Manfred Furst Movies
- 1961
Christian de Bresson plays the son of East German minister Michael Gwynn. The Communist regime has decreed that all children of "dissidents" will be denied entry in a prestigious music conservatory. Anxious to be accepted, young de Bresson prepares to answer the seven questions required by the conservatory, the seventh of which will require him to deny his religious convictions. Before this can happen, the boy is invited by the Communist Party to perform at the Berlin Youth Festival. The boy's father protests, knowing that the Communists intend to use his son as a political pawn, to "prove" to the world that East Germany affords equal rights to persons of the cloth. It is de Bresson himself who decides to quit the Festival and defect to the West. Financed by Lutheran Film Associates, Question 7 was given an honored showcase by the Berlin Film Festival--held, of course, in the western sector. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Gwynn, Margaret Jahnen, (more)
- 1949
Based loosely on the Dostoyevsky novel, The Gambler stars Gregory Peck as a sensitive 19th-century Russian author. His "great sin" is gambling, which starts when he attempts to rescue aristocratic Ava Gardner from the gaming tables. He succeeds, only to lose himself to gambling fever, which costs him his friends, his reputation and his talent. Director Robert Siodmak was never happy with the screenplay for The Great Sinner, constant revisions bloated the film's rough-cut running time to nearly six hours! After Siodmak pared the film down, MGM insisted that the director reshoot the love scenes. Siodmak refused, thus the new sequences were filmed sans screen credit by Mervin LeRoy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, (more)
- 1948
The positive public response to such productions as Crossfire and Gentleman's Agreement led to a mini-cycle of postwar anti-prejudice films. One of these was The Vicious Circle, based on a true incident which had previously been dramatized in G. W. Pabst's The Trial. In the late-19th century, an anti-Semitic Hungarian baron (Reinhold Schunzel) foments a pogrom against his country's Jews when a 14-year-old servant girl commits suicide. Falsely accused of subjecting the girl to a ritualistic murder, five Jewish farmers are put on trial for murder. Defying the slings and arrows of public condemnation, defense attorney Karl Nemensch (Conrad Nagel) intends to prove the farmers' innocence -- and to expose anti-Semitism for the poisonous scourge that it truly is. The Vicious Circle was based on The Burning Bush, a play by Herald and Geza Herczeg. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Alexander, Sam Bernard, (more)
- 1931
Produced in France, Tropen Nachte is the German-language version of the 1930 Paramount actioner Dangerous Paradise. Based on Joseph Conrad's Victory, the story concentrates on a young female violinist named Alma who escapes from a lecherous East Indies hotelier named Schomberg by stowing away on a schooner owned by the reclusive Heyst. Before long, both the skipper and the girl have embarked on a treasure hunt, with Schomberg and a trio of psychopathic villains remaining just one step behind them. The film's ending differs sharply from Conrad's original denouement, but that was to be expected back in 1931. Dita Parlo stars as Alma, replacing the original film's Nancy Carroll. Tropen Nachte was filmed simultaneously in a French-language version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Thoeren, Fritz Greiner, (more)
