Lissi Arna Movies

In this drama, a devoted woman takes the rap for her yellow-bellied lover's crime and gets sent to Australia's Parmatta Pententiary. When her boy friend finds out where she is, he moves to Australia to get in touch. He doesn't succeed and soon finds himself marrying the governor's daughter. Meanwhile, the girl is eventually released when she marries an upstanding settler. When she learns that her old lover has married another, the distraught lass takes off and attempts to start a new life as a nightclub singer. In the end, she winds up choosing to return to prison. Her good husband again comes to her aid and saves her from prison. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The title translates as Unfaithful Eckehart, and indeed Dr. Eckart Bleitreu (Ralph A. Roberts) is cheating on his loving wife (Luize Englisch). To throw his wife off his scent, Bleitreu claims that it's his brother-in-law Fritz (Fritz Schulz) who is the philanderer. The doctor's deception backfires when, thanks to his presumed prowess with the ladies, Fritz ends up with a cushy government job and a huge salary. Befitting its subject manner, Ungetrue Eckehart has plenty of old-fashioned door-slamming and ducking in and out of boudoirs. Reportedly, the film was also produced in a French-language version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Two of Germany's best and busiest directors collaborated on Berge in Flammen (Mountain in Flames). The storyline should be of interest to pro-ecologists, inasmuch as the directors take to task the warmongers of the world for despoiling the natural beauties of the European mountain ranges with their shell-fire. The final outrage occurs during a battle between the Austrians and the Italians in the Dolomites, culminating with the destruction of an entire mountain (hence the film's title). The harrowing images on screen were complemented perfectly by the musical score of Giuseppe Beece. Also known as The Doomed Batallion, Berge in Flammen was filmed in three different languages -- German, English, French -- for a total cost of $150,000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A troubled production that suffered from both severe cuts and retakes under a different director (Edward H. Griffith), this World War I melodrama fell far short of becoming another All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) as had obviously been the original intention. Told in flashbacks, the antiwar drama stars William Boyd as Sergeant Bill Thatcher, the head of an American battalion fighting for control of a French village. As Thatcher listens, three wounded soldiers under his command recall how they came to the battlefields of World War I: A farm boy, Bud (Russell Gleason), defied his mother (Mary Carr) and enlisted despite being the family's sole breadwinner; a New York playboy, trapped between two women, Ina (Marion Shilling), his newest conquest, and a former mistress, Lew (Lew Cody), sought the easy way out by enlisting; finally, Private Jim Mobley (James Gleason) tells the heartfelt story of how his wife, "Mademoiselle" Fritzi (ZaSu Pitts), a carnival knife thrower, got very upset when he decided to escape housekeeping duties by joining the army. Back on the battlefield, Jim finds Bill at the machine gun, where the latter finally tells his own story of how he came to hate his German-born fiancée, Katherine (Lissi Arna), when she warned him of the futility of war. Before blowing up a railroad bridge, Bill admits to Jim that he now fully understands Katherine's sentiments. Wounded in the battle, both soldiers end up in a German Red Cross hospital where Bill is reunited with Katherine. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide