Horst Wendlandt Movies
A former WWII POW whose productions laid the groundwork for one of Germany's biggest local box-office hits, producer Horst Wendlandt hit a nearly five-decade-long stride with his numerous adaptations of the works of writers Edgar Wallace and Karl May. Born Horst Gubanow to Russian parents in 1922, the future producer became an apprentice at Tobis Filmkunst at the age of 15. Subsequently captured and forced into labor in the French coal mines, Wendlandt joined Arthur Brauner's CCC following the war. Wendlandt's next fateful move would be to Rialto, the company he would eventually run, in 1961. Taking control of the company that had recently acquired the rights to the entire catalog of Edgar Wallace's detective thrillers in 1972, the following years found roughly 30 books translated into films under Wendlandt in the coming years. Serving as a popular showcase for up-and-coming German talent, the Wallace films also proved a lucrative draw at the box office throughout the 1960s. Soon thereafter approached by his son with the idea of adapting 19th century writer Karl May's series of Wild West adventures, a series of popular Eurowesterns followed. Those films, many of which were international co-productions, would eventually lay the foundation for the wildly popular 2002 parody Manitu's Shoe. In late August 2002, Wendlandt succumbed to cancer in Berlin, Germany. He was 80. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1989
Otto Waalkes is a goofy looking and very popular German standup comedian, who has also directed, written and starred in a number of very silly films in which he plays a bumbling, wacked-out Frisian. Frisians are to "regular" Germans what Newfoundlanders are to other Canadians, the Irish are to the English, etc. In other words, they are the regular butt of jokes about how clueless they are. In this particular film, Otto travels the globe to save Frisia from being paved over by the German military-industrial complex. This involves his visiting the set of Miami Vice, interfering with Steffi Graff at a tennis match, etc. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Volkmar Kleinert
- 1988
Paul Winkleman (Loriot) is a middle-aged merchant of upholstery who is continually controlled by his elderly mother (Katharina Brauren). He falls for Margarethe (Evelyn Hamann), a drab clinical psychologist his own age with her own issues of controlling parents. The two nerds begin a tenuous and sometimes nerve-wracking courtship. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Loriot, Evelyn Hamann, (more)
- 1987
Popular German comic Otto Waalkes stars in this comedy about a country boy who comes to the big city. He takes a job as a handyman with disastrous results due to his ineptitude. Otto falls for a pretty woman who has a crush on a musclebound movie star. He masquerades as a veterinarian psychiatrist in an attempt to win the woman's love, and he repeatedly pokes fun at the Teutonic tendency for order and conformity. Waalkes has been compared to Robin Williams and Groucho Marx in terms of his comic delivery. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Otto Waalkes
- 1986
Momo (Radost Bokel) is a ten-year-old orphan girl who tries to save her village from the evil clutches of the Grey Men in this uneven children's story. Led by Chief Grey Man (Armin Muller-Stahl), the Grey Men have managed to make the villagers give up all their leisure time. Momo must get to the rococo palace where the time guardian Hora (John Huston) stands in her way. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Radost Bokel, John Huston, (more)
- 1985
Starring the popular comic personality of Otto Waalkes (co-director with Xavier Schwarzenberger), this farce is essentially a vehicle to demonstrate Waalkes multiple talents. The plot is nothing more than a series of vignettes -- Otto hamming it up on an airplane flight or Otto as a barber in a black wig. A cross between Peter Sellers, Woody Allen, and Jerry Lewis, Otto is constantly chased after by creditors while he himself chases after the woman of his dreams, a wealthy damsel who secretly loves him anyway. This film did well enough to inspire a 1988 sequel, Otto - Der Neue Film. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elisabeth Wiedemann
- 1982
The French/German Ace of Aces stars Jean-Paul Belmondo as a dauntless World War One flyboy. Nearly 20 years after cessation of hostilities, Belmondo attends the 1936 Berlin Olympics as manager of the French boxing team. Through a series of plot twists too incredible to relate, Our Hero finds himself shepherding a group of Jewish refugees to safety. Alas, his sense of direction isn't so hot, and the refugees end up at Hitler's mountain retreat! Originally titled L'As De As, Ace of Aces is a black comedy in the Mel Brooks tradition. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Paul Belmondo, Marie-France Pisier, (more)
Trinity series star Bud Spencer returns to the Wild West in director Michele Lupo's comic tale of an outlaw drifter, Buddy, who is mistaken for a doctor after his Indian companion inadvertently steals a bag of surgical instruments. When a band of murderous outlaws attempts to overrun the small town Buddy is passing through, the presumed medico shows that his true talent is cracking skulls. Music is composed by Ennio Morricone. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1981
The humor in this film centers around a man in his pajamas and bathrobe who goes out to buy some cigarettes on the corner and encounters a series of events that have him chased by some inept policemen, an angry husband, a taxi driver, and so forth. Things continue to deteriorate from there, and for some viewers, their funny bones will be picked dry after the first few scenes. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Otto Sander, Peter Fitz, (more)
- 1981
- R
Part of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Entire History of the German Federal Republic trilogy, Lola stars Barbara Sukowa in the title role, a seductive cabaret singer and dancer in the 1950s who is romantically involved with Von Bohm (Armin Mueller-Stahl), a straight-as-an-arrow building inspector. Recently appointed Building Commissioner, Von Bohm is committed to eradicating corruption. Consequently, he's given quite a shock when he is called into inspect the brothel where Lola works and discovers her dancing there. With that, Von Bohm is left to question whether he is more loyal to the woman he loves so passionately or the career he believes in so strongly. The other entries in the trilogy are Veronika Voss and The Marriage of Maria Braun. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Sukowa, Armin Mueller-Stahl, (more)
- 1980
- R
Produced and directed for German television, Ingmar Bergman's From the Life of the Marionettes starts out in color and switches almost immediately to black-and-white. This cinematic self-indulgence is ideally suited to the subject matter: the horrible consequences of a rapidly disintegrating marriage. The husband, Peter Egerman (Robert Atzorn) is unable to articulate his frustration through normal channels. Warped by his repression, Egerman ends up raping and murdering a prostitute. This outrage occurs at the very beginning of the film; the rest of the footage is devoted to a semi-documentary study of the failed marriage, the police investigation, and the husband's twisted psyche. Once again, Bergman's vision is superbly realized by the camerawork of Sven Nykvist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christine Buchegger, Martin Benrath, (more)
A retired football great heads back to the gridiron to coach a fledgling team and prove he still has that magic touch in this classic Bud Spencer sports comedy. "The Bulldozer" (Spencer) was a football giant with an ego the size of Texas. Refusing to believe that he could ever be defeated out on the gridiron, "The Bulldozer" eventually turned his back on the sport lest he risk being proven wrong. While the former star did prove successful at ducking out of the limelight and beginning a career as an anonymous fisherman, things took a turn for the worst when his boat was destroyed by a submarine. Subsequently unemployed, "The Bulldozer" reluctantly accepted a position coaching a minor-league team. Regardless of his "has been" status, however, "The Bulldozer" still knows that he's the best football player there is, and he's prepared to prove it to the entire world. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
The Serpent's Egg, or Das Schlangenei is director Ingmar Bergman's second English language production (The Touch was his first). It is, however, his first completely non-Swedish production, made after his voluntary self-exile from Sweden over taxation issues. Set in Berlin in the early 1920s, it explores the fear and despair the city evokes in Manuela and Abel Rosenberg (Liv Ullmann and David Carradine), two Jewish trapeze artists. The suicide of Manuela's husband (Abel's brother), has stranded them in Berlin. Berlin is shown to already possess the sinister elements of cruelty and anti-Semitism which laid the groundwork for the later Nazi takeover. A series of misadventures gets them sent to a medical clinic for treatment. However, the clinic is actually a site for Nazi-type "racial" experiments on humans, which generally either madden or kill the subjects. Das Schlangenei was savaged by the critics for its improbable-seeming story and more particularly, for casting David Carradine (best known for his earlier appearances in the Kung Fu U.S. television series) in a crucial role. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Liv Ullmann, David Carradine, (more)
- 1972
This German comedy is a starring vehicle for beloved entertainer Peter Alexander. Here he plays a school teacher who has a chance to be given his dream house, if only he will arrange for the daughter of a wealthy businessman to pass her exams. However, just now it is the summer holiday, and he'd rather dream about his house than receive payola for dishonest deeds. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
One of the final links between the Edgar Wallace-based German krimi genre and the Italian giallo thriller, this creepy mystery stars Fabio Testi as a college professor who sleeps with his students and is blamed when a string of murders occurs. Joachim Fuchsberger, as usual, is the police inspector trying to solve the killings; Camille Keaton, Buster Keaton's grand-niece and later the star of Meir Zarchi's I Spit on Your Grave (1980) has a supporting role; cameraman Aristide Massaccesi, later infamous as gore director "Joe D'Amato," turns up as a cop. Massimo Dallamano's direction is assured. This first-rate thriller was based on Wallace's Secret of the Green Pin. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Willi (Heinz Erhardt) is the president of a soccer club located in the provinces. The team is deeply in debt and may have to go out of business if something isn't done. He enlists the help of a photographer and his three lovely daughters, and a rich aunt from Brazil arranges for a famous soccer player to join the team. Clever publicity and the new star turn things around. This movie is the fourth in the popular "Willi" series to star Heinz Erhardt. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1971
This German comedy is basically a star vehicle for Heinze Erhardt, a comedian so deeply beloved by German audiences that the content of this film is of secondary importance to the fact that he appears in it. The character he plays is a very agreeable retired financier, a "soft touch," who is perpetually short of money. He decides to take a job to help keep up with his debts and chooses to be a salesman. He keeps at it despite being fired a few times, and things eventually turn out well. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1970
Willie (Heinz Erhardt) is a sympathetic tax collector nearing the end of his career and looking forward to retirement. He champions the cause of the needy and poor by losing the tax information that allows the government to collect the money. His boss is angry with Willie who is in danger of losing his pension over the incident. Pretending to be insane to escape punishment, his actions win the sympathies of a high ranking tax official. Willie's story endears him to the man and the general population and he is promoted to a high paying job in this delightful comedy. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Heinz Erhardt, Ralf Wolter, (more)
- 1970
This sentimental story is taken from the novel by Heinrich Spoerl but strays from the original. Teachers and students are the focus of the plot, with Hans (Walter Giller) in love with Marion (Nadja Tiller). Uschi Glass and Hans Richter also star in this remake of the 1944 classic by Helmut Weiss. Richter plays a teacher in this production after starring as a student in the earlier version. The student-teacher theme seems to be an inexhaustible vehicle for Teutonic filmmakers. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Giller, Uschi Glas, (more)
- 1970
In this crime comedy, Herbert Zaenker (Martin Held) is the retired judge who is called on to monitor the movements of a shady criminal masking as a boxing promoter. Bruno "Dandy" Steigler (Mario Adorf) has just returned to Berlin and plans a series of robberies with his criminal cronies. Herbert uses his experience to recruit former criminals to thwart the efforts of the gang, who manage to stay one step ahead of the puzzled Dandy. Herbert continues to befuddle the crime boss as the legal dragnet tightens around the gang. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Held, Walter Giller, (more)
- 1970
Jochem Brinkman (Georg Thomalia) is a bachelor again. Now there are no barriers to he and his two friends (Peer Schmidt and Hans Juergen Diedrich) having a good time. Just as they are getting into the spirit of their bachelorhood, along come three highly marriage-minded women to complicate their lives. Among them is the woman (Terry Torday) Jochem has just divorced! This is clean family entertainment for German speakers (no dubbing or subtitles). Featured songs include In the Summertime sung by Ricky Shayne. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1970
Lynn (Barbara Benton) is the 19 year old girl who leaves her repressive parent's home in search of a matrimonial prospect. Her first attempt as love proves disappointing, but soon she discovers all men want the same thing from her. Lynn asks for money for sex and hooks up with a blackmailer who scams a disc jockey and a pimp. When she marries an Italian aristocrat, he allows her to continue her career as a joy girl and he continues as a gigolo. Broderick Crawford, Klaus Kinski, and Lionel Stander also appear, and Playboy magazine publisher Hugh Hefner makes a cameo appearance, who at the time of the film was romantically linked with Benton. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbi Benton, Hampton Fancher, (more)
- 1969
This situation comedy finds a television reporter posing as a teacher in order to get a story on the younger generation. He falls for the pretty sister of one of his students, the daughter of a wealthy and influential pillar of the community who happens to hate teachers. The report deals with the fallout from daddy dearest and stuffy administrators in this continuation of the film, directed by Werner Jacobs, that often pokes fun at the educational system. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Alexander, Hansi Kraus, (more)
- 1969
A Scotland Yard detective investigates a series of murders of gangsters and girls. Inspector Perkins (Horst Tappert) is the prim and proper but cynical sleuth who knows the killings are drug-related. The trail first leads to Yvonne (Karin Huebner), a former victim of the white slave trade who seeks revenge on those who sold her into human bondage. Perkins must convince his stuffy superior Sir Arthur (Herbert von Meyerinck) that there is more to the case than is first apparent. Perkins dodges bullets, deals with double-crossing gangsters, and jealous career-minded agents as he searches for the man with the glass eye in this suspenseful crime thriller. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Horst Tappert, Karin Huebner, (more)
