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

Popular Austrian operetta star Marika Rockk does not disappoint her fans in Das Kind der Donau. Though a bit long in tooth for her role, Rockk is reasonably convincing as Marika, the daughter of Danube boatmaster Christof Josef Egger. While singing to herself one day, Marika is discovered by a journalist Karl Straup who is so entranced by her beauty and talent that he puts up his own money to build an opera company around her. A few minor complications later, Marika and the journalist head for the altar. It was still possible to pull off a hackneyed plot like this one in 1950, especially with the stunning Marika Rockk in the lead. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the popular Franz Werfel novel, Der Vernuntreute Himmel (The Embezzled Heaven) was deftly directed with both eyes on the box office by operetta specialist Ernst Marischka. Annie Rosar heads the cast as the naively pious Aunt Teta, who is certain that she will be assured a place in heaven by performing one good deed. That deed is to bestow her life savings upon her spoiled-rotten nephew Mojmir (Kurt Meisel) so that he may be able to afford to study for the priesthood. Of course, Mojmir has no such intentions, but he's certainly not above taking Aunt Teta's money. The melodramatic machinations of the storyline are largely forgotten during the film's spectacular climax, largely shot on location inside the Vatican. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Eva (Susi Nicolette) is a Viennese shopgirl who inherits "Paradise." More specifically, she falls heir to a resort hotel that has definitely seen better days. Despite the opposition of a rival female hotelier (who, of course, holds all the aces legally and financially), Eva vows to renovate her hotel and make it a winning proposition. This extends to hiring "bathing beauties" (who are neither good-looking nor swim) as waitresses and engaging the services of a seedy jazz band. In true comic-opera fashion, goodness prevails. Eva Erbt das Paradies bears faint echoes of all those hokey prewar Viennese musicals, with a soupcon of postwar realism. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This Hungarian musical comedy (English title: Spring Parade) was produced by Joseph Pasternak, who later remade the picture in Hollywood as a Deanna Durbin vehicle. The original 1934 version stars Franciska Gaal as a Hungarian serving girl who heads to Vienna to visit a relative. Stopping over at an outdoor carnival, Gaal is told by a fortune teller that she will enjoy a happy marriage with a handsome and wealthy stranger. Later on, she finds herself at a fancy dress ball, where a good-looking aristocrat, assuming that our heroine is a countess masquerading as a peasant, falls in love with her. Delighted that the fortune-teller's prophecy seems to be coming true, Gaal finds herself in a dilemma when she falls in love with poverty-stricken soldier Wolf Albach Retty. But things turn out OK when Retty, the regimental drummer, composes a hit song which brings him fame and fortune, thereby neatly fulfilling that prophecy. ~ Hal Erickson, 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

Felix Bressart, later one of the most delightful members of the Ernst Lubitsch "stock company," plays the title character in the Austrian comedy Hirsekorn Greift Ein (Hirsekorn Does Something About It). It's a typical worm-turns affair, as a mild-mannered provincial actor ends up working as a chauffeur for a scatterbrained female novelist. Slapstick is the order of the day, except in the scenes involving heroine Charlotte Susa. Guiding the actors through their paces was Rudolf Bernauer, a stage actor-manager of vast experience. Critics in 1931 felt that Hirsekorn Greift Ein was too thin to be stretched to 90 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Franciska "Francy" Gall was still delightfully in her "gamine" mode when she starred in Kleine Mutti (Little Mommy). The star plays a schoolgirl who runs into nothing but trouble when she finds an abandoned baby on the steps of an orphanage. Almost immediately, Gaal is presumed to be the mother of the child, which earns her instant dismissal from her school. Penniless, she takes a room in a fancy hotel, intending to beat the bill at the end of the week, giving her enough time to find a proper home for the baby. The hotel doctor, assuming Gaal is rich, chastises the girl for her "selfishness" in failing to care for the infant herself and forces her to leave with the kid in tow. Forced to take a job selling vacuum cleaners, our heroine runs into more problems at the home of a rich banker, who huffily assumes that she is his son's mistress?and on it goes until the happy ending, which comes as much of a relief to Gaal as to the audience. Kleine Mutti was directed by Herman Kosterlitz, who as "Henry Koster" directed several Deanna Durbin pictures in the late 1930s-early 1940s (many of which owed a great deal to Kosterlitz' earlier Francy Gaal vehicles). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though its title translates to Men at Dangerous Age, Maenner im Gefaherlichen Alter is a harmless romantic comedy. Liselotte Pulver plays a grown-up orphan girl named Anna, who moves in with her foster father, a famous actor named Franz Volker (Hans Soehnker). A lifelong bachelor, Volker isn't quite prepared for the girlish ebullience of his new "daughter." Eventually, and much against his better judgement, the fortysomething Volker falls in love with the girl. Some of the biggest laughs are provided by Guenther Jerschke as Volker's male secretary, the appropriately named Butzinsky. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Nach dem Sturm (After the Storm) is based on a story by the prolific Carl Zuckmeyer. Shortly after VE day, Austrian girl Barbara von Trentini (Marte Harrell) falls in love with American occupation soldier Maj. Michael Sinclair (Nicholas Stuart). Their romance is fiercely opposed by both Barbara's family and Sinclair's superiors, but the lovers pay no heed to the many nay-sayers. Besides, they've already selected "their song," a popular ballad called "Somewhere, Some Time." Except for the timeliness of the film's postwar setting, Nach dem Sturm is really nothing new or innovational. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This Austrian family film is based on a book by Erich Kastner, of Emil and the Detectives fame. Punktchen (Sabine Eggerth) and Anton (Peter Feldt) are best friends, despite the fact that Punktchen's family is rich while Anton's is poor. Neglected by her parents, Puntchken devotes her time to helping Anton provide for his ailing mother. Puntchken's folks disapprove of this set-up until Anton prevents their home from being robbed. Told from the children's point of view, Punktchen and Anton nonetheless contains ample entertainment value for grownups. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide