O.E. Hasse Movies

Based on a very successful play of the same name by Tankred Dorst, this film tells a story about Norwegian author Knut Hamsun (here played by O.E. Hasse), a Nobel prizewinner for literature who was notorious for having collaborated with the Nazi regime. After the war, rather than hand him over for prosecution, he was sent to a retirement home. A young man, bitter about the war, tracks him down and begins to harass him in various ways. The author handles everything that comes to him with remarkable dignity, which eventually removes some of the taint from his actions. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Like most of Costa-Gavras' political thrillers, the French State of Siege is based on a true story. The incident dramatized herein is the kidnapping of a U.S. official somewhere in Latin America. The director's sympathies clearly lie with the kidnappers, especially since the official (played by Yves Montand), ostensibly an expert in traffic control, has been assigned as special advisor to the government's secret police, training these worthies in the art of the torturing of political prisoners. Uruguay was the country where this story actually took place; though no names are given, there's little doubting the identity of Costa-Gavras' fictional locale. Despite its up-to-date radicalism, State of Siege adheres to time-honored Hollywood formula, with ugly, vulgar bad guys vs. handsome, articulate good guys. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This is the final entry in the Dr. Mabuse films a bad doctor wants to blow up Earth with a death ray and a giant concave mirror. He is thwarted by the brave hero. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This drama is a remake of Pabst's famed 1929 film Die Buechse Der Pandora/Pandora's Box. It tells the story of a 14 year-old girl who is caught while trying to pick a doctor's pocket. The doctor ends up taking her in and turning her into a sophisticated lady whom he marries off to a wealthy man. Her new husband really likes to watch her dancing naked. Later, when he catches her 'dancing' with a young artist, the husband drops dead of a heart attack. She then marries the artist, but he soon commits suicide. After that she marries her doctor, but when they get into a fight over a pistol, she accidentally shoots him. She is sent to prison, but is later freed by the doctor's son, and his lesbian pal. The threesome head for gay Paris. In the end, she ends up a streetwalker in London where she becomes a victim of Jack the Ripper. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This complex political satire by Kurt Hoffmann pits the supposedly religious Mr. Mississippi (O.E. Hasse) against the revolutionary Saint-Claude (Martin Held), enemies in love and politics. Anastasia (Johanna von Koczian) is the woman in the middle. Saint-Claude, a doctor and her lover, has given her the poison she uses to murder her husband. But Mr. Mississippi, a lawyer, forces Anastasia to marry him after he deports Saint-Claude and poisons his own wife. In the meantime, there is a revolution and counter-revolution going on that mirrors the personal lives of the protagonists, and it does not look like Saint-Claude is going to stay deported. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, 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

All the money in the world cannot provide the security the rich industrialist in this drama seems to crave. Although wealthy and powerful, the man is terribly afraid of losing his beauteous wife to another. His fears rule his private life; to keep her safe, the man begins holding her prisoner. This does not do much for the wife, and the rich man ends up losing her completely. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Filmed in 1955, Les Espions (The Spies) was based on Midnight Patient, a novel by Egon Hostowsky. The scene is a rundown sanitarium, which is subtly but thoroughly taken over by a ruthless gang of international spies. One of the new "patients" is purportedly the inventor of a new nuclear explosive device, which of course attracts the attention of Russian and American counterspies. When it turns out that the inventor is a phony, it throws the entires espionage community into a frenzy. Before long, it is impossible to tell the good guys from the bad. As confusing as it sounds, Les Espions has the advantage of a superb international cast, including Curt Jurgens, Sam Jaffe, and Peter Ustinov. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this German espionage film, made after WW II, the life of Admiral Canaris, the former head of Nazi counterintelligence, is profiled. Much of the focus is upon the Admiral's gradual disenchantment with Hitler's vision. As the war progresses, Canaris begins looking into anti-Hitler organizations. It is only in 1944 that he grows angry at the destruction of Germany and commits himself to overthrowing Hitler. He fails and ends up losing his rank and being sentenced to a concentration camp. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This 1956 German release was the final installment in director Paul May's WW II trilogy. As in the first two 08/15 films, the story concerns a group of German soldiers as they try their best to survive and endure a war that none of them wanted. The leading characters are a lieutenant (Joachim Fuchsberger) and a staff sergeant (Peter Karsten), both of whom exact a personal revenge on a pair of hated SS officers. All that saves the two from being arrested and executed for murder is Germany's defeat at war's end. The comedy elements of the earlier films are muted in favor of melodrama and "significance." All three of the 08/15 films were inspired by the novels of Hans-Helmut Kirsti. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This sequel to the phenomenally successful German film 08/15 details the further exploits of a German army outfit during the early years of WW II. The first film concentrated on the basic-training period, while the sequel catches up with the protagonists at the dreaded Russian Front. O.E. Hasse, one of Germany's more popular leading men, stars as the unit's commanding officer. Among the returnees from the first film is Hans-Christian Blech, who rose to prominence as a result of the two 08/15 endeavors. American audiences may find it a bit off-putting that director Paul May was able to extract moments of humor from a subject as relentlessly grim as the war in Russia, but by and large he is successful. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

O.E. Hasse stars in this "retro" German historical biography as Admiral Canaris, who during WW2 was the man in charge of Germany's home defenses. The film takes great pains to point out the Admiral's essential dislike of Nazism, suggesting that he was sympathetic to the aims of the German underground, even though he himself could not participate. In 1944, Canaris joins the plot to overthrow Hitler, ending up in a concentration camp when the military coup fails. The villain of the piece is Obergruppenfuehrer Heydrich (Martin Held), whose assassination in Czechoslovakia prompted the German high command to order the liquidation of the town of Lidice--thereby thoroughly souring Admiral Canaris on the Hitler regime. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Based on the turn-of-the-century play Our Two Consciences by Paul Anthelme, Hitchcock's I Confess is set in Quebec. Montgomery Clift plays a priest who hears the confession of church sexton O.E. Hasse. "I...killed...a man" whispers Hasse in tight closeup--and, bound by the laws of the Confessional, Clift is unable to turn Hasse over to the police. But police-inspector Karl Malden has a pretty good idea who the guilty party is: all evidence points to Clift. It seems that the dead man had been blackmailing Anne Baxter, who was once in a factually innocent, but seemingly exploitable compromising position with Clift. Tried for murder, Clift is released due to lack of evidence, but he is ruined in the eyes of the community. Then it is Hasse's turn to make that One Fatal Error. I Confess is frequently dismissed as a lesser Hitchcock, due mainly to the quirky performance of Montgomery Clift (who, it is said, steadfastly refused to take direction). Today, four decades removed from its on-set intrigues, the film has taken its place as one of the best of Hitchcock's "between the classics" efforts. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi