Maria Schell Movies
The older sister of actor Maximillian Schell, Viennese-born leading lady Maria Schell was one of four children born to a Swiss author and Austrian actress. Billed as Gritli Schell, Maria Schell made her screen debut at 16 in the Swiss-filmed Steibruch; it would be six years before she'd appear before the cameras again, in 1948's Der Engel Mit der Posaune. This last-named Austro-German production was simultaneously filmed in an English-language version, Angel With a Trumpet, which brought Schell to the attention of international filmgoers. In 1954, she won a Cannes Film Festival award for her enigmatic portrayal of a German nurse imprisoned in wartime Yugoslavia in The Last Bridge; two years later, she claimed a Venice Film Festival prize for her work in Gervaise (1956). Schell's American film career consisted of starring roles in The Brothers Karamazov (1958, as Grushenka), the Gary Cooper vehicle The Hanging Tree (1959), and the remake of Edna Ferber's Cimarron (1961). Dissatisfied with the diminishing value of the characters she was called upon to play, Maria Schell retired in 1963, but made a comeback in character roles five years later; among these later assignments was her fleeting appearance as a Kryptonian judge in Superman: The Movie (1978) and her portrayal of Albert Speer's mother in the made-for-TV Inside the Third Reich. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1984
Much of 1919 takes place in 1984, but the spectre of that year looms large over the proceedings. Paul Scofield and Maria Schell play two of the surviving patients of Sigmund Freud. Currently residing in the US, Schell happens to see Scofield being interviewed on a TV show. She decides to seek her fellow patient out and compare notes. As they recall their long-ago therapy, the film fades back to the past, with Colin Firth and Claire Higgins playing, respectively, the younger Scofield and Schell. Freud himself is never seen, though his voice is heard (courtesy of actor Frank Finlay). Concluding that Freud wasn't all that he was cracked up to be, Scofield and Schell emerge from their nostalgia session with a mutual affection and attraction. The first dramatic effort of documentary filmmaker Hugh Brody (whose recreation of Times Past is succinct and remarkably accurance), 1919 was originally a coproduction of Britain's Channel Four and the British Film Institute. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Scofield, Maria Schell, (more)
- 1969
Jesus Franco's campy women's prison film, though both stereotypical and rare to find in its original version, is worthwhile for genre devotees primarily due to an outstanding cast. Mercedes McCambridge is unintentionally hilarious as sadistic lesbian warden Thelma Diaz, spitting tacky dialogue with exuberant venom in a performance so overbearing that it verges on classic. The plot is standard for the genre, as three women (Maria Rohm, Elisa Montes, Luciana Paluzzi) are sentenced to an island prison off the Panamanian coast, only to encounter torture, rape, and lesbianism. When sympathetic Warden Caroll (Maria Schell) replaces Diaz, the prisoners assume that conditions will improve, but their agony only worsens until they decide to escape. Rosalba Neri co-stars, and Herbert Lom runs the corrupt men's prison nearby. 99 Mujeres was heavily censored in various prints, with versions running anywhere between 70 and 108 minutes. Edits running 84, 86, and 94 minutes are most commonly available. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Schell, Mercedes McCambridge, (more)
- 1960
This drama provides an account of an honorable German soldier during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. A German soldier is filled with guilt when he kills a French officer. After killing him, he goes through the officer's clothing and learns his name. A short time later, he is wandering through a French village and see's the dead officer's name on a door. He goes there and meets the man's mother and daughter. They do not know that he is dead. The German resembles the woman's son and so offers him hospitality. He stays in the home and soon falls in love with the daughter. He finally confides the truth to her; she requests that he refrain from telling the mother who is dying. Just before the woman passes on, the daughter convinces the German to don the dead officer's uniform to comfort her mother. Later he goes outside still wearing it. He is instantly shot by Prussian troops. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1954
Maria Schell, who attained international stardom with her performance in The Last Bridge, essays the title role in Angelika. Based on a popular radio serial, the story revolves around the incurably ill daughter of wealthy Herr Alberti (Carl Wery). Angelika falls in love with her doctor, a young man named Holl (Dieter Borsche), who marries the girl out of pity. Only after developing a miracle serum that will save Angelika's life does Dr. Holl truly fall in love with her. The couple's future happiness is threatened by the presence of Holl's disgruntled fiancee Helga (Heidemaire Hatheyeer). Angelika was scripted by Thea von Harbou, best known for her 1920s and 1930s collaborations with her ex-husband, director Fritz Lang. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Schell, Heidemarie Hatheyer, (more)
- 1954
In this German drama, a mediocre actress is quite happy to have a steady stream of bit movie roles. Unfortunately, an egocentric director sees her and vows to make her a star whether she wants to be one or not. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1960
The petty tyrannies and misunderstandings that lead to war are the focus of this conventional, multi-national action film by Horst Haechler. Clements (Cliff Robertson) is a diver who moves to Kalymnos, an area of rumbling social unrest, with the idea of sponge diving for a living. He has enough money to buy a boat and get started but his plans are ruined when Mana (Maria Schell) steals his capital. Clements chases Mana to Kuluri where a despot named Psarathanas (Cameron Mitchell) keeps everyone under his heavy hand by means of terror and intimidation. Inevitably, Clements and Psarathanas clash while at the same time, he and Mana fall in love. As the social situation worsens, the would-be lovers plan to make their escape. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Schell, Cliff Robertson, (more)
- 1979
Originally made for television as a sequel to the classic Lilies of the Field, this film concerns an ex-soldier turned handyman (Billy Dee Williams) who returns to the Arizona chapel he built earlier. Encouraged by five nuns, he builds both an orphanage and a small school. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billy Dee Williams, Maria Schell, (more)
The Oklahoma land rush of 1889 provides the starting point for this western drama, based on a novel by Edna Ferber. Yancey Cravat (Glenn Ford) is an impulsive, short-fused cowboy who has married an immigrant woman, Sabra (Maria Schell). Together, Yancey and Sabra claim a homestead, and Yancey starts a newspaper. While he doesn't have much of a head for business, Sabra does, and when she takes greater control of the paper, it grows into a profitable and influential journal. Eventually, Yancey becomes a well-recognized figure, and it's suggested that he run for public office. However, Yancey finds himself unable to support legislation that would steal more land and mineral rights away from the Native Americans who first settled the land. Cimarron was previously filmed in 1931; this version reduced the role of stereotyped black characters and has Native American actors playing the "Indians," including Eddie and Dawn Little Sky. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Glenn Ford, Maria Schell, (more)
- 1959
Schinderhannes is the legendary Robin Hood of Germany, a thief who did not focus on robbing from the rich but on defeating them, and battling Napoleon at the same time. This routine but dressed-up drama interprets his story. Popular German star Curt Juergens plays the title role with a certain amount of reserve and as in Robin Hood, he also has a Maid Marion, Julchen (Maria Schell). Schinderhannes' mission is to convert others to his cause, which introduces not only a humble shoemaker (Joseph Offenbach) and a blacksmith (Paul Esser), but also Carl von Cleve-Boost (Christian Wolff), an aristocratic nobleman who turns tail on his class and joins the rebels. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Schell, Christian Wolff, (more)
- 1979
The intertwined lives of people of both Polish and German extraction who live on the pre-World War II border between the two countries are explored in this drama. Valeska is the Polish/German matriarch of a family living on the German side of the border. Her son is involved with the Hitler youth, but nonetheless keeps secret the presence on family land of a Jew who is hiding from the authorities. When the son inadvertently kills a soldier to prevent his sister from being raped, he runs away after borrowing money from the Jewish man. When soldiers come to the family's door looking for the missing soldier who had been billeted there, the Jewish man commits suicide. In another episode, one of the family's daughters marries a German soldier in a ceremony presided over by a Polish priest. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Schell, Erland Josephson, (more)
- 1954
The winner of the International Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Die Leitze Bruecke (The Last Bridge) was the most financially successful postwar effort of its co-director, veteran German filmmaker Helmut Kauetner. Filmed in a manner resembling Italian neorealism, the story concerns a German lady doctor, played by Maria Schell. While serving in WW II, Maria is captured by Yugoslavian partisans. Despite her distaste for her captors, she nonetheless tends to their wounded. As the film progresses, Maria realizes that people are people no matter what the color of their uniform. None of this altruism matters, however, when she voluntarily crosses "the last bridge," which, symbolically, is her bridge to the Next World. Like the film itself, Maria Schell won the Cannes Film Festival award; equally impressive is future director Bernhard Wicki as the partisan leader. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Schell, Bernhard Wicki, (more)
- 1955
When director Robert Siodmak filmed a German-language version of the Gerhardt Hauptmann play Die Ratten he simultaneously shot an English version of the same film with the same cast, which would later be released in Australia as The Rats. No, this isn't a Willard-style horror film. Maria Schell stars as an East German girl anxious to get a fake passport to the West. To raise the necessary funds, she sells her illegitimate baby to another woman (Barbara Rush), who hopes that the child will bring her closer to her husband. There are rats scampering on the set and chewing up prop food, but the actual "rats" of the title are of the human variety--notably the petty crook (Curt Jurgens) who impregnates Ms. Schell in the first place. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Schell, Heidemarie Hatheyer, (more)
In this German-language romantic drama, Elisabeth (Maria Schell) tries to make it to her husband's (O.W. Fischer) performance of Beethoven pieces, but arrives late, only to walk in on the solo violinist, Michael (Philip Dorn). She immediately falls in love, and Michael returns the feeling when he later meets Elisabeth face-to-face. Soon, Elisabeth must make a tough decision in a love triangle in which she is the only aware party. ~ Jonathan Frey, All Movie Guide
- 1959
Filmed in Germany, Duel in the Forest is set in the 18th century. Feudal lords regularly oppress the German peasantry, taxing them into starvation. From out of the hills rides a band of highway robbers, acting as Teutonic Robin Hoods, to steal from the haves for the benefit of the have-nots. Duel in the Forest is so obscure that it virtually never appears in the official credits of its stars Curt Jurgens and Maria Schell. The film did not receive an American release until it was sold to television in the early 1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
- NR
French New Wave director Claude Chabrol steps away from his usual style of mysteries and psychological dramas for the sex comedy Folies Bourgeoises, based on the novel Le Malheur Fou by Lucie Faure. Bruce Dern is the American writer William Brandels and Stephane Audran is his French socialite wife, Claire Brandels. The story follows the confusion of the infidelities of the wealthy upper class. Also starring Ann-Margret and Maria Schell. This film was also released in an English-language dubbed version titled The Twist. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Dern, Stéphane Audran, (more)
Emile Zola's obscure novel entitled "L'Assommoir" has been made into several films. This is one of the best. In this two hour movie an entire mini-series worth of problems have been compressed about a young woman to whom life has dealt hard blows. Set in the 19th-century, this woman deals with an alcoholic husband while doing everything within her power to keep the family together. An incredibly depressing movie in which the protagonist keeps on trying no matter what besets her, the performances are creditable and the direction superb. Self-involved characters give viewers no one to cheer for, but this movie received multiple awards, ranging from Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival to an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film. The music was composed by Georges Auric. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Schell, François Perier, (more)
- 1955
The popularity of Maria Schell continued on its upward course via the 1955 drama Herr Ueber Leben und Todd (Master Over Life and Death). Schell plays Barbara Bertram, whose life is thrown into turmoil when she gives birth to a mentally defective child. Her somewhat fascistic doctor husband George (Wilhelm Borchert) is all for "euthanizing" the unfortunate infant. Barbara's shock at her husband's attitude virtually forces her into the arms of the more sympathetic -- and handsomer -- doctor Daniel Karentis (Ivan Desny). The plot takes a unexpected twist when one of the principal characters dies under mysterious circumstances. Herr Ueber Leben und Todd is based on a novel by Zuckmayer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Schell, Ivan Desny, (more)
- 1962
This light comedy concerns psychiatrist Lilli Koenig (Maria Schell). Her practice revolves around idle, wealthy women with too much time on their hands who imagine they are suffering from a bevy of complexes. She catches the eye of fashion-photographer Martin Bohlen (Paul Hubschmidt), who longs to zoom in on her with more than just his camera lens. In the darkroom of his lovestruck mind, he develops a scheme to get near the doctor by pretending to suffer from a variety of ailments. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Schell, Paul Hubschmid, (more)
- 1982
The two-part TV movie Inside the Third Reich was based on the extraordinary revelatory (if self-serving) autobiographical book by Albert Speer. Played herein by Rutger Hauer, Speer is a young man of privilege in pre-Hitler Germany who happens to be a brilliant architect. Becoming a member of Hitler's inner circle, Speer is appointed the Nazi regime's master builder. According to this film, Speer is egomaniacal and ambitious, but somewhat blinded to the inherent evils of Nazism. Though he'd later claim to be ignorant of Hitler's horrific policies aimed at the Jews, he was certainly aware of the use of Jewish prisoners as slave labor: as Germany's armaments minister during World War II, Speer exploited these enslaved unfortunates as much as anyone, if not more so. The cast includes Derek Jacobi as Hitler, Blythe Danner as Speer's wife Margarethe, John Gielgud as Speer's father, Ian Holm as Goebbels, Maurice Roeves as Hess, and George Murcell as Goering. Originally running 5 hours, Inside the Third Reich was filmed in Munich; it was first telecast on May 9 and 10, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1979
- R
The West German Just a Gigolo has little to do with the popular song of the same name. Its central character, played by David Bowie, is a World War I-era Prussian aristocrat. Living by his wits throughout Europe, Bowie uses his sexual prowess with beautiful women (and powerful men) to advance himself. The leering lothario eventually comes to grief in the decadent Berlin of the 1920s. We don't know how he did it, but director David Hemmings managed to corral some of the most stellar sex goddesses in film history to play cameos in Just a Gigolo: Kim Novak, Maria Schell, and even Marlene Dietrich. The film was originally released as Schoner Gigolo, Armer Gigolo. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Bowie, Sydne Rome, (more)
