Hertha Thiele Movies
Hertha Thiele was a German actress perhaps best remembered for her role in Sagan's 1931 film Maedchen in Uniform. Her adeptness of portraying a young girl on the cusp of womanhood also won her the role of young Anni in Kuehle Wampe in 1932. Her budding career was nipped when the Nazis came to power. In 1937, she left for Switzerland where she performed many odd jobs until returning to East Germany in 1966 where she resumed working in films and on television. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1980
In this poignant tale of a lonely old woman's past deed of heroism, a grandmother (Hertha Thiele) sits quietly weaving baskets at a lakeside villa and rows out to an island in the lake to collect reeds for her work. Her grandson is forced to defend her odd behavior one day and has to ask his father why she goes out so far in the boat when the same reeds grow near the shore. It slowly emerges that the woman has hidden a POW on the island during World War II and regularly rows there to keep him supplied with food. The man is captured by the Nazis in spite of her efforts, and when she is brought in for questioning, she said she was only collecting water reeds to make baskets. This film was part of a Hertha Thiele retrospective in Berlin in 1983. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hertha Thiele, Guenter Junghans, (more)
- 1977
After a life of relentless self-discipline as a champion swimmer, Barbara tries to adjust to "civilian" life. She marries and begins working at a textile factory. Her dedication to perfection drives away her new husband, infuriates her co-workers, and puts her life in quite a bind. Nonetheless, she remains true to herself and by the end of the film has had a divorce and has also begun a swimming program for young people, sponsored by her factory and taking place in the factory's newly made swimming pool. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cox Habbema, Peter Aust, (more)
- 1933
Dorothea Wieck and Herta Thiele, the stars of the popular and controversial Maedchen in Uniform, were reunited in Frank Wisbar's Anna und Elisabeth. Anna (Thiele) is a peasant girl who suddenly finds she has the power to heal the sick. Soon her shabby rural cottage becomes a shrine for every crippled person in the county -- much to Anna's dismay, because she refuses to believe that she possesses any special gifts and wishes that people would leave her alone. She is eventually invited to live with Elisabeth (Wieck), a wealthy and reclusive invalid. Upon failing to save one of Elisabeth's friends from dying, Anna becomes more withdrawn than ever, refusing to perform any more "miracles" -- a decision that has a devastating effect on Elisabeth. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothea Wieck, Hertha Thiele, (more)
- 1933
Hans Fallada's poignant Depression-era novel Klein Mann, Was Nun? was faithfully filmed in Germany in 1933. Young provincial bookkeeper Hans (Herman Thiemig) must keep his marriage to the beautiful Lammechen (Hertha Thiele) a secret, lest he be fired by his boss, who'd hoped to marry off his own daughter to Hans. When the truth is revealed, Hans is immediately sacked, whereupon he and Lammechen move to the Berlin home of Han's lusty stepmother (Ida Wuest). The old lady's larcenous lover (Fritz Kampers) tries to help out the young couple financially, but soon he's carted off to prison. Eventually, it dawns on Hans that his stepmother is running a house of prostitution, and the young couple is obliged to move out again. This time they are given shelter by a kindly street peddler, who is on hand to help out when Lammechen gives birth to Hans's child. Though the young husband is out of work again, there is some hope that conditions will improve, and the film ends on an upbeat note. An English-language version of the Fallada novel, Little Man, What Now?, was filmed the following year, with Douglass Montgomery as Hans and Margaret Sullavan as Lammechen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hertha Thiele, Viktor de Kowa, (more)
- 1932
Mensch Ohne Namen (Men Without Names) is a modernized adaptation of Honore de Balzac's Colonel Chabert. Long believed dead, WWI captain Heinrich Martin (Werner Kraus) returns to Berlin after a 16-year absence. Suffering from amnesia, Martin suddenly remembers that he has a wife and that he used to run a successful auto-manufacturing business. Not surprisingly, his wife has remarried, and his business is now the property of her second husband. Vainly, Martin battles the bureaucracy to regain ownership of his business but is forced to give up the fight. He starts life anew in a poor, provincial community, finding happiness with a pretty typist. Thanks to his new wife's business savvy, Martin is able to regain his status in the manufacturing world and becomes a millionaire all over again. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Werner Krauss, Mathias Wiemann, (more)
- 1932
A relocation camp for itinerant, deeply-depressed workers provides the setting for this provocative drama. Most of the camp residents have been so beaten down by cruel circumstance that they are unable to help themselves. Fortunately, a young woman comes to the camp and helps the youths. This marked the first film of celebrated actor Erwin Geschonnek. Bertolt Brecht wrote the script. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hertha Thiele, Ernst Busch, (more)
- 1931
Inspired by Christa Winsloe's play Gestern und Heute, Maedchen in Uniform is one of the most memorable and moving of the pre-Hitler German talkies. Hertha Thiele plays a new student in an exclusive girls' boarding school. Achingly lonely because she feels deserted by her family, Hertha keeps her distance from the rest of the girls. Persecuted for her solitary stance by principal Emilia Unda, Hertha is drawn to her sympathetic teacher Dorothea Wieck. What starts as a friendship blossoms into a romance. While public revelation of this relationship proves disastrous to both student and teacher, it is ultimately the unforgiving principal Unda who suffers most. Maedchen in Uniform was antiseptically remade in 1958, with some of the frankness but little of the honest eroticism of the original. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emilia Unda, Dorothea Wieck, (more)
