition. When the mother of Serphine Lawrence (played by Harlan's wife Kristina Soederbaum) mysteriously vanishes while attending the Exposition, Madeleine makes a beeline to the gendarmes. Upon returning to her hotel, Madeleine is told that she and her mother never checked in-and when she goes to her room, she finds that the furnishings and even the wallpaper are entirely different! On the verge of madness, Madeleine is finally able to discern the truth about her "nonexistent" mother. The same story served as the basic for the 1949 British film So Long at the Fair. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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