Paul Verhoeven Movies

Adapted from a successful stage play, ~Window to the Hall~, this standard comedy centers on the gradual disillusionment of Annie Wiesner (Inge Meysel) who works in a Berlin rooming house as a cross between a door guardian and a receptionist. She has great hopes for her two daughters and one son -- they will surely go farther than Annie's meager position in life, especially since the older daughter is already in the U.S., married to a millionaire. Her husband Karl (Rudolf Platte) works as a streetcar conductor and the interactions between the couple provide much of the humor. The rest is provided when the supposedly well-married daughter returns home very much single, with a little child in tow, needing her parents support. And then the rest of the brood contributes to Annie's woes. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a compassionate liberal judge's belief that young delinquents should be reformed rather than placed in prison is sorely tested by young woman convicted of blackmail. First he sends her to prison for eight months to get her away from her wicked boyfriend. When she threatens suicide, the judge must let her go, but before he does, he convinces his reluctant landlady to give her a job waiting tales at his boarding house. She does okay until the boyfriend reappears and cons her into stealing from another resident. The judge covers for the girl and she begins to fall in love with him. Seeing this, the bad boyfriend attempts to blackmail the judge into revealing that he has been making love to the girl. Instead the judge journeys to the boy's hangout and lectures his gang about reform. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This standard spy-suspense yarn of political intrigue is based on the East-West division in Germany at this time. On the West German side of the political dividing line, a spy ring of East Germans has been prying state secrets out of workers in the West German government. Their technique is straightforward. They promise to release relatives of the workers to West Germany in exchange for the information. When a prisoner in East Germany is released and returns to the West, he discovers that his wife has been murdered. Immediately suspecting an East German connection, he starts to hunt down and locate the members of the spy ring. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

It must be noted that the "Paul Verhoeven" credited with the direction of the German Palace Scandal is not the current Dutch director of Robocop and Basic Instinct fame. Now that that's been established, on to the plot. Set in the 19th century, this amiable comedy stars Elfie Meyerhoffer as Christine Holm, a popular singer who returns to her hometown. Christine wants to learn the true identity of her father, and when she does, it's quite a jolt for everyone concerned. A clue to daddy's identity can be found in the film's title. Filmed in eye-pleasing Agfacolor, Palace Scandal might have made an entertaining operetta with the addition of a few more songs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The delightful Johann Strauss comic opera Die Fledermaus was mercilessly lampooned in this truly bizarre production. For starters, a framing device has been added: After appearing in 300 consecutive appearances of Fledermaus (which translates as The Bat) the lead tenor (Georg Alexander) imagines that he's seeing bats everywhere. Driven a bit over the edge by all this, he falls asleep and has a nightmare about the opera, with a group of non-singers cast in the leading roles. The original libretto about romantic assignations, political imprisonments and mistaken identity is burlesqued to the hilt: at one point, the hero finds out that his prison cell is surrounded by rubber tubes! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide