Friedrich Ettel Movies

Dream of the Rhine is the English-language title of this easygoing romantic comedy. German-born Jupp Steinweg (Schroeder-Schromm) returns to Der Fatherland after several years in America. He arrives with two servants, who are instantly inveigled into a pick-pocketing scheme. This comic subplot is never permitted to intrude upon the film's main purpose: to offer a picture-postcard paean to the beauties of the Rhine River. Unlike many other German films during the Hitler regime, Der Traum von Rhein downplays its nationalistic fervor, to good effect. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The title translates as A Tremendously Rich Man, which indeed describes the financial condition of hero Curt Bois. Actually, all of Bois' assets are in his stomach: a jeweller's assistant, he has accidentally swallowed a valuable diamond. All sorts of misadventures befall the poor fellow until it is discovered that he hasn't ingested the gem at all, but instead a piece of rock candy. Leading man Curt Bois later emigrated to Hollywood where he appeared in dozens of small movie roles, most memorably the pickpocket in Casablanca. His career extended well into the 1980s, when he made his final film appearance in Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A sedentary little German town is thrown into a tizzy when several trunks show up from Cairo, Egypt, all marked "O.F." This is followed by a telegram announcing that "O.F." is arriving soon and will expect accommodations. A newspaper reporter tells everyone that the mystery man is a millionaire. In preparation for his arrival, the town goes into a frenzy of construction, building a cinema, an opera house, a casino and several other moneymaking enterprises. It turns out that the reporter has no more idea of who "O.F." is than anyone else; he was simply tired of the village's backward attitude and wanted to improve its economy. Coda: An actress named Ola Fallon vents her anger upon discovering that her staff has inadvertently sent her luggage to the wrong town. A warmhearted German satire, Trunks of Mr. O.F. was fortunately completed just before the burgeoning Nazi movement declared such films as "inessential." The film served to introduce a young ingenue by the name of Hedi Keisler, who went on to Hollywood fame and fortune as Hedy Lamarr, and was also the third film of a wide-eyed stage comedian who was born Laszlo Lowenstein, but who billed himself as Peter Lorre. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Panic in Chicago was the third talking-picture endeavor for Robert Wiene, the director responsible for the landmark horror film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. By 1931, Wiene's best work was behind him, and he was busying himself with minor romances and crime pictures. Panic is a trifle about an American troublemaker joining forces with his German counterpart. It sounds like a comedy, but it wasn't, though critics felt it would have been a better picture if Wiene had played it for laughs. The film was based on an equally obscure novel by Robert Heymann. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide