Dr. Georg C. Klaren Movies
- 1936
Ave Maria was the second film-starring vehicle for legendary operatic tenor Beniamino Gigli. Mourning the loss of the only woman he ever loved, concert singer Tino Dossi (Gigli) is temporarily shaken from his doldrums by vivacious Montmartre entertainer Claudette (Kaethe Von Nagy). Dossi doesn't realize that Claudette is merely using him to advance her own singing career. Ultimately won over by Dossi's sincerity and courtesy, Claudette falls in love with him for real, only to suffer the pangs of conscience as a result. About to kill herself, she decides instead to return to Dossi's arms, vowing never to confess her original mercenary intentions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Beniamino Gigli, Kaethe von Nagy, (more)
- 1936
Henrik Ibsen's 1877 play Samfundets Stotter (Pillars of Society) was the source for this German drama. The plot centers upon a flagrant case of municipal corruption, carried out by the town's "finest" people. The selfishness of the elite results in widespread tragedy, yet still the perpetrators hypocritically blame everyone but themselves. The director of Stutzen der Gesellschaft was Detlef Sierck, who as "Douglas Sirk" would later expose the peccadilloes of the rich and powerful in such American films as Written on the Wind. The Ibsen original was earlier adapted to the screen in 1915, with H. B. Walthall in the lead. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Heinrich George, Maria Krahn, (more)
- 1933
The title of this effervescent musical comedy translates as There is Only One Love. Louis Gravuerre and Heinz Ruhmann star respectively as an opera singer and ballet master, bosom buddies who embark upon a vacation in the Balkans. Thanks to a cluster of coincidences, our heroes are mistaken for escaped criminals and forced to take refuge in the remote mountain cabin of a taciturn hunter. Only when heroine Jenny Jugo identifies the boys are they permitted to go free -- only now, they can't get rid of Jugo, who has fallen madly in love with Gravuerre. The girl's well-meaning interference nearly causes an irreparable rift between the two pals and almost scuttles Gravuerre's singing career, but love triumphs over silliness in the finale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jenny Jugo, Heinz Rühmann, (more)
- 1933
When jewel thief and womanizer Petrovich is caught and imprisoned he manages to escape to the Riviera where he takes up his craft until he is caught again. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hilde Hildebrand
- 1931
Kinder von Gericht was predicated on a real-life courtroom controversy. The question: Should children's depositions be taken seriously in court, and can a verdict be contingent upon a child's testimony. This film takes the opposing viewpoint; so far as director George C. Klaren is concerned, children should be seen but not heard -- even in the hallowed halls of justice. To illustrate his thesis, Klaren offers an instance in which a child's lies cause tragedy for the falsely accused hero (Hermann Speelman). It's not likely that the film's viewpoint would hold water in the 1990s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carla Barthell, Ellen Schwannecke, (more)
- 1930
In this drama, originally filmed as a silent, a young woman blunders into the wrong hotel room and finds herself in the midst of a romantic fight between two socially disparate fellow. The aristocratic one demonstrates how low he is willing to go to get what he wants. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1929
The German Somnambul raises the question "Can a man be influenced by hypnosis to commit a crime?" The answer is never clearly stated, though it would seem that the filmmakers were inclined to believe that mental suggestion could determine a man's moral makeup. The German censors were none too enchanted by the film and in fact held up its release twice before enough cuts were made to satisfy them. The complaint was not so much the content of the film as the nonjudgemental depiction of the "medium" whose hypnotic spell set the plot in motion. Such dependable Teutonic players as Fritz Kortner, Julius Falkenstein and Fritz Kampers lent a measure of credibility to this highly incredible yarn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
