Walter Rilia Movies
German actor Walter Rilla used the rise of Hitler as his cue to get out of his native country while the getting was good. Having no trouble establishing himself in British and French films after 1934 (he'd been on stage for 13 years at that time), Rilla specialized in sinister foreigners -- and, of course, Nazis during the war years. After the war, Rilla continued his evil film ways in a progression of appearances as sultans, megalomaniacs and corporate villains. Walter Rilla was the father of prominent British-based film director Wolf Rilla; the elder Rilla's own directorial career was confined to one film, 1951's Behold the Man, and several stage and TV productions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1921
A father-son conflict set against the tumultuous background of the First World War lies at the center of this high-class soap opera. S.I. Rupp (Emil Jannings) is a former butcher who has been elevated to the pinnacle of success in postwar Europe, by virtue of having made a few correct decisions about business during the recently ended world war. Now he is one of the wealthiest men on the continent, and beloved of the press and public for his charitable work, his beef company feeding thousands every day who would otherwise starve; and he has in his employ, at his beck-and-call, numerous members of the former aristocracy, reduced to penury by the dissolution of countries and governments. Rupp is a decent man but also a crude man, given to acting on his impulses, and like many a self-made man he also has a tendency to brook no contradiction or interference when he thinks he's right, which is most of the time. The one person in the world whom he loves and respects is his son, Fred (Hermann Thimig), by his first marriage, who, among his other attributes, is a champion-level racing-car driver. Rupp's personal life explodes, however, when he agrees to marry a beautiful former aristocrat; through a misunderstanding, Rupp thinks his son is also interested in his bride-to-be, and father and son end up estranged, just when Rupp's enemies and rivals are preparing to destroy him and his empire. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emil Jannings
- 1929
Prolific filmmaker Gustav Ucicky cut his cinematic teeth on such minor efforts as Inherited Passions (Vererbte Triebe). Walter Rilla plays a pleasant young man who unfortunately carries with him his family's "curse": alcoholism. Whenever he gets drunk, Rilla's Dr. Jekyll personality degenerates into Mr. Hyde. First, he murders a prostitute then tries to bump off his stepfather's new young wife. Arrested and put on trial, he is defended by that selfsame stepfather, who argues that Rilla's "inherited passions" were beyond the poor boy's control. An argument is made for the "sexual sterilization" of such unfortunates as Rilla. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1929
In the wake of the Russian Revolution, a beautiful young aristocrat is assaulted by wild-eyed rebel Sajenko. The girl manages to escape her attacker with virtue intact, and shortly thereafter she relocates to a European colony reserved for expatriate Russians. Here her path again crosses that of Sajenko, now a high-ranking Soviet secret agent. Unrepentantly, Sajenko once more tries to rape the heroine. Pretending to succumb to his "charms," the girl convinces Sajenko to sign a paper that will seal his doom upon his return to the USSR. The far-from-admirable title character was played by Michael Bohnen, a baritone with the Metropolitan Opera Company (just why Bohnen was hired for a silent film was anybody's guess). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Bohnen, Suzy Vernon, (more)
- 1930
Hereditary Instinct suggests that "blood will tell" no matter what one's upbringing. It begins when the heroine is raped while attending classes at Cambridge University. The assailant is the adopted son of a famed British barrister, who has been careful to rear the boy as a gentleman. It turns out that the rapist is actually the offspring of a notorious crook -- and as they say, like father, like son. Unable to control his hereditary impulses, the boy kills himself, but not before assaulting and murdering another unfortunate girl. Filmed as a silent, Hereditary Instinct was released with a hastily cobbled-together musical track. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Rilia, Fritz Alberti, (more)
- 1930
Zweierlei Moral (Different Morals) was adapted from Pearls' Comedy, a play by Bruno Frank. A string of pearls figures into the plotline in which the sexual double-standard separating men from women is elaborated upon. Critics familiar with the original stage play found the film version inferior, complaining that the direction was slow and ponderous and the acting over-emphatic. Also attacked were the costumes worn by the actors, which were described variously as ill-fitting and in bad taste. Only leading players Aribert Waescher and Ida Wuerst were singled out for any other praise. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Rilia, Aribert Waescher, (more)
- 1931
Also known as 24 Hours in a Woman's Life, this perceptive romantic drama was based on the novel by Stefan Zweig. Henny Porten plays Alice, a widow who undergoes a lifetime worth of emotional turmoil during a weekend vacation in Italy. After getting caught in a rainstorm and boarding the wrong boat, Alice ends up in a casino, where she meets an impoverished young man named Thomas (Walter Rilla). The two spend the night together then promise to meet again in the forest the following day. Upon discovering that Thomas is a military deserter and chronic gambler, Alice pays all of his debts, extracting a promise from him that he'll quit gambling and return home to face up to his responsibilities. Alas, Thomas soon retreats to the gaming tables, whereupon their relationship is permanently and irrevocably severed. The Zweig novel was refilmed in 1953 as Affair in Monte Carlo, then again in 1968 under its original title. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henny Porten, Walter Rilia, (more)
- 1931
The 1930 Hollywood feature Laughter, which starred Nancy Carroll and Fredric March, was also lensed in two foreign-language versions. Both the German Die Manner um Lucie and the French Rive Gauche were directed by Alexander Korda. Liane Haid, Walter Rilla and Oskar Karlweis star in this Teutonic spin on the original Harry D'Arrast-Douglas Doty screenplay (D'Arrast also directed the English-language Laughter). Liane assumes the Nancy Carroll role as a Follies dancer who marries likeable millionaire Karlweis. He denies her nothing, not even an extramarital fling with composer Rilla. The complications that follow are both sophisticated and logical, with the characters behaving like human beings rather than French-farce stick figures. We'll let the auteur theorists argue over whether Alexander Korda's direction was any more accomplished than Harry D'Arrast's. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1931
The "great yearning" of the title refers to the desire of heroine Camilla Horn to become a famous movie star. Fortunately, director Theodor Loos happens to be combing the countryside, searching for "something new" to put before the cameras. He discovers Horn, and the rest can be filled in by the audience blindfolded. The charm of this picture lies not in its corny plotline, but in its handling by young director Stefan Szekely, who refuses to sugar-coat his depiction of movie-studio life but instead offers something very close to the truth. Die Grosse Sehnsucht features cameo appearances by such German film faves as Lil Dagover, Liane Haid, Anny Ondra, Fritz Kortner, Franz Lederer, Luis Trenker, Conrad Veidt, and many, many more. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Camilla Horn, Theodor Loos, (more)
- 1932
Also known as Komm' zu Mir Rendezvous, this is the German-language version of the French marital farce L'Amour Chante. To throw her suspicious husband off track, an unfaithful wife hires a total stranger to pose as her singing coach. While our hero doesn't know one note from another, he pulls off his charade so well that he is hired to give voice lessons to the husband's mistress. Sensing a good thing when he sees one, the faux singing teacher sets up a music conservatory, catering exclusively to philandering spouses. Though its direction is sometimes credited to Carl Boese, Rendezvous was actually directed by Robert Florey, who also helmed L'Amour Chante and its Spanish-language version, Professor de mi Señora. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ralph Arthur Roberts, Walter Rilia, (more)
- 1934
Thematically related to the popular German "mountain film" genre is the 1934 skiing drama Der Springer von Pontresina. The film catalogs the intensive training program undergone by a Teutonic skiing team in preparation for a championship race. Though Sepp Rist is nominally the star, the script emphasizes teamwork uber alles, thus Rist and his cohorts are what was described by one critic as the "composite hero." The principal dramatic complication concerns the romance between one of the team members and a pretty American girl, which leads to a near-disaster on the slopes. Der Springer von Pontresina was gorgeously photographer in St. Moritz. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sepp Rist, Walter Rilia, (more)
This film from director Harold Young is the second big-screen adaptation of Baroness Emmuska Orczy's 1905 novel The Scarlet Pimpernel. Leslie Howard stars as Sir Percy Blakeney, a British aristocrat who rescues innocent victims of the French Revolution under the guise of The Scarlet Pimpernel while maintaining the identity of a foppish dandy by day. Even his wife, Lady Marguerite Blakeney (Merle Oberon), is unaware of Percy's heroic alter-ego as he and his band of likeminded masked men save countless people from the guillotine. Perhaps the most famous adaptation of the classic book, The Scarlet Pimpernel would later be lampooned in 1966's Don't Lose Your Head. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon, (more)
- 1935
This epic costume drama is set in turn-of-the-century Turkey and chronicles the ruthless reign of a paranoid ruler who begins killing everyone he suspects of treachery against him. The despot's loyal chief of police obediently enacts his master's bloody whims until he too stands accused of conspiracy and is sentenced to die. To save him, his lover, a Viennese actress, offers to join the despot's harem. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fritz Kortner, Nils Asther, (more)
- 1936
Lieberwachen (Love's Awakening) catalogs the trials and tribulations of impressionable young Hanni (Karin Hardt). A veterinarian's daughter, Hanni falls in love for the first time when violin virtuoso Robert Lund (Walter Rilla) comes to town. Against her father's wishes, she elopes with Lund and runs off to the Big City. It isn't long before disillusionment sets in, as Hanni realizes that the life of a celebrity spouse isn't all it's cracked up to be. Unable to cope with her husband's professional demands and his lack of attention to her, poor Hanni decides to take the "easy way out," bringing this emotional object lesson to a tragic conclusion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eugen Kloepfer, Karin Hardt, (more)
- 1937
Laurence Housman's 1935 stage play Victoria Regina, which has served as a showcase for actresses as varied as Helen Hayes and Julie Harris, was adapted for the screen in 1937 as Victoria the Great. Herbert Wilcox was the producer, so no one was surprised and everyone was satisfied when Wilcox cast his actress wife, the beloved Anna Neagle, as Queen Victoria. The film repeats the play's episodic approach, tracing Victoria from her 1837 coronation to her Jubilee celebration sixty years later. Ms. Neagle is faultless, if perhaps a bit too self satisfied in this actor-proof role; her best scenes are with Prince Albert, played with finesse by Anton Walbrook. The Jubilee finale was originally filmed in resplendent Technicolor (derided in 1937 as vulgar) though some scattered prints are still processed in black and white. Victoria the Great was also released as Sixty Glorious Years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Neagle, Anton Walbrook, (more)
- 1938
Anna Neagle repeats her role from the successful Victoria the Great (1937) as the domineering Queen Victoria in this slice-of-life melodrama on royalty and the upper classes. The 60 years of the title refers to Victoria's reign on the throne of England. ~ Mark Hockley, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Neagle, Anton Walbrook, (more)
- 1939
Filmed in 1935, the British Hell's Cargo finally received a US release in 1939, capitalizing on the recent outbreak of war in Europe. Most of the story takes place on a cargo ship, slowly inching its way through treacherous waters with a cargo consisting of a top-secret poison gas. When the ship's intoxicated doctor reveals the nature of the cargo to a good-time girl in a foreign port, chaos ensues, culminating in the death of the treacherous doctor at the hands of the ship's three commanding officers: Englishman Falcon (Kim Peacock), Frenchman Lestallieur (Walter Rilla), and Russian Tomasov (Robert Newton). The question: if a murder is committed in to maintain the Peace of the World, can it truly be considered murder? Hell's Cargo was based on a story by French writer/director Leo Joannon, whose later seafaring efforts included Laurel & Hardy's Atoll K (1951). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Rilia, Kim Peacock, (more)
- 1939
Dapper musical comedy favorite Jack Buchanan is practically the whole show in The Gang's All Here. Buchanan plays John Forrest, top investigator for the Stamford Insurance Company. Retiring from the firm, Forrest intends to devote the rest of his life to writing detective fiction, but this plan goes out the window when his former employers are robbed of $1,000,000 in jewels belonging to foreign potentate Prince Homouska (Walter Rilla). With the help of his befuddled brother Treadwell (Edward Everett Horton), Forrest follows the trail of clues to American gangster boss Alberni (Jack LaRue), capturing his quarry with a variety of slapsticky subterfuges. Released in the US by PRC Pictures, The Gang's All Here remains one of Jack Buchanan's best-loved vehicles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Buchanan, Googie Withers, (more)
- 1939
An embarrassed headwaiter provides the basis for this classical tale set in pre-war Russia. He conceals his lowly profession from his daughter who eventually discovers the truth. Soon after, the father discovers that his daughter has been having sex with a wealthy businessman in one of the restaurant's private salons in exchange for the money she needs to buy the restaurant. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary Maguire, Otto Kruger, (more)
