Julius Falkenstein Movies
- 1933
In this British romance, a German duke falls passionately in love with the owner of a beautiful singing voice, even though he has never seen her. When he first hears it, the duke assumes that it belongs to the empress. The voice actually belongs to her hairdresser. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lilian Harvey, Charles Boyer, (more)
- 1933
In this musical the Empress' hairdresser finds herself mistaken for the Empress by a deranged aristocrat. Mayhem and music ensues as she tries to convince him otherwise. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mady Christians, Lilian Harvey, (more)
- 1932
Hasenklein was based on a stage play by Hans Mahner-Mons. Arriving in the big city to visit his daughter, provincial dressmaker Jacob Tiedke finds himself attending a political meeting. Through a series of hilarious misunderstandings, our hero is elected a member of Parliament then is promoted to the Presidency. Tiedke wants nothing to do with all this, but the more he tries to disqualify himself, the more his followers are convinced that he's a legislative genius. After using his political clout to smooth the romantic path for his daughter and her sweetheart, Tiedke blissfully returns to the small-town dress shop whence he came. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacob Tiedtke, Lien Deyers, (more)
- 1932
Writer Emeric Pressburger is best known for his 1940s British film collaborations with producer/director Michael Powell. In a previous life, however, Pressburger toiled away in the German film industry. Beautiful Adventure was adapted by Pressburger and director Reinhold Schuenzel from a French stage play by Etienne Rey and Robert DeFlers. Ida Wuest stars as a lovely fraulein engaged to a corpulent man of wealth. She runs off on the day of her wedding with the man she really loves, sparking a merry chase throughout Europe. This was the sort of frothily foolish fare that German film fans ate up both before and after the advent of Hitler. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alfred Abel, Kurt Vespermann, (more)
- 1932
Mensch Ohne Namen (Men Without Names) is a modernized adaptation of Honore de Balzac's Colonel Chabert. Long believed dead, WWI captain Heinrich Martin (Werner Kraus) returns to Berlin after a 16-year absence. Suffering from amnesia, Martin suddenly remembers that he has a wife and that he used to run a successful auto-manufacturing business. Not surprisingly, his wife has remarried, and his business is now the property of her second husband. Vainly, Martin battles the bureaucracy to regain ownership of his business but is forced to give up the fight. He starts life anew in a poor, provincial community, finding happiness with a pretty typist. Thanks to his new wife's business savvy, Martin is able to regain his status in the manufacturing world and becomes a millionaire all over again. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Werner Krauss, Mathias Wiemann, (more)
- 1932
Case Van Geldern is an excellent detective thriller with some genuinely surprising plot turns. Co-adapted by Hans Hyan from his own novel, the story concerns a lawyer who is accused of murdering his wife. The only person who knows the truth is a former client of the lawyer, a career criminal currently serving a lengthy prison term. Out of sympathy for the lawyer, the crook breaks out of jail just long enough to prove his old friend's innocence and track down the genuine killer. Reviewers in 1932 enjoyed Case Van Geldern but felt that the film's song numbers were extraneous. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Richter, Ellen Richter, (more)
- 1932
Telegraph operator Hans Albers wins a fortune at the racetrack, immediately shooting his wad on a new wardrobe. It is Albers' hope to impress Kaethe Von Nagy, the daughter of a wealthy American banker. Even when he's lost all his money, our hero contrives to stay near the girl by hiring himself out as a gigolo in the hotel where she is staying. He ends up back where he started, manning the telegraph board -- and in this capacity he wins the girl by saving her father from financial ruin. Is it any surprise that the film's title translates as The Winner? (Incidentally, the film was ultimately released as Liebe ist Liebe). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hans Albers, Kaethe von Nagy, (more)
- 1932
Music, drama and comedy are neatly integrated in this low-key backstage romance. After a lengthy spell of unemployment, leading man Paul Hartwig (Willy Forst) and leading lady Lisa Brandes (Dolly Haas) prepare to open in a big-time stage musical. Is it any surprise that Paul and Lisa also manage to fall in love? Their story is but one of several leading to the inevitable "big opening"; other subplots involve the director, the composer, the supporting players, the chorus and the technical crew. So Ein Maedel Vergisst Man Nicht is one of the few "putting on a show" endeavors in which it appears that a real show is actually being put on. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dolly Haas, Willi Forst, (more)
- 1932
Viktoria (Friedl Schuster) is the wife of the American Ambassador of Peking. The Hussar (Michael Bohnen) is a Hungarian military officer, and Viktoria's former sweetheart. Captured by the Russians, the hero escapes to Peking, where he is given shelter by Viktoria. Their love is soon rekindled, whereupon Viktoria divorces her incredibly understanding husband and accompanies her Hussar to Vienna. This hackneyed storyline was not what attracted German audiences to this lavish operetta: Rather, it was the rich singing voice of Friedl Schuster, whose enthusiastic performance helps keep the soggier plot developments afloat. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Bohnen, Else Elster, (more)
- 1932
Czikos Baroness was adapted from the stage play by Fritz Greenbaum and Ida Jenbach. Set in Hungary, it's all about Terka Von Marocisz (Greti Theimer), a headstrong noblewoman who prefers the company of the "Czikos," or Hungarian cowboys. Turning down a marriage proposal from Count Ruttkai (Paul Vincenti), one of her own kind, Terka disguises herself as a Cziko maiden and blends into a provincial festival. Not wishing to lose the girl, Ruttkai himself adopts native garb to prove his worthiness amongst the rough-and-ready Cziko men. A climactic horse race brings this musical romance to a rousing conclusion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gretl Theimer, Paul Vincenti, (more)
- 1932
Die Firma Heiratet (The Firm Weds) is based on a stage comedy by Walter Turczinsky and Jacques Berg. The plot concerns a pompous Baron (Ralph A. Roberts) who is obliged to marry for business reasons. The subsequent in-name-only marriage experiences some rocky moments when both husband and wife fall in love with others. Filmed at the dawn of the talkie era, Die Firma Heiratet didn't make it to the U.S. until 1932. By that time, its primitive sound quality was all the more obvious than it had been some two to three years earlier. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ralph Arthur Roberts, Ida Wuest, (more)
- 1932
Also known as Tempest and Storm of Passion, Stuerme der Leidenschaft was the first of Robert Siodmak's two directorial efforts of 1932. Emil Jannings stars as a tough but basically gentle gangster who, while serving a prison term, is betrayed by his sweetheart Anna Sten. Released from prison, the disgruntled Jannings murders Sten's seducer, forcing him to hide out from the police. Meanwhile, Sten, who has sworn total fidelity to her fugitive lover, again betrays him at the first opportunity. Wearily, Jannings gives himself up to the authorities, declaring that he'd rather be in jail than at the mercy of a faithless woman. Siodmak also supervised the French-language version, Tumultes, which starred Yves Mirande. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emil Jannings, Anna Sten, (more)
- 1931
A remake of the silent serial A Man Without Name, Abenteurin von Tunis (The Adventures of Tunis) stars Dr. Philip Manning in the title role. The adventures are many and varied, with thrills taking second place to humor. Featured in support are Karl Hussar-Puffy as the portly comedy relief Theo Schall as an accused murderer, and Senta Soeneland as a harridan of a wife. Critics in 1931 took director Willi Wolff to task for his confused continuity and haphazard scene transitions, though this may have been the fault of the studio editors. As was the case with the original serial, this 1931 feature-length remake was a box-office hit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dr. Philip Manning, Karl Huszar-Puffy, (more)
- 1931
The title of this German slapstick comedy translates as Festival of Riflemen in Schilda. The plot is as old as the Hills of Bavaria: Once again, a low-born schlemiel is mistaken for a member of royalty. This time the hapless hero is played by Siegfried Arno, who made a career out of playing such gormless nebbishes in both Europe and Hollywood. The action is set against the aforementioned Schilda festival, a colorful annual event herein presented in vivid detail. Films like this were virtually guaranteed-moneymakers in the years just prior to the Hitler regime. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sig Arno, Fritz Kampers, (more)
- 1931
The comic tenor of this German slapsticker can be assessed by its English-language title, His Grounds for Divorce. The protagonists, a long-married couple, wish to divorce, but they lack the grounds to do so. It is arranged for the husband to be accused of infidelity with a beautiful professional co-respondent. Thanks to the capriciousness of the German legal system, the husband never meets the woman with whom he is supposed to have "fooled around" until after the divorce is granted, by which time the girl is several hundred Deutschmarks richer. Unaware of each other's true identities, the ex-husband and the co-respondent fall in love, get married, and live happily ever after -- maybe! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Johannes Riemann, Blandine Ebinger, (more)
