Walter Reyer Movies

This propaganda film from East Germany about a corrupt society in West Germany goes to such extremes that it may offend many viewers -- especially doctors. Essentially, the film, by director Horst Seemann who also wrote the script, focuses on the evils lurking in West German hospitals. When a (female) surgeon has a patient die during an operation, she nonchalantly dismisses the death as yet another step in advancing scientific knowledge. Drugs are bandied about for profit only, whether tainted or not, whether they kill the patients or not -- they only exist to bring money into the hands of the doctors and the manufacturers. Not only are these elite hospital staff corrupt in handling patients and drugs, they also lead dissolute lives of no moral standards whatsoever. Viewers may wonder if some West German director will soon be filming a "reply" in a kind of cinematic showdown. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In this French drama, a struggling writer is taken in by a successful author and his wife who allow him to use their Bavarian chateau so he can write his stories about Germany. The young writer is a bitter man, jealous of the couple's happiness. He decides he will destroy it, so when the older writer goes off on a business trip, the young man tries to seduce his wife. She rejects him. The conniving young man then learns that she has a lover. He ends up taking a picture of the couple illicitly holding hands. The older man returns and the younger one confronts him with the damning photos. The husband flies into a jealous rage and stabs his wife; he then calls the cops. The young writer suddenly feels great guilt, but despite his attempts to publicly take responsibility for the crime, no one listens, no one cares. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Der Arzt von Stalingrad (The Doctor of Stalingrad) was one of four films directed in 1958 by the prolific Hungarian-born helmsman Geza von Radvanyi. Set in a Russia POW camp during WII, the film concentrates on an imprisoned German doctor, played by O.E. Hasse. Denied sophisticated surgical tools, the doctor relies solely upon his medical skill to pull his patients through. He manages to win the confidence and respect of his Soviet captors when he removes a brain tumor from the son of the commandant. Less happy are the results of a wartime romance between the doctor and a female Russian physician. Though not altogether sympathetic to the Russians, neither can Der Arzt Von Stalingrad be considered 100% pro-German. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Trouble rears its ugly head when the young emperor and empress of Austria arrive in Budapest for their coronation. ~ Rovi