Werner Krauss Movies

Leon Feuchtwangler's novel Jud Süss was originally about a powerful ghetto businessman who believes himself to be a Jew. Süss's ruthless business practices result in the betrayal of an innocent girl, for which he is arrested and sentenced to be hanged under the anti-Jewish laws of the 18th century. While he waits to be executed, Süss discovers he is not Jewish. Rather than turn his back on the people of the ghetto with whom he'd grown up, Süss courageously refuses to declare his "Aryan" status, even though it means he will die on the gallows. The Feuchtwangler book was designed in roundabout fashion to strike a blow against anti-Semitism. But when Jud Süss was filmed in Germany at the behest of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels in 1940, its original message was twisted and perverted into an argument in favor of "ethnic cleansing." As played by Werner Krauss, Süss is not only genuinely Jewish, but also an amalgam of every vicious caricature ever concocted by the anti-Semitic propagandists of the past two centuries. With hooked nose and greasy beard, Krauss portrays Süss as a whining, wheedling, hand-wringing subhuman rapist; small wonder that Krauss was proclaimed an Actor of the State by the Nazis. The final scene of Jud Süss shows a screaming, protesting Süss being hanged in the public square; the scene is directed to cast Süss' tormenters in an utterly sympathetic light, and perhaps even to invoke cheers from an impressionable audience. Though disgusting beyond belief, Jud Süss should be seen at least once, if only to show what a dangerous weapon film can be in the hands of hate merchants. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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, Rovi

This German flag-waver recounts the life and career of famed 19th-century Prussian military leader General Yorck. Werner Krauss, who 13 years earlier had starred in Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, plays the title role. The film's dramatic high-water mark is the moment in 1812 that Yorck refuses to obey his wrong-minded King, whereupon he is branded a rebel. Within a few years, the German film industry would be nationalized by the Nazi party, whereupon any film in which a courageous general dared to stand up to his country's leader would be rejected out of hand. Ironically, by that time the fervently patriotic Werner Krauss would be designated an "Actor of the State." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Werner Krauss stars as The Jolly Peasant in this not-always-jolly confection. For the sake of his son, an aspiring priest, Krauss goes heavily into debt to finance the boy's evangelical education. But the son changes his mind and decides to become a doctor, breaking his old dad's heart. Metamorphosing into an impossible snob, the son doesn't even bother to invite his father to his high-society wedding. It is the boy's new bride, of peasant stock herself, who brings the young snot to his senses and arranges a reunion between father and son. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Looping the Loop is not an aviation picture (as one might expect), but instead a circus drama, starring Werner Krauss as a famous, Grock-like clown named Bitto. Falling in love with heroine Jenny Jugo, Bitto is convinced that she could never care for a man who puts makeup on his face and takes pratfalls. Thus, he poses as a prominent businessman, and she swallows the subterfuge. Later on, Jugo joins a circus acrobatic act, which comes to a sudden end when her partner is seriously injured. At this juncture, the heroine discovers Bitto's true identity -- which makes her love him all the more! The title refers to the dangerous mid-air stunt which nearly kills the heroine and forces Bitto to reveal that he is Bitto. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Jean Renoir's second film was this lavishly appointed adaptation of Emile Zola's novel Nana. Renoir does an admirable job retelling Zola's woeful tale of a covetous Parisian slum girl in purely visual terms. Hoping to escape her tawdry surroundings, Nana has an affair with high-ranking government official George Muffat. Instead of elevating herself to Muffat's level, however, Nana drags the poor man down to hers -- and in the end, both lives have been utterly destroyed. Catherine Hessling gives a stylized but effective performance in the title role. Taken to task for the over-elaborate set designs (by Claude Autant-Lara), which resulted in France's most expensive film to date, Jean Renoir merely explained that he was endeavoring to contrast the splendiferous lifestyle of Muffat and his friends to the shabby origins of the heroine. On an artistic level he succeeded, but Nana ended up costing way too much to ever post a profit, and it would be several years before Renoir would be entrusted with a big-budgeted film again. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

With a brilliant tip of the hat to Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, German filmmaker G.W. Pabst offers Secrets of a Soul, a convoluted tale of a chemistry professor (Caligari's Werner Krauss) haunted by inexplicable resentments. The professor doesn't really dislike his wife's cousin, who is returning after several years in India: why, then do thoughts of murder keep entering his head? The dream sequences--to which Pabst gave credence by hiring two of Freud's assistants as consultants--elaborate upon existing Freudian symbolism to the bursting point. Pabst had always been fascinated by the subconscious; here he seems intoxicated by the subject. Especially effective is Pabst's use of multiple dissolves and superimpositions, all accomplished "in the camera" without any post-production lab work. Originally titled Geheimnisse einer Seele. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi