Hanns Lothar Movies

Based on a script by German playwright Karl Wittlinger, this satirical feature follows the lives of two fellow winos. Axel and Bum one day find themselves contemplating their misery as they drink. Bum concludes that his soul is the root of all his problems and decides to find a way to rid himself of it. Axel suggests that he place it into a box and pawn it to a shop. After doing so, Bum immediately becomes a successful businessman. As he gains more wealth and prestige, he forgets his old drinking buddy. While Bum's fate is soon sealed, Axel remains his old self. Originally made for video on a budget of $75,000, the film won the Prix Italia in 1962. Director Rainer Erler had previously worked as an assistant to the prolific German director Kurt Hoffmann. Interestingly, Seelenwanderung shared many similarities with the 1958 Hoffmann film (based on a novel by Hugo Hartung) Wir Wunderkinder/Aren't We Wonderful? about two friends who part ways during WW II. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi

In his last starring film (it was supposed to be his last film, but Ragtime came along in 1981), James Cagney plays Coca-Cola executive C.R. MacNamara. Assigned to manage Coke's West Berlin office, MacNamara dreams of being transferred to London, and to do this he must curry favor with his Atlanta-based boss, Hazeltine (Howard St. John). Thus, MacNamara agrees to look after Hazeltine's dizzy, impulsive daughter, Scarlett (Pamela Tiffin), during her visit to Germany. Weeks pass, and on the eve of Hazeltine's visit to West Berlin, Scarlett announces that she's gotten married. Even worse, her husband is a hygienically challenged East Berlin Communist named Otto Piffl (Horst Buchholz). The crafty MacNamara arranges for Piffl to be arrested by the East Berlin police and to have the marriage annulled, only to discover that Scarlett is pregnant. In rapid-fire "one, two, three" fashion, MacNamara must arrange for Piffl to be released by the Communists and successfully pass off the scrungy, doggedly anti-capitalist Piffl as an acceptable husband for Scarlett. MacNamara must accomplish this in less than 12 hours, all the while trying to mollify his wife (Arlene Francis), who has learned of his affair with busty secretary Ingeborg (Lilo Pulver).

Seldom pausing for breath, Billy Wilder's film is a crackling, mile-a-minute farce, taking satiric scattershots at Coca-Cola, the Cold War (the film is set in the months just before the erection of the Berlin Wall), Russian red tape, Communist and capitalist hypocrisy, Southern bigotry, the German "war guilt," rock music, and even Cagney's own movie image. Not all the gags are in the best of taste, and most of the one-liners have dated rather badly, but Cagney's mesmerizing performance holds the whole affair together. Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond adapted their screenplay from an obscure play by Ferenc Molnár. Watch for Red Buttons in an unbilled cameo as a military policeman, and listen for the voice of Sig Rumann, emanating from the mouth of actor Hubert Von Meyerinck (the Count von Droste-Schattenburg). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Thomas Mann's sprawling German novel Buddenbrooks could hardly be confined to a "conventional" film length, thus it's no surprise that this 1959 movie version was released in two lengthy parts. Put simply, Buddenbrooks is the story of the decline and fall of a once prestigious European family. Anxious to preserve their rapidly diminishing wealth, the Buddenbrook clan undergoes several marriages of convenience -- which serve only to weaken the strain until, as the 20th century dawns, only two members of the family are left. Among the many international luminaries playing the various Buddenbrook progeny are Lilo Pulver, Nadja Tiller, Hansjörg Felmy, Hanns Lothar, Lil Dagover, and Werner Hinz. When released in the U.S. in 1962, the film was trimmed from 219 to 199 minutes; a 1964 reissue combined both parts and truncated the film's length even farther. Two years later, a BBC television production of Buddenbrooks was offered in a multi-part version à la The Forsyte Saga. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi