Erich Dunskus Movies

A U.S. military officer is motivated by love and compassion to begin a life of crime in this action adventure story. Sgt. Joe Lawrence (Richard Widmark) is an American Army officer who, while stationed in Berlin shortly after the end of WWII, falls in love with Maria (Mai Zetterling), a refugee trying to raise enough money to move a group of German orphans to South America, where they can start life anew. Joe wants to help her, and with his buddies Sgt. Roger Morris (George Cole) and Brian Hammell (Nigel Patrick), Joe plans a daring robbery. A fortune in gold is being transferred from England to Germany via military transport, and Joe, Roger, and Brian intend to hijack the plane and grab the treasure. While the robbery goes off as planned, the three participants soon have second thoughts about what to do with their ill-gotten gains. Seven years later, leading lady Mai Zetterling would commence a distinguished career as a director with her film Wargame. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Unter den Bruecken (Under the Bridge) was German filmmaker Helmut Kautner's final film under the aegis of the Third Reich. Heavily influenced by such prewar French directors as Vigo and Carne, the film is set amongst the barge workers of the River Havel. Refreshingly free of political propaganda, the story concentrates on a romance between a bargee (Carl Raddatz) and a waterfront lass (Hannelore Schrott). Unter den Bruecken was given its premiere in Stockholm in late 1946, then totally disappeared from view. Rediscovered some 30 years later, the film was hailed by critics as a sensitive depiction of old-world sentimentality at odds with the harshness of modern reality. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Leon Feuchtwangler's novel Jud Süss was originally about a powerful ghetto businessman who believes himself to be a Jew. Süss' ruthless business practices result in the betrayal of an innocent girl, for which he is arrested and sentenced to be hanged under the anti-Jewish laws of the 18th century. While he waits to be executed, Süss discovers he is not Jewish. Rather than turn his back on the people of the ghetto with whom he'd grown up, Süss courageously refuses to declare his "Aryan" status, even though it means he will die on the gallows. The Feuchtwangler book was designed in roundabout fashion to strike a blow against anti-Semitism. But when Jud Süss was filmed in Germany at the behest of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels in 1940, its original message was twisted and perverted into an argument in favor of "ethnic cleansing." As played by Werner Krauss, Süss is not only genuinely Jewish, but also an amalgam of every vicious caricature ever concocted by the anti-Semitic propagandists of the past two centuries. With hooked nose and greasy beard, Krauss portrays Süss as a whining, wheedling, hand-wringing subhuman rapist; small wonder that Krauss was proclaimed an Actor of the State by the Nazis. The final scene of Jud Süss shows a screaming, protesting Süss being hanged in the public square; the scene is directed to cast Süss' tormenters in an utterly sympathetic light, and perhaps even to invoke cheers from an impressionable audience. Though disgusting beyond belief, Jud Süss should be seen at least once, if only to show what a dangerous weapon film can be in the hands of hate merchants. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adam (Emil Jannings) is the eternally inebriated magistrate of a small Dutch town. While carousing drunken around town late one night, Adam stumbles into the boudoir of Eve Rull (Angela Sallocker), whereupon he is soundly thrashed by Eve's lover. In the fracas, he loses his all-important judicial wig and also smashes a rare antique jug which has been in Eve's family for years. The next morning, Adam is forced to open court without his wig, though he manages to hide the fact that he was involved in the "battle royal" of the night before. And then Eve's mother storms into court, demanding that Adam ascertain the identity of the unknown intruder who broke her precious jug... And no, this isn't a comedy! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Harry Piel is both star and director of Bobby Geht Los. The title translates as Bobby Starts Off, which indeed he does -- and what a start-off. Regarded by his fans as the Teutonic equivalent to Douglas Fairbanks, star Piel never stops moving, whether escaping the villains or rescuing the heroine. His peripatetic behavior is offset by the lugubrious antics of the two comic-relief characters, played by Kurt Lillen and Eugene Rex. Proof of Harry Piel's popularity in his native land was that Bobby Geht Los was his 89th vehicle, with number 90 still on the way. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide