Annie Rosar Movies

An odd, incompatible analogy to an ancient legend seems to be the basis for this conventional wartime drama by director Edwin Zbonek. In the legend, an elderly Greek couple were the only people on earth to provide hospitality to the god Jupiter, and he was so appreciative that he granted them one wish -- which was that they be allowed to die together. The god then turns them into two trees whose branches symbolically intertwine. In this drama set in 1944 on a Greek mountainside, Greek partisans are fighting German troops when an elderly couple agrees to give a desperate partisan refuge. They go so far as to protect him from German troops who search their home but come up empty-handed. When the shoe is on the other foot and two German soldiers seek asylum with the same couple, they also shelter them. The results turn out to parallel the "letter" but not the spirit of the legend. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This was popular tenor Mario Lanza's last film before he died in Rome of a heart attack at the age of thirty-eight. The story follows the career and love interest of opera star Tonio Costa (Lanza), who is careless in regard to his professional engagements. Being more than a little irresponsible, he is his own worst enemy when it comes to his singing future. That is true until he meets a deaf woman, Christa (Johanna von Koczian), and falls in love with her. She turns his life around, as he dedicates himself to performing all he can in order to raise the needed funds to help her to hear again. Several highlights from well-known operas are included in the performance segments of the story, showing to full effect Lanza's stunning tenor voice. First thrown into the spotlight in the 1958 film The Student Prince, Lanza's performance in films got him unjustly banned from the stage at the Metropolitan Opera. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Gellebte Corinna (Beloved Corinna) was adapted from a novel by Robert Pilchowski. The title character is played by Swiss leading lady Elizabeth Mueller, whose second film this was. An impressionable country girl, Corinna follows her urban lover (Hans Soehnker) to the Big City, only to discover that he is already married. Her disillusionment is dissipated when it develops that the supposedly caddish Romeo is actually sincere in his affections for her, and that his wife is the real villain of the piece. Surprisingly old-fashioned in its approach, Gellebte Corinna nonetheless struck a responsive chord with its target audience. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Der Pfarrer von Kirchfield (The Parson of Kirchfield) is based on the popular German "folk play" by Ludwig Anzengruber. Bearing a strong resemblance to several other stories -- notably The Atonement of Gosta Berling -- the film stars Claus Holm in the title role. Holm's spotless reputation as village priest is compromised when he befriends unwed mother Anna Birkmaler (Ulla Jacobsson). Throwing caution to the winds, the priest falls in love with the "soiled" but basically decent Anna. Ultimately, however, he realizes that his covenant with God is stronger than his carnal desires. Previously filmed in 1930, Der Pfarrer von Kirchfield was challenged at the box-office in 1955 by an Austrian version of the same Anzengruber play. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Despite its frivolous title, Eine Frau Genuegt Nicht? (One Woman Is Not Enough?) is a complicated romantic drama. Ernst Vossberg (Hans Soehnker) is married to Maria (Hilde Krahl), but their romance has soured and they haven't lived together in years. When Ernst's current girlfriend Renate (Helaine Bei) becomes pregnant, he intends to marry her. Unfortunately, Maria isn't willing to give him up just yet. Refusing to take sides through most of the proceedings, the film is sympathetic to the individual plights of all three protagonists. It is a shame, then, that the story is resolved in a tawdry, melodramatic fashion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gene Kelly tackles a rare non-singing or dancing role in this post-war drama. Kelly plays Capt. Jeff Eliot, whose life was saved during World War II when a German family rescued him after his plane was shot down over Munich. In 1948, Eliot travels to Germany to thank the Lehrt Family for their kindness, only to discover that they were killed during an air raid by U.S. forces near the end of the war. The only survivor was the family's oldest daughter, Wilhelmina (Pier Angeli), who works as a barmaid in a sleazy nightclub and has developed a bitter hatred of Americans. Eliot develops an infatuation for this tragic woman and spends enough time at the club to become familiar with Heisemann (Claus Clausen), a comic at the club who has a dark secret life. Heisemann is also a gold smuggler who is part of an underground Nazi movement that hopes to overthrow the post-war government and re-launch the Third Reich. When Eliot tells his superiors what he's discovered, he's ordered to continue his romance with Wilhelmina as a cover while he learns more about Heisemann's smuggling operations. The Devil Makes Three was one of several films MGM made in Europe to take advantage of frozen funds that the main office in Hollywood could not transport in cash but could use to finance production; another film produced under this scheme was one of Kelly's pet projects, the performance film Invitation to the Dance. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

City Park in Vienna is where a poverty-stricken woman (Annie Rosar) rents lawn chairs to the more affluent. It is also the location that seven-year-old runaway, played by Peter Czieke, has chosen as a hiding place. When the boy's divorce-bound parents come searching for him, the woman in the park helps to smooth everyone's emotional path. Originally titled Stadtpark, City Park was based on a stage play by Hans Schubert. Virtually the entire cast of the original Volkstheatre production of the Schubert play was carried over to the film version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this Cold War spy classic, Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten), a third-rate American pulp novelist, arrives in postwar Vienna, where he has been promised a job by his old friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles). Upon his arrival, Martins discovers that Lime has been killed in a traffic accident, and that his funeral is taking place immediately. At the graveside, Martins meets outwardly affable Major Calloway (Trevor Howard) and actress Anna Schmidt (Alida Valli), who is weeping copiously. When Calloway tells Martins that the late Harry Lime was a thief and murderer, the loyal Martins is at first outraged. Gradually, he discovers not only that Calloway was right but also that the man lying in the coffin in the film's early scenes was not Harry Lime at all--and that Lime is still very much alive (he was the mysterious "third man" at the scene of the fatal accident). Thus the stage is set for the movie's famous climactic confrontation in the sewers of Vienna--and the even more famous final shot, in which Martins pays emotionally for doing "the right thing." Written by Graham Greene, The Third Man is an essential classic, made even more so by the insistent zither music of Anton Karas. The film is currently available in both an American and British release version; the American print, with an introduction by Joseph Cotten, is slightly shorter than the British version, which is narrated by director Carol Reed. Nominated for several Academy Awards, The Third Man won Best Cinematography for Robert Krasker. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Little Melody from Vienna (Kleine Melodie aus Wien) focuses on the plight of war widow Maria Andergast. Having lost her home, the heroine is amenable to the suggestion that she rent two rooms in the home of professor Paul Hoerbiger. At first, the prof resents the intrusion of the widow into his well-ordered existence. Eventually, and right on cue, he weakens his resolve and falls in love with his pretty tenant. All of this is set to the lilting music of Robert Stolz, including such deathless compositions as "Three Brownies". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide