Werner Finck Movies

Dr. Peter Bach (Peter Alexander) is sent to a city school when his small village school burns down. The liberal and progressive instructor soon gains a large following among the student. He alternately makes enemies among his fellow teachers who resent his methods. Heintje, one of Germany's most popular child singers, plays his nephew Jan. The students play tricks on the teachers but leave Bach alone in this musical that features the singing of both Heintje and Alexander. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

A female reporter masquerades as a high school student to write a story on the youth of today. The students spend the majority of their time playing practical jokes on their peers and teachers. The reporter falls for Dr. Wagner, the idolized and idealistic educator who is the favorite of the student body and who, out of respect from the students, is usually exempt from their pranks. Other teacher types that nearly every high school student has encountered are accurately portrayed: there's the severe disciplinarian, the narcissist, the reactionary, and the one just hanging on hoping to retire with no further trouble before the pension goes into effect. At one point in the movie, the journalist/student is subjected to a mild spanking at the hands of her peers for a minor infraction, hence the title of this light comedy. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This comical presentation is a re-make from the 1952 classic and has everyone chasing everyone! In German only. ~ All Movie Guide

In this romantic comedy, a cocquette playfully pursues any man she can find. She is most enamored of a handsome playboy whom she pursues through some of Europe's most scenic sights including St. Moritz, Switzerland, Berlin, and Hamburg. After many adventures, the young flirt finally settles down with a less glamorous but true-blue fellow who has been there to pick her up everytime one of her romantic schemes fails. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Max Ophuls' final film (and his only movie in color) is a cinematic tour-de-force masquerading as a biography, in this case a dazzling fictionalized life of the notorious 19th century dancer, actress, and courtesan. A still beautiful, but weary and disillusioned (and, as we later discover, ailing) Lola Montes (Martine Carol) is first seen as the featured attraction at a seedy American circus, appearing at the center of a series of various tableaux depicting the scandalous events for which she is known. With a strangely sincere yet sinister and manipulative ringmaster (Peter Ustinov) providing color commentary, some of it very ironic on two or more levels, the movie flows between these staged recreations in the circus and the events as recalled by the subject. In a series of dissolves, the film takes us through her girlhood with her mother, interrupted when her mother's lover (Ivan Desni) becomes attached to the daughter; her unhappy marriage and its aftermath; romances with composer Franz Liszt (Will Quadflieg), abduction by a Russian general (in the arms of Cossacks, no less); her affairs across the landscape of Europe with men great and notable; her thwarted aspirations as a dancer; and her romance with King Ludwig I (Anton Walbrook) of Bavaria, which led to her being made Countess of Landsfeld, and, later, to his abdication. The gracefulness of Ophuls' cyclical narrative, and the transitions between the recalled elegance of the locales, and the people with whom her romances and affairs took place, and the seediness of the circus -- where she is also compelled, in the course of performing, to perform as an aerialist -- were lost on viewers in 1955. And for many years the movie only existed in a version re-cut without the director's approval, in which the story was presented in linear fashion. It was only in the 1960's, long after Ophuls' death, that efforts were made to restore the original structure, and in 2008 the movie's original Technicolor luster was restored to its full depth and richness. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

The German La Habanera is set in "contemporary" Spain-and never mind that there's no evidence of the then-raging Spanish Civil War. Zarah Leander plays Astree Sternhjelm, a Swedish lass who falls in love with all things Spanish while on vacation in Puerto Rico. She ends up the mistress of charming but caddish aristocrat Don Pedro (Ferdinand Marion), who discards her when she gives birth to his child. Tragedy is averted when Astree finds true and lasting love in the arms of Swedish doctor Sven Nagel (Karl Martell). La Habanera director Dietflif Sierck later enjoyed a long and fruitful Hollywood career as Douglas Sirk. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ein Frau, Die Weiss, Was Sie Will (A Woman Knows What She Wants) is freely adapted from the Oscar Straus operetta of the same name. Lil Dagover stars as Manon Cavallini, a celebrated actress who spends most of the film's running time trying to stage a reunion with her daughter Karin (Maria Beling). She also hopes to "rescue" Karin from a life upon the wicked stage, and in this she's successful. Characters essential to the action include handsome wastrel Alex Basse, played by Adolf Wohlbrueck. Within a year or so, Wohlbrueck would inaugurate a brief Hollywood career under the new name of Anton Walbrook. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide