Werner Klingler Movies

This crime drama is a remake of Fritz Lang's The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933). This time, the malignant Mabuse attempts to enact his evil schemes by hypnotizing another to do them in his stead. A series of strange crimes sets a detective on the case. The hapless detective soon finds himself captured by Mabuse's evil pawn who tortures the investigator with electroshock treatments. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Evil genius Dr. Mabuse hypnotizes the director of an insane asylum in this remake of Fritz Lang's 1933 cinematic landmark. Noted German actor Wolfgang Preiss stars. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

This uneven, clichéd drama set in Germany of the 1930s is loosely based on historical fact. At that time Heinrich Himmler had created an inhuman, manipulative, super-race propagation plan called "lebensborn" which recruited men and women for their fair skin, blond hair, and blue eyes alone. Once these special people were selected (all Germans, of course) they were ordered to breed, for the Fatherland. Some viewers may feel that this drama trivializes the degrading "lebensborn" operation by focusing instead on a story about some of the subjects. The story is there for its own entertainment value, giving rise to the question of what really matters in the telling. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Starring the peripatetic Eddie Constantine as Eddie Petersen ("Hoppla Eddie"), this amusing crime parody pokes at the foibles of gangster movies. Eddie is a seaman working out of Hamburg who has been given the enviable job of watching over a group of pretty South American women. While this seems like a better assignment than putting out to sea for six months, he soon finds himself in more limited, but very hot water. One of the women may hold the key to a secret uncovered by her famous scientist-father, now deceased. He apparently discovered something cheap to power the automobile and a notorious international gang is after his invention. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This postwar German crime drama was also released as Police Raid. Inspector Naumann (Paul Rildt) really has his hands full while investigating the burgeoning Black Market. After the usual wading through flunkies and lesser hoodlums, the Inspector finally reaches the "brains" of the racket, a gent named Goll (Harry Frank) who knows all the angles. There's also an innocuous romantic subplot involving Naumann's daughter Anna (Eli Burgmer) and his assistant Karl Lorenz (Friedhelm von Peterson). Razzia predates John Ford's Gideon's Day (1958) by giving equal attention to the lead detective's public and private life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This dramatic recounting of the disastrous maiden voyage of H.M.S. Titanic was produced in Germany during WWII and features an undertow of anti-British propaganda absent from other versions of the story. The building of the luxurious ocean liner Titantic proves to be a hugely expensive proposition, and Sir Bruce Ismay (Ernst Fritz Furbringer), president of White Star Lines, wants to make sure that the ship's first crossing is big news. It is at his urging that Capt. Edward J. Smith (Otto Wernicke) pushes for a record speed in their voyage to New York, sowing the seeds for later disaster. This Titanic features a number of rich, decadent British passengers and a handful noble German peasants. While the film was produced with the participation of the Nazi government, its portrait of a disaster at sea proved to be more depressing than inspiring, and it was pulled from theaters shortly after its initial release, though it has since appeared on television and on home video in Europe. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Luis Trenker performed double duty as star and director of the Italian swashbuckler Condottieri (The Knights). Trenker stars as Giovanni, the son of the infamous Catherine di Medici (Ethel Maggi). Nowhere near as unscrupulous or despotic as the rest of the di Medici family, Giovanni strives to make amends for past wrongs in Renaissance-era Florence. It is suggested that the hero is a 15th-century fascist -- and this being a 1937 Italian film, this means that he's one of the "good guys." Condottieri was simultaneously filmed in Italian and German versions, which may explain its peculiar political shadings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide