Heidi Stroh Movies
Falling in Love can be described as an urban American Brief Encounter. Reteamed for the first time since The Deer Hunter, Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep star as a married couple. Thing of it is, they're not married to each other. While Christmas shopping for their respective families, architect Frank Raftis (DeNiro) and graphic artist Molly Gilmore (Streep) "meet cute," their holiday packages becoming mixed up. What starts as a pleasant chance acquaintance blossoms into romance. Inevitably, however, both parties realize that what they're doing is wrong--a shade too late to save their marriages, as it turns out. The film ends with a bittersweet "one year later" coda. The natural charisma of its stars lends distinction to the otherwise so-so Falling in Love. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, (more)
- 1976
In Mitgift Senta Berger plays a woman who marries handsome or rich men and murders them when she grows weary of them. She poisons her current husband with the help of her lover, Edgar (Mario Adorf). Now married to her, Edgar understands what his fate is to be, and, seeing that she is already bored with him, he attempts to beat her to the punch. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1972
Part international spy thriller, part social commentary, this German film is adapted from the best-seller by Johannes Maria Simmel. After the Russian re-occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968, large numbers of people flee to German refugee camps. Some of those people are wanted by Soviet intelligence services, others are wanted by Western ones. Many are wanted by both groups. A reporter with a German scandal-sheet decides to pursue the story, but he gets involved with some of the people being pursued (even saving some of their lives), and grows increasingly disgusted with the phony objectivity he is forced into. That "objectivity" would have required him to let all of his subjects be killed. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1968
Heidi Stroh and Peter Graaf star in this film about the experiences of a newly married couple. Running the gamut of emotions, the two rejoice in the birth of a child, they argue, love, and deal with the daily challenges of a relationship with another person. They are also forced to contend with insipid in-laws who fail to understand the younger generation. Eventually the wife feels hemmed in by her husband's archaic attitudes, and after six years of marriage, she seeks to end the union amicably in this drama that has a documentary style. The two discuss how best to resolve the situation. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Heidi Stroh
- 1966
A gifted young medical student gives up his studies to marry the woman he loves in this tragic and boring romantic melodrama. Her pregnancy necessitates his proposal as the two try to do what is right for the child. After four more children, the father is overwhelmed by depression and thoughts of suicide. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Heidi Stroh
Director Mario Bava's second thriller revolves around a fashion salon owned by wealthy Cristina (Eva Bartok) and her greedy lover Max (Cameron Mitchell). The salon is a front for cocaine-trafficking and blackmail, so when model Isabella (Lea Kruger) is viciously strangled, leaving a detailed diary behind, many of the people connected with the salon become very nervous. Isabella's roommate Nicole (Arianna Gorini) finds the diary and soon has her throat clawed out with a piece of medieval armor. Peggy (Mary Arden), who borrowed abortion money from Isabella, is tortured and has her face pressed into a red-hot iron. The bodies continue to pile up until a conspiracy is exposed and the perpetrators start getting their just desserts. Luciano Pigozzi, Massimo Righi, and Claude Dantes are among the cast. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cameron Mitchell, Eva Bartok, (more)
- 1964
Vittorio Gassman stars as different characters in each of the nine episodes of this unusual Italian comedy. Playing everything from a practical joker to a prisoner, he comments upon romance, love and women in general, as referred to by the title. Prior to this feature, Gassman had worked with both screenwriter Ruggero Maccari and Ettore Scola (who also co-wrote rather than directed) in the 1962 feature Il Sorpasso from director Dino Risi. It was Risi and Maccari's teamwork which helped Gassman win a "Best Actor" award at Cannes Film Festival in 1974 for Profumo di Donna/Scent of a Woman. Gassman would later work with Maccari and Ettore again in episodic fashion with Signore e Signori Buonanotte/Goodnight, Ladies and Gentlemen (1976) and yet again in the drama Famiglia (1987). ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
