Gerda Maurus Movies
- 1954
Die Klein Stadt Will Schlafen Gehn translates literally to Little Town Will Go to Sleep. The town in question is a "respectable" German community, thrown into an uproar when a mail bag is stolen. It seems that the bag contained several compromising letters, which, if discovered, will result in a lot of trouble for a lot of local citizens. Somehow or other, the populace comes to the conclusion that the town's "black sheep," a hedonistic sculptor, is in possession of the letters, and that's where the fun begins. The fact that the film manages to squeeze in a bit of nudity enhanced its salability in America. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gustav Froehlich, Jester Naefe, (more)
- 1933
In this thriller, a corrupt business magnate wants to buy a financially troubled oil company. He hires a hitman to kill the struggling company's president, he then plans to replace the man with an imposter who is sent to a meeting with Europa Oil, the rival buyer. The hitman also attempts to kill an engineer who escapes. He enlists the aide of another who helps him locate a photo of the real company president. Meanwhile the imposter cuts a deal with Europa Oil. Just as he attempts to cash the check, the police burst in and arrest him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1932
Popular German film star Hans Albers plays the brother of drug-addicted opera star Gerda Maurus. When Albers takes Gerda to a sanitarium, they both become targets of slimy dope peddler Peter Lorre, who fears that Gerda will blow the whistle on him. Lorre kidnaps the woman, leading Albers on a frantic chase. With the help of another opera singer (Trude von Molo), Albers discovers the secret behind Lorre's drug-smuggling operation, rescues his sister, and exposes the respectable "Mr. Big" behind the whole narcotics racket. Filmed in Germany, White Demon (Der Weisse Damon) was also lensed in a French-language version, which also costarred Peter Lorre. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hans Albers, Gerda Maurus, (more)
- 1931
Seitensprunge (Dodging) stars Oskar Sims and Gerda Maurus as a married couple accustomed to taking each other for granted. Thus, when both husband and wife find romance outside their marriage, it's a shock to everyone -- especially them. Sims and Maurus break up to elope with their respective lovers, only to be thrown together again when they show up at the justice of the peace. Realizing what fools they've been, hero and heroine now realize that they're more in love than ever. The lever of humor of Seitensprunge is brought down a few levels by leading lady Gerda Maurus, an actress better suited to the heavy-breathing melodramas of director Fritz Lang. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Oska Sima, Gerda Maurus, (more)
- 1930
The UFA movie studios are the setting for this intricate murder mystery. Frequent Fritz Lang leading lady Gerda Maurus stars as The Film Diva (that's how she's billed), who is the primary suspect when a murder is committed on the set of her latest epic. The suspects include "The Leading Role" (Harry Frank), "The Production Manager" (Paul Kemp) and "The Sound Master" (Frederick Franz Stampe). Surprisingly, the identity of the killer is so well hidden that it genuinely takes the audience by surprise -- something that didn't always happen in American whodunits of the era. According to contemporary observers, The Shot in the Talker Studio painted a remarkably accurate portrayal of the German moviemaking process (though one hopes that murder was not always part of that process!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gerda Maurus, Harry Frank, (more)
One of the first major films to dwell upon the possibility of space travel, Fritz Lang's Woman in the Moon (Frau im Mond) is, like many of its modern-day counterparts, more successful on a special-effects level than it is in terms of character development. The titular female, played by Gerda Maurus (one of the stars of Lang's 1928 classic Spies) joins an extraterrestrial expedition in search of gold on the moon. Among the many prescient aspects of the film is its use of a countdown before blast-off and its depiction of the effects of centrifugal force upon the lunar passengers. Willy Ley, later a leading light of the U.S. space program, served as technical adviser. Reportedly, Adolf Hitler was so overwhelmed by Woman in the Moon that he used the rocket depicted in the film as the prototype for the dreaded V1 and V2 assault missiles. Curiously unavailable during the "Sputnik fever" of the 1950s, Woman in the Moon rose back to the surface when it was excerpted in David Wolper's landmark 1960 TV documentary, The Race for Space. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Willy Fritsch, Klaus Pohl, (more)
Spies (Spione) was the first independent production of German "thriller" director Fritz Lang. The years-ahead-of-its-time plotline involves Russian espionage activity in London. The mastermind is Haghi (Rudolph Klein-Rogge), a supposedly respectable carnival sideshow entertainer. Heading the good guys is Agent 326 (Willy Fritsch), with the help of defecting Russian spy Sonya (Gerda Maurus). The film moves swiftly to several potential climaxes, each one more exciting than its predecessor. Haghi's ultimate demise is a superbly staged Pirandellian vignette. Anticipating Citizen Kane by a dozen years, director Lang dispenses with all transitional dissolves and fade-outs, flat-cutting territory from one scene to another. The film was co-scripted by Lang and his then-wife Thea Von Harbou. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Gerda Maurus, (more)
