Lil Dagover Movies
Actress Lil Dagover was born in Java to a Dutch family working in that country. She was educated in Baden-Baden and Weimar, Germany. While pursuing an acting career she married a much-older stage performer, Fritz Daghofer. The marriage was brief but it did give Lil her professional last name, which she respelled. Somewhat reminiscent of American film star Theda Bara in her dark-lined makeup and florid acting mannerisms, Dagover was ideal for the surrealistic ambience of her first important film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), and soon other European actresses were adopting Lil's heavy-lidded, highly stylized technique. Ms. Dagover was a particular favorite of director Fritz Lang, who cast the actress in such exotic silent classics Die Spinnen [Spiders] (1919), Destiny (1921) and Dr. Mabuse der Spieler (1922). Lil made one American film, Warner Bros.' The Woman From Monte Carlo (1931) -- yet another attempt by Hollywood moguls to create a "new" Greta Garbo, even though Dagover preceded Garbo by nearly a decade. Returning to Germany, Dagover avoided overt political involvement during the Third Reich, concentrating on harmless costume musicals and comedies during World War II. Unlike many of her contemporaries, she managed to retain her stature in the post-war years. Lil Dagover's final appearance was a small part in the German-Italian co-production End of the Game (1976)--an appropriate title for the climax of nearly half a century's worth of film roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1979
Marianne (Birgit Doll) is driven from her father's home when she is impregnated by Alfred (Hanno Poeschi), a vagabond loafer who abandons her after he has his fun. She goes to Vienna and takes a job in a strip club to provide for herself and her baby. Her father discovers his daughter's tawdry vocation when he and his buddies go to the club for a night of leering and drinking. Marianne later has no choice but to go back to the butcher to whom her father promised her in marriage before she fell for Alfred. The story is taken from a play by Oedoen Von Horath and is directed with flair by Maximilian Schell. Watch for silent movie star Lil Dagover playing the role of Helene. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Birgit Doll, Helmut Qualtinger, (more)
- 1977
Toward the end of 1918, soldiers in the Austrian army were well aware that things were not going well. In this story, an army cadet arrives to serve in Belgrade and receives orders to serve in a regiment which is accompanying a Hanoverian princess on her return to Vienna. While in Belgrade, the young man and the princess are able to meet, and they fall in love. The cadet knows that it is foolish to expect the Slavs, who have been drafted into the army, to fight very hard for an empire they would happily see dissolved, but his superior officers are oblivious to this simple fact, and as a consequence, they suffer serious military reverses. Inspired by their ancient code of military honor, the regiment's officers fight and die to preserve the regiment's battleflag, which comes into the keeping of the cadet. He is entrusted with the task of returning it to the Hapsburg royal family. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Simon Ward, Siegfried Rauch, (more)
- 1975
Actor Maximillian Schell functioned as coproducer and director of End of the Game. Conversely, director Martin Ritt is the leading actor in this existentialist crime story. Ritt plays Hans Barlach, a Swiss police inspector who has spent 30 years trying to pin the murder of the woman he loved on Richard Gastmann, an "untouchable" industrialist (Robert Shaw). When Barlach's assistant Donald Sutherland is killed while trying to get the goods on Gastmann, the inspector puts idealistic detective Walter Tschantz (Jon Voight) on the case. Jacqueline Bisset costars as Anna Crawley Sutherland's girl friend, who attempts to solve the case on her own. Author Friedrich Durrenmatt, long fascinated with the intangible aspects of Guilt and Innocence, wrote the novel (The Judge and His Hangman) upon which End of the Game is based. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jon Voight, Jacqueline Bisset, (more)
Karl May chronicles the life of the extremely popular 19th-century German novelist who lived from 1842 to 1912. Karl May's copious output included dozens of adventure novels set in the American Wild West; they are distinguished by their sympathetic portrayal of Native Americans, and many feature the beloved Native American character Winnetou. May was among the most popular novelists ever to have written in the German language, and the idyllic simplicity of the rustic life portrayed in his works is thought to have inspired the early Nazis, who would probably have horrified May. In the last 12 years of his life, he was involved in a series of lawsuits to clear his name from a number of libelous assaults. These charges came after he had achieved prominence as a cultural figure and his prior conviction and imprisonment for petty theft was discovered. The movie catches up with him in the midst of his fight against these slanders. This film is the second in director Hans-Jurgen Syberberg's German Trilogy, consisting of Ludwig, Karl May and Hitler - Ein Film Aus Deutschland. In order to highlight the continuity between May's vision and the Hitler regime, all the actors in the film were either prominent during the Nazi era, or began their careers then. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kristina Soderbaum
- 1974
The Pedestrian (Der Fussganger) was the second filmed directorial effort of German actor Maximillian Schell. Billed third under Gustav Rudolf Sellner and Ruth Hausmeister, Schell plays Andreas Giese, a Krupp-like industrialist whose past suddenly returns to haunt him. A newspaper article reveals that Giese was responsible for the wartime destruction of a Greek village and the wholesale slaughter of the villagers. Whether or not Giese feels remorse for his actions is ultimately beside the point: his family is torn apart and his son kills himself as a result of the accusation. Here as in other films, Schell exhibits his fondness for female European film stars of days gone by: Elizabeth Bergner, Lil (Metropolis) Dagover, Francoise Rosay and Peggy Ashcroft appear in key minor roles. The winner of several international awards and a "best foreign picture" Oscar nominee, The Pedestrian was also produced and written by Schell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1961
In this mystery, a young countess almost loses her life. Investigators soon discover that the attempt is linked to a murder that occurred 20-years ago. The plot is based on an Edgar Wallace story. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1960
This drama provides an account of an honorable German soldier during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. A German soldier is filled with guilt when he kills a French officer. After killing him, he goes through the officer's clothing and learns his name. A short time later, he is wandering through a French village and see's the dead officer's name on a door. He goes there and meets the man's mother and daughter. They do not know that he is dead. The German resembles the woman's son and so offers him hospitality. He stays in the home and soon falls in love with the daughter. He finally confides the truth to her; she requests that he refrain from telling the mother who is dying. Just before the woman passes on, the daughter convinces the German to don the dead officer's uniform to comfort her mother. Later he goes outside still wearing it. He is instantly shot by Prussian troops. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1959
Thomas Mann's sprawling German novel Buddenbrooks could hardly be confined to a "conventional" film length, thus it's no surprise that this 1959 movie version was released in two lengthy parts. Put simply, Buddenbrooks is the story of the decline and fall of a once prestigious European family. Anxious to preserve their rapidly diminishing wealth, the Buddenbrook clan undergoes several marriages of convenience -- which serve only to weaken the strain until, as the 20th century dawns, only two members of the family are left. Among the many international luminaries playing the various Buddenbrook progeny are Lilo Pulver, Nadja Tiller, Hansjörg Felmy, Hanns Lothar, Lil Dagover, and Werner Hinz. When released in the U.S. in 1962, the film was trimmed from 219 to 199 minutes; a 1964 reissue combined both parts and truncated the film's length even farther. Two years later, a BBC television production of Buddenbrooks was offered in a multi-part version à la The Forsyte Saga. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1957
Confessions of Felix Krull was adapted from the last novel by German author Thomas Mann. Horst Buchholtz stars as a German soldier sent to Paris during World War I. He casts aside his uniform and gets a job as an elevator operator. A handsome lug, Buchholtz is pursued by virtually every female who enters his little compartment. But the lad is shy, and besides, he'd rather discuss anthropology. You'll have to watch the film for yourself to see what, if anything, Felix Krull has to confess. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Horst Buchholz, Liselotte Pulver, (more)
- 1954
Koenigliche Hoheit (His Royal Highness) was adapted from a novel by Thomas Mann -- who, according to all reports, was pleased with the film version. Ruth Leuwerick stars as an American heiress raised in Europe. She falls in love with Dieter Borsch, a handsome but shy German prince. Their romance seems doomed when Borsch is obliged to enter into a marriage of convenience to save his country from bankruptcy. A fortuitous 11th-hour plot-twist prevents the film from being merely another variation of The Student Prince. Contemporary viewers felt that Koenigliche Hoheit might have benefited from a lighter directorial touch than the one displayed by Dr. Hans Braun. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dieter Borsche, Ruth Leuwerik, (more)
- 1938
Ratsel um Beate (Beate's Mystery) was adapted from a play by Alfred Moller and Hanz Lorenz, which originally starred Dorothy Wieck. The film version features Lil Dagover in the leading role of Beate Kaiserling, an impressionable young woman who gets involved in a village scandal. Despite her protestations of innocence, poor Beate cannot stem the steady stream of misinformation from her gossiping neighbors. Critics in 1938, liked the film, noting that it was a distinct departure from the usual bombastic German drama of the period. The film was Lil Dagover's first effort since being appointed State Actress of Germany in 1937. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lil Dagover, Albrecht Schoenhals, (more)
- 1938
Hans H. Zerlett was pretty near the whole show in the German Es Leuchten die Sterne (The Stars are Shining): producer, director, screenwriter. Zerlett, however, was not the star, that honor went to German musical-comedy star La Jana. What story there is concerns a pretty movie extra who is mistaken for a famous dancer, requiring her to head the cast of a star-studded musical revue. Among the guest performers in this glorified vaudeville show are tap-dance king Paal Roschberg and former heavyweight boxing champ Max Schmeling. Incidentally, the "Paul Verhoven" providing comedy relief is not the same-named contemporary director. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1938
Lil Dagover, appointed Germany's "Actress of the State" in 1937, upholds her lofty title in the romantic melodrama Dreiklang. Dagover is cast as temptress Cornelia Contarini, who brings about the downfall of both an ageing widower named Albert von Moller (Paul Hartmann) and his son Albert (Rolf Moebius). The father's fate is particularly tragic, inasmuch as he is obliged to defend Cornelia's honor after it has been proven beyond doubt that she hardly has any honor left to defend. It is up to Albert to pick up the pieces, sacrificing his own happiness to remove Cornelia permanently from his life. Set during WW1, Dreiklang refresingly bypasses all opportunities to overpraise German militarism, as many films of this era were wont to do. The screenplay was written by Detlef Sierck, who later directed in Hollywood under the name of Douglas Sirk. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lil Dagover, Paul Hartmann, (more)
- 1937
With a plot that twists like a plumber's snake, this is more a story of family secrets than anything else, in which the British commander of a West African garrison has to prevent the exposure of an ugly scandal involving his daughter. The story was based on a novel by Lewis Robinson entitled The General Goes Too Far. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lionel Atwill, Lucie Mannheim, (more)
