Erika Von Thellmann Movies

Willi (Heinz Erhardt) is the president of a soccer club located in the provinces. The team is deeply in debt and may have to go out of business if something isn't done. He enlists the help of a photographer and his three lovely daughters, and a rich aunt from Brazil arranges for a famous soccer player to join the team. Clever publicity and the new star turn things around. This movie is the fourth in the popular "Willi" series to star Heinz Erhardt. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This is a deft satire by Axel von Ambesser that undercuts the adage that a soldier must always obey orders, no matter what. At the heart of the story is Schwejk (Heinz Ruhmann), a canine salesman who is drafted into the army during World War I. The setting is Bohemia when it was under the sway of a combined Austro-Hungarian rule. Once Schwejk has his uniform on he so devotedly follows the very letter of the law, every order that is given him, that he comes off as a total idiot. Nevertheless, he manages quite well with this tactic, whether it is feigned or not. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Frucht Ohne Liebe (Fruit Without Love) is the story of a trouble marriage. Barbara and George Kling (Gertrud Kueckelmann, Claus Holm) have been husband and wife for five years, but no children have resulted from the union. Told by a doctor that George is impotent, Barbara, desperate to have a baby, agrees to artificial insemination. After the birth of her child, she goes on a lonely odyssey in search of the baby's real father. When originally released in Germany, Frucht Ohne Liebe ran into resistance from a few church groups; even so, Columbia agreed to distribute the film throughout Europe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This German slice-of-life drama is based on a very real postwar dilemma. At the time the film was made, there were over 3000 children living in Germany who'd been fathered by African American GIs. Referred to as "mischlings," these children were often treated as outcasts because of their illegitimacy and skin color. One such mischling is Toxi (played by herself), who is sent to live with her American father when her mother dies. At first, Toxi is welcomed with opened arms, but the father, who already has two children, has neither the time nor the money to care for the girl. Toxi is then bundled off to an orphanage, sparking a serious rift in her father's family. By concentrating on a highly fictionalized plotline, Toxi tends to ignore the thousands of other mischlings whose lives are far more complex and tragic than that of the film's central character. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This historical recap of Dr. Carl Peters tells of the founding of Deutsch Ostafrika, which covered parts of present-day Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. Winner of several awards it its day, this video is available in German only. ~ All Movie Guide

Susanne im Bade (A Study in Suzanne) is all about art professor Peter (Hans Brausewetter), who while relaxing at the beach sketches a quick picture of bathing beauty Gussy (Manja Behrens). He redoes the sketch in oil in his studio, and in the process the girl on the canvas loses her swimsuit (Peter has a vivid, and surprisingly accurate, imagination). When the painting shows up at an exhibition, rumors spread that Gussy posed in the nude for Peter. An attempt to clear Gussy's name is scotched by Peter's jealous sweetheart Erika (Erika von Thelmann), leaving our innocent hero at the mercy of Gussy's far-from-understanding daddy (Max Guelstorff). One wonders if the harmless Susanne im Bade was the sort of German entertainment fare that such art experts as Hermann Goering and Paul Goebbels would deride as decadent. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide