Herbert Hübner Movies

This drama provides an account of an honorable German soldier during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. A German soldier is filled with guilt when he kills a French officer. After killing him, he goes through the officer's clothing and learns his name. A short time later, he is wandering through a French village and see's the dead officer's name on a door. He goes there and meets the man's mother and daughter. They do not know that he is dead. The German resembles the woman's son and so offers him hospitality. He stays in the home and soon falls in love with the daughter. He finally confides the truth to her; she requests that he refrain from telling the mother who is dying. Just before the woman passes on, the daughter convinces the German to don the dead officer's uniform to comfort her mother. Later he goes outside still wearing it. He is instantly shot by Prussian troops. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Homosexuality is exploited to the tasteless hilt in the 1957 cheapie The Third Sex. The parents of Paul Dahlke can't understand why their son isn't interested in he-man activities. They soon discover that he's-argh! gasp!--gay. Even worse, he's hanging out with a KNOWN PERVERT!!!! There is nothing for it but to "straighten out" the boy, in as cold and brutal a manner as possible. This one must be seen to be believed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Koenigliche Hoheit (His Royal Highness) was adapted from a novel by Thomas Mann -- who, according to all reports, was pleased with the film version. Ruth Leuwerick stars as an American heiress raised in Europe. She falls in love with Dieter Borsch, a handsome but shy German prince. Their romance seems doomed when Borsch is obliged to enter into a marriage of convenience to save his country from bankruptcy. A fortuitous 11th-hour plot-twist prevents the film from being merely another variation of The Student Prince. Contemporary viewers felt that Koenigliche Hoheit might have benefited from a lighter directorial touch than the one displayed by Dr. Hans Braun. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Long before he played the corpulent Goldfinger, German actor Gert Froebe was a scarecrow-skinny comedian. In Berliner Ballade, Froebe makes his screen debut as Otto, a feckless Everyman who tries to adjust to the postwar travails of his defeated nation. Stymied by black-market profiteers and government bureaucrats, Otto begins fantasizing about a happier life at the end of that ever-elusive rainbow. Director R. A. Stemmle doesn't have to strive for pathos: he merely places his gangly star amidst the ruins of a bombed-out Berlin, and the point is made for him. Filmed in 1948, Berliner Ballade was later released in the U.S. as The Berliner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this German comedy set in the American West, an ace detective heads West to destroy a ring of Mexican hashish smugglers. He also has time to romance a pretty girl. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Also known as Morality, this German comedy makes light of the hidebound and hypocritical moral standards of the 1890s. Disturbed by the popularity of French can-can dancer Ernina Lamponne (Fita Benkhoff), a group of outraged German citizens organize the "Society for Raising the Standard of Morality." They enlist the aid of a local Princess (Roma Bahn), who considers Lamponne a threat to her own love life. The Society's noble purpose proves to be a sham when Lamponne uncovers several skeletons in several local closets. Moral was based on a stage play by Ludwig Thoma. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hermann Thimig stars as Henry Rolland, a Barrymoresque matinee idol whose flamboyant lifestyle has driven him deeply into debt. Hoping to appease his creditors, Henry agrees to marry a wealthy woman, sight unseen. Meanwhile, however, he falls in love with a "normal" girl (Lien Deyers) whose name he doesn't know. Henry is on the verge of renouncing his marriage of convenience for the sake of his mystery sweetheart, only to discover that she's actually the woman he's supposed to marry! As one can see, there are no surprises in Karneval und Liebe (Carnival and Love), but audiences in 1936 didn't care so long as they were thoroughly entertained -- which they were. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It hardly takes a linguistics expert to figure out that the title of this German comedy translates as Family On Parade. Curt Juergens heads the cast as Erik, a young Swedish count who gets a big surprise on his 21st birthday. Erik discovers that he's not a nobleman at all, but the bastard son of a family servant. The revelation of this long-closeted skeleton threatens to disrupt his impending marriage to Alice (Ellen Franck), the daughter of a pompous and hypocritical baron. The laughs just keep on coming in Familienparade, as director Fritz Wendhausen takes great delight in puncturing the pretensions of Scandinavian aristocracy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Reifende Jugend was a variation on the 1933 film hit Maedchen in Uniform, minus the homosexual subtext (after all, Hitler was now in power!) The basic storyline concentrates on the boarding-school training of clean-limned, Aryan youth, all for the greater good of the Fatherland. Heroine Elfriede (Hertha Thiele) has a crush on professor Kerner (Peter Voss), while blond, blue-eyed Nehring (Albert Florath) is hopelessly enamored of Elfriede. This is but one of a surfeit of subplots which have the overall effect of weighing down the film. The subliminal pro-Nazi message of Reifend Jugend is more obvious in retrospect than it was in 1936. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide