Annette Bach Movies

After a young art student copies a painting, the painting disappears and the student is accused of the theft. ~ Rovi

Constance Dowling, the American actress who gained international celebrity through her appearance in the Italian film Bitter Rice, is the villainess in Duel Without Honor. The heroine is Annette Bach, who renounces convent life to move back in with her banker father (Massimo Girotti). Unfortunately papa has a mistress (Dowling), who takes an immediate dislike to Bach. After being caught with another man, the mistress is hounded out of the house, later to die alone. Thus only Ms. Bach and Mr. Girotti survive long enough for the (presumably) happy ending. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Italian Merchant of Slaves spends an inordinate amount of time concentrating on underclad young beauties who've been sold into slavery in the Middle East. For those in the audience not interested in this sort of the thing, the script dwells upon a captured slave trader who falls in love with a downtrodden unwed mother. The film shows signs of being radically re-edited for American consumption: after 68 minutes, it comes to an unexpected halt, after tying up only one of its many loose plot strands. Enzo Fiermonte plays the reformed trader, while Annette Bach is his lady love. Director Duilio Coletti does his best with slipshod material. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Gino Bechi and Annette Bach portray Allesandro and Ortensia, the Lovers in this Italian romantic melodrama. Warned by an astrologer that he will die violently at an early age, Allesandro avoids all romantic entanglements. He rises to fame as a musician, devoting all his love and energy to his art. And then he meets Ortensia, the daughter of an influential Venetian. At first resisting her attractions, Allesandro is emboldened when he discovers the astrologer who placed the malediction on him has died. But Allesandro has not taken into consideration the volatile temper of Ortensia's overprotective father (Gualtiero Tumiati). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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