Hans Jaray Movies

Just before setting up shop at Hollywood's Universal studios, German-born director Henry Koster helmed a lavish Austrian-Italian historical romance titled Das Tagebush Die Geleten. Two years after its original 1936 release, the film was distributed in the U.S. under the title The Affairs of Maupassant. Based on the diaries of Marie Bashkirtseff, the film stars Lila Darvas as Marie, an artist studying in Paris at the turn of the century. Marie's teacher Bassieux (Attila Hoerbiger) has been carrying on a lengthy feud with essayist-art critic Guy de Maupassant (Han Jaray), so naturally our heroine is not too politely inclined towards Bassieux' foe. Things change somewhat when Maupassant rescues Marie from a gang of street hooligans. A romance blossoms, but before it can reach the serious stage Marie suddenly and mysteriously disappears from Maupassant's life. A few days later, on her deathbed, she explains why. Affairs of Maupassant was filmed in three different versions: German, Italian and French. It was the German version that was fitted out with English subtitles for American consumption. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Producer Joe Pasternak was making "Deanna Durbin pictures" long before he'd discovered Durbin -- and indeed, long before he'd left Hungary. Pasternak's 1935 musical Peter stars Franciska Gaal as Eva, a 17-year-old gamine who ekes out a living as a street singer. While wandering past an open courtyard, Eva confronts a young burglar, who orders her to change clothes with him so he can make a quick getaway. With nothing but her newfound male garb to her name, our heroine poses as a boy named Peter so that she can obtain a job selling newspapers. In this guise, she experiences all manner of hilarious misadventures, and even finds true love in the form of a handsome doctor (Hans Jaray). Peter was directed by Herman Kosterlitz, who as "Henry Koster" would later helm several of Joe Pasternak's Hollywood musicals. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Before plunging headlong into the Freudian sexuality of Pandora's Box, German filmmaker G. W. Pabst offered the impressionistic social document Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney (The Love of Jeanne Ney). Based on a sturm-und-drang story by Ilya Ehrenberg, the film travels from the Crimea to Paris and back again in unfolding a sprawling tale of sociological upheaval. The events are seen through the eyes of Jeanne Ney (Edith Hehanne), who is forced to flee her Russian homeland when her Communist lover kills her diplomat father. The romance between Jeanne and her politicized paramour irrevocably links the lure of radicalism with the call of the flesh. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi