Gustav Diessl Movies
- 1928
This G.W. Pabst production was know by many titles, both in Europe (where it was alternately released as Abwege and Begierde) and the U.S. (where it was shipped out as Byways, Crisis and Desire). Brigitte Helm, of Metropolis fame, stars as Irene, the wife of self-absorbed Robert (Gustav Diessl). Feeling neglected, Irene strays from the marital nest, leading to a series of horrendous suppositions and misunderstandings. Critics in 1928 felt that Abwege was far below the standards of Pabst's best-known film Secrets of a Soul. If the film is forgotten today, it is probably because it was followed by the director's masterpiece, Pandora's Box (1929). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1936
Everything For the Woman is the English-language title of this convoluted German romantic drama. Former German flying ace Heinrich Droop (Paul Hartmann) is given a postwar boost in the business world by Englishman Fred Keyne (Gustav Diesel) whose life Droop once saved. Appointed head engineer at Keyne's airplane factory, Droop seems destined for unlimited success. But things go horribly awry when our hero falls in love with Keyne's ex-chorine wife Blanche (Charlotte). Things look bleak when Blanche's former dancing partner blackmails the illicit couple, but all works out for the best in the film's gloriously unbelievable finale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Hartmann, Charlotte Susa, (more)
- 1939
Der Grüne Kaiser (The Green Emperor) was based on the novel of the same name by Paul Mundorf. Gustav Diesel stars as Miller Mylius, a prominent banker who concocts a clever scheme to rid himself of his romantic rival Kasten (Rene Deligen). Disappearing completely from view, Mylius is assumed to be dead, and it is further assumed that he has been murdered by Kasten, who is arrested and sent to prison. After many years, Mylius is happily married to his sweetheart Joana (Carola Hoehn), who assumes that his return from the dead was a miracle rather than a carefully-laid scheme. Mylius' chickens come home to roost when Kasten is released and exacts a most satisfying revenge. Like the Mundorf novel, Der Grüne Kaiser was inspired by the recent mysterious death of the Belgian financier Lowenstein. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gustav Diessl, Rene Deltgen, (more)
- 1948
Though the title of this German historical drama translates as The Trial, it bears no relation to the Franz Kafka novel of the same name. Instead, the film is based on a true story which took place in 19th century Hungary. When a young peasant girl commits suicide, the superstitious villagers, stirred up by the odiously anti-Semitic Baron Onody (Heinz Moog), immediately assume that she was the victim of a Jewish sacrificial ritual. Despite an utter lack of evidence (or common sense), all the Jews in town are rounded up and subjected to a mass trial. Risking his reputation and possibly his life, idealistic lawyer Dr. Eövötes (Ewald Balser) defends the Jews, forcing all of Hungary to come face to face with its blind and stupid prejudices. The first postwar effort by director G.W. Pabst, Der Prozess has been interpreted by some as Pabst's act of attrition after his reluctant professional association with the Nazis during WWII. Whatever the case, the film, which earned Pabst a Best Director award at the 1948 Venice Film Festival, remains one of the director's finest works. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ewald Balser, Ernst Deutsch, (more)
- 1941
Although she is known as a patron of the arts, a graceful duchess nevertheless refuses her nephew to marry an enterprising actress in this German melodrama starring Kathe Dorsch and silent screen legend Henny Porten. When Philine (Hilde Krahl), the troupe's ingénue, is rejected as proper marital material by the Duchess of Weissenfels (Porten), Karoline Neuber (Dorsch) creates such a furor that she is banished from the country. A performance at the court at St. Petersburg also ends in disaster for the unhappy actress and abandoned by all, Karoline dies a suicide. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- 1936
In this romantic melodrama, a widowed Russian noblewoman finds her torn asunder by the 1917 revolution. Just before she is to return home, she attends a grand ball. There she encounters a handsome young officer. Following the dance, she leaves her 7-year old with her maid and leaves in the company of friend and confidant who has secretly loved her for years. They are halfway there when the Bolsheviks attack the train. The lady then learns that her lover and best friend have been captured. Her friend joins the Reds and when the soldier is slated for execution, he intervenes and saves him. Meanwhile, the woman hides out with a priest and keeps looking for her daughter who disappeared during the struggle. She also searches for her friend and lover. Time jumps ahead to 1930. Now the woman works as a nightclub singer in Shanghai. There she runs into her old friend Again he proposes, and again she rejects him as she still pines for the dashing soldier. Later, they attend an Easter gala for expatriate Russians, and the woman discovers that the soldier has also become a singer. She is shocked, and further shocked to learn that he has become engaged to none other than her estranged daughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pola Negri, Gustav Diessl, (more)
- 1929
Hot on the heels of her dual-role tour de force in Kohlhisel's Tochters, German comedienne Henny Porten went dramatic -- with a vengeance! -- in Mutterliebe (Mother Love). After five years' marriage, poor Maria (Porten) is still childless. In frustration, her husband strays from home and hearth, impregnating the girl next door. Maria files for divorce and heads to the city, where she gets a job as a governess in the home of a loose-living wealthy woman. She immediately falls in love with the woman's cute little daughter (Inge Landgut), and the feeling is mutual. When she's summarily fired, Maria desperately kidnaps the child but is arrested before she gets very far. A sympathetic judge releases Maria, who unexpectedly finds happiness when the cuckolded husband of her former employer divorces his wife and proposes marriage to our heroine -- and the child is part of the bargain! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henny Porten, Paul Henckels, (more)
German filmmaker G.W. Pabst's late-silent classic Pandora's Box (Die Büchse der Pandora) stars the hauntingly beautiful Louise Brooks as libertine dancer Lulu. Ever out for the "main chance," Lulu persuades her wealthy lover Dr. Schön (Fritz Kortner) to marry her. But in a fit of jealous rage, he pulls a gun, a scuffle ensues, and she shoots him. Eventually escaping to London with the doctor's moonstruck son Alwa (Francis Lederer), Lulu takes up residence with her "adopted" father Schigolch (Carl Götz), where she is reduced to walking the streets, with tragic consequences. Pandora's Box (based on two works by the controversial German writer Franz Wedekind) exudes smoky sensuality in every frame; regarded now as a masterpiece, the film received surprisingly scathing reviews, with most of the critical broadsides aimed at Louise Brooks (this was long before Brooks graduated from just another pretty Hollywood starlet to Cult Goddess). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, (more)
In the same year that she directed Victory of the Faith (1933), her first of several famous cinematic projects for the Nazi Party, German actress and filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl played a supporting role in this epic adventure, co-written and co-directed by her frequent "mountain film" collaborator Dr. Arnold Fanck. Rod La Rocque stars as Dr. Carl Lawrence, leader of a mission to Greenland to recover the lost records of the ill-fated, real-life Alfred Lothar Wegener polar expedition of 1929-30. Lawrence's party includes experienced explorer/guides, as well as an adventure-seeking financier, who is in over his head and slowly driven mad by the perils of the voyage. When Lawrence's band is trapped on an iceberg, Lawrence's wife Ellen (Riefenstahl) -- a famous female pilot fashioned after Amelia Earhart -- takes off on a rescue mission, but she crashes her aircraft upon landing and is stranded along with the others. Before total disaster claims the Lawrence party, however, native eskimos and Major Ernst Udet (playing himself) arrive via kayak to save the day. Two surviving members of the Wegener party served as advisors for this well-received Man vs. Nature treatise, filmed on location in Greenland. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rod La Rocque, Leni Riefenstahl, (more)
- 1936
Luise Ullrich plays a dual role in the German Schatten der Vergengenheit (Shadows of the Past). Falsely accused of murder, café violinist Helene Gail (Ullrich) is shipped off to prison. Four years later she is released for good behavior but is unable to find work due to her questionable past. It so happens that Helene has a twin sister named Betty (also Ullrich), a popular music-hall entertainer. When Betty is accidentally drowned, Helene is able to take her place and start her life anew. Alas, she will never be free of her past so long as her trail is dogged by two gangsters, who know her secret and intend to capitalize upon it. Tension mounts steadily until the very last moment in the film, which will take everyone -- even those subliminally expecting it -- by surprise. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Luise Ullrich, Gustav Diessl, (more)
Fritz Lang directed this sequel to his nearly four-hour Dr. Mabuse silent of 1922 (often shown in two parts, Dr. Mabuse: Der Spieler/The Gambler and Dr. Mabuse: King of Crime). The film opens with Detective Hofmeister (Karl Meixner) spying on the activities of a criminal syndicate. Not realizing he has been seen, Hofmeister is attacked by the thugs and later turns up out of his mind. He is placed in the institution of Professor Baum (Oscar Beregi), who becomes increasingly obsessed with another patient -- the master criminal and hypnotist Dr. Mabuse (Rudolf Klein-Rogge). Baum's assistant, Dr. Kramm (Theodor Loos), connects Mabuse's writings to a series of the syndicate's recent criminal activities, and is murdered for his knowledge by crime lord Hardy (Rudolf Schündler) who takes orders from a hidden Mabuse. Putting all these pieces together is chief investigator Lohmann (Otto Wernicke), whose story plays out simultaneously with that of ex-cop Thomas Kent (Gustav Diessl), a member of the gang who is torn between his need for money and his love for a young woman named Lilli (Wera Liessem). Various clues lead Lohmann to suspect Mabuse's involvement, but when he arrives at the asylum, Baum reveals that Mabuse has died. Meanwhile, Kent's decision to confess to the cops lands himself and Lilli in a room with a hidden bomb. Lohmann traps the gang in a moll's house, leading to a wild shootout. Kent and Lilli escape and race to Lohmann to tell him that Mabuse is behind the crimes. They all race back to the asylum where they discover that Mabuse has taken control of Baum, who sets a monstrous fire at a chemical factory. The mad doctor then leads Lohmann and Kent on a wild car chase back to the asylum where the mystery behind the Baum-Mabuse-Hofmeister connection takes a disturbing turn. ~ Patrick Legare, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Otto Wernicke, (more)
After his wife falls to her death in a glacier crevasse, Dr. Johannes Krafft (Gustav Diessl) wanders alone through the Bernina Alps and becomes known as the legendary "Spirit of the Mountain." He encounters Maria Majoni (Leni Riefenstahl) and Hans Brandt (Ernst Petersen) in a mountain shelter, and he and Maria find themselves drawn to each other. Krafft heads out alone the next day but is pursued by the jealous Hans. Maria goes after Hans, who breaks his leg trying to follow Krafft. She and Krafft stay with him, and a powerful storm threatens their lives. After several days Krafft attempts to climb down to get help but freezes to death. The rescue team finds Maria and Hans and returns them to safety. Note that this popular silent "mountain film" was also released in Germany in a shortened (92-minute) sound version in 1935. 29/127 ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leni Riefenstahl, Ernst Petersen, (more)
- 1933
Un De La Montagne (Mountain Man) stars Gustave Diesel as the title character, a young mountaineer named Jacques. Offered a huge sum if he successfully completes a dangerous climb, Jacques heads to the Swiss Alps, where all of his predecessors have met with disaster and/or death. According to contemporary reviewers, this is one of the few films to successfully capture the euphoria of mountain climbing; alas, currently available prints are far from pristine, dulling the film's impact. Real-life climbers, guides and skiers, most of them well known to European audiences, play "themselves." This film would make an ideal companion piece for Disney's 1959 actioner Third Man on the Mountain. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Simone Bourday, Maximilienne, (more)
- 1930
Westfront 1918 (aka Comrades of 1918) was the first talkie effort from German filmmaker G. W. Pabst, which he made for Nero Films, a production company headed up by Seymour Nebenzahl. Like the contemporary Hollywood production All Quiet on the Western Front, Pabst's film is a bitter, melancholy antiwar statement. The story concentrates on four German soldiers, sent to the front in the waning days of World War 1. The futility of killing an enemy who is already dead spiritually, and of being killed for a cause that has for all intents and purposes been resolved, is brought home to the viewer with both barrels. The astonishingly fluid camerawork of Fritz Arno puts the spectator in the thick of the battle, and the effect is both terrifying and heartbreaking To watch only a few moments of Westfront 1918, one might think that Pabst had been making sound pictures all his life, rather than a mere couple of months. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fritz Kampers, Gustav Diessl, (more)
