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- 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)
- 1961
Guy Green's social drama stars Stuart Whitman as the title character, a man whose unhealthy childhood has left him bewildered by sex. After an affair with a woman his own age ends badly, Mark finds himself increasingly drawn to young girls, who he feels do not pose the same threat of emasculation that adult women do. When he is charged with kidnapping a ten-year-old girl in order to molest her, his conviction results in a three-year prison sentence. With the help of Dr. Edmund McNally (Rod Steiger), a prison psychiatrist, Mark comes to terms with his urges and is released from prison a changed man. Soon after, he gets engaged to Ruth Leighton (Maria Schell), a widow with a ten-year-old daughter of her own. After Mark is seen in the vicinity of a recent molestation incident, a journalist digs into his background and his past is brought to light, destroying not only his relationship with Ruth but his fledgling career as well. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Schell, Stuart Whitman, (more)
- 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)
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)
- 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
- 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
- 1959
Gary Cooper plays a frontier doctor with a checkered past who works in a rowdy Montana mining camp. Cooper falls in love with Maria Schell, a young Swiss girl whom he has treated for shock after she was the victim of a holdup. He finances Schell's grubstake, which makes her rich. When Schell's unscrupulous partner Karl Malden tries to have his way with the girl, Cooper kills Malden. Sentenced to an immediate hanging, Cooper is saved when Schell offers to give the town her valuable mine. A surprise hit in 1959, The Hanging Tree was based on an award-winning novel by Dorothy M. Johnson. The film not only yielded a hit theme song by Mack David and Jerry Livingston, but also served as the film debut of George C. Scott, who plays Cooper's doctor predecessor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Cooper, 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)
- 1958
A Life is based on a novel by Guy De Mauppasant. Maria Schell plays Jeanne, who enters into a loveless marriage with impoverished Julien (Christian Marquand). Having married Jeanne only for her money, Julien has no qualms about carrying on an affair with Gilberte (Antonella Lualdi), the family maid. Even after Gilberte gives birth to Julien's child, Jeanne forgives her husband, but he fails to learn his lesson and suffers spectacularly as a result. The physical and psychological isolation of the long-suffering heroine is emphasized by director Alexandre Astruc's decision to film Un Vie almost exclusively in a remote, sterile country mansion. Un Vie was released in the U.S. as End of Desire. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Schell, Christian Marquand, (more)
- 1958
Dostoyevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov is given a Hollywood screen treatment by producer Pandro S. Berman and director Richard Brooks. Yul Brynner plays Dmitri Karamazov, a callous Russian officer who cuckolds his domineering father (Lee J. Cobb) with the old man's mistress Grushenka (Maria Schell). Richard Basehart is Dmitri's intellectual brother Ivan, while William Shatner is the pious Alexey Karamazov; both men eventually enjoy the attentions of the willing Grushenka. The Karamazovs' half-brother is Smedyakov (Albert Salmi), an epileptic whose purpose in the story is clarified after the family patriarch's murder. It is now part of Hollywood folklore that Marilyn Monroe fought long and hard to be cast as the enigmatic Grushenka. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yul Brynner, Maria Schell, (more)
Shy young Marcelo Mastroianni ambles across a bridge one evening, where he meets a strange but alluring girl (Maria Schell) who is awaiting her lover. This chance acquaintance is the first strand in a complex web entrapping Mastroianni in a dreamlike world of flashbacks, flashforwards and false visions. The girl, suspecting that her lover is staying at a nearby hotel, asks Mastroianni to deliver a note to the errant swain. He agrees--then destroys the note, setting the plot in motion. Updated from a 19th century story by Dostoyevsky, White Nights (Le Notti Bianche) was later refilmed by Robert Bresson as Four Nights of a Dreamer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marcello Mastroianni, Maria Schell, (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)
- 1956
West Germany's entry in the 1957 Cannes Film Festival was this cinemadaptation of the Gerhardt Hauptman play Rose Bernd. The title character, played by Maria Schell, is a servant girl on a remote farm. Sexually assaulted by both her employer and a coworker, Rose later bears a child, who die soon afterward. After nearly two hours of unrelieved misery, Rose finally finds happiness in the arms of a longtime admirer (where has he been for the past 12 reels?) Rose Bernd (aka The Sins of Rose Bernd) received a smattering of American showings thanks to the drawing power of star Maria Schell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Schell, Raf Vallone, (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)
Showing no signs of slowing down in his 70th year, Sacha Guitry served as director and writer of the lavish historical epic Napoleon, and also costarred as Talleyrand. It is now hard to assess the quality of the film, since most American prints are severely edited, and the color photography appallingly washed out. Reviewers in 1955 admired the effort that went into this $1,800,000 production, but complained that the viewer left the film with no deeper understanding of Napoleon Bonaparte than the viewer had had when coming in. Daniel Gelin poses impressively as the young Bonaparte, registering emotion only when things go wrong in his conquest of Europe, while Raymond Pellegrin is somewhat better as the older, more jaded Napoleon (the transition between the two actors is handled in a near-comic fashion). The Revolution is reduced to a few fleeting scenes, while the rest of the film is devoted to political infighting and betrayal. The huge supporting cast includes Michele Morgan as Josephine and Lana Marconi and Dany Robin, respectively, as Napoleon's mistresses Waleska and Desiree. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Raymond Pellegrin, Daniel Gélin, (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)
- 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
- 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
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)
- 1953
Heart of the Matter is a faithful if somewhat austere adaptation of the same-named novel by Graham Greene. Set in Sierra Leone during WW II, the film stars Trevor Howard as assistant police commissioner Scobie. While his wife Louise (Elizabeth Allan) is away on vacation, Scobie falls in love with Helen (Maria Schell), the widow of a U-boat victim. Scobie would like to get a divorce from his wife, and she from him, but their Catholicism prevents not only this break but Scobie's planned remarriage to Helen. In despair, Scobie chooses a desperate means of solving his dilemma--which only furthers to exacerbate the religious quandary in which everyone finds themselves. Posing several ethical questions throughout its 105 minutes, Heart of the Matter wisely allows the viewers to come up with their own answers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Trevor Howard, Elizabeth Allan, (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
