Hannelore Schroth Movies

In another 1983 cinematic projection into the future like Pankow 95, director Richard Blank portrays a cold and oppressive German world where a woman is picked up and put into an asylum. The practice in the asylum is to electrocute prisoners in a large restaurant-type setting -- and since the woman has no desire to be publicly zapped into oblivion, she takes up with a guard who has fallen in love with her and the two escape. While away, they travel to various places, and the woman continues to look for her brother -- whom she finds but then sees him apparently commit suicide. All of this, and the rest of the film, move forward by inches at a time, creating a dull effect that dims the story, a story that leaves more than one question mark as to its meaning or purpose. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In the years immediately following World War II, chaos and violence touched the lives of many Germans. In this story, Anna (Pola Kinski) has been damaged by some such incident. Nonetheless, she is able to fall in love with a German-born American member of the Occupation Forces, Colonel Stone (Mel Ferrer). Later, she marries Alfons Eichmayr, and finds her life narrowing unbearably. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This documentary-styled drama deals with the mile-long section of Hamburg, Germany know as the Reeperbahn. The feature depicts 48 hours in the life of the police at the Davidswache station. Wolfgang Kieling plays Sergeant Glantz, just one of the officers who must deal with the drugs, gangs, clip joints, bars, and prostitution that made the area famous. Guenther Ungeheuer plays the career criminal Schriever, with Juergen Draeger as the juvenile delinquent who threatens to follow Schriever's lead. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Produced in Germany, this is the story of a young mixed-race man struggling to find his place in West German society of the 1960's. Willy (Hubert Persicke) is the illegitimate child of an African-American G.I. of the Allied occupation forces and a young German woman, Klara (Hannelore Schroth). His mother raises him alone after his father returns to the United States. After graduation from high school, he attempts to find and keep a job. Willy and his mother must face the prejudices of their small town, and eventually she encourages him to pursue a better life in Hamburg, hoping that the impersonal setting of a large city might provide him better opportunities. Director and producer Allan A. Bruckantz is to be commended for his willingness to tackle the subject of racial prejudice in the racially hostile environment of post-war Germany, but unfortunately he does not do his subject matter the justice it deserves. The acting is too thin to be believable and is further hampered by insufficient dubbing. The subject is handled with too little imagination, lack of sufficient depth, and fails to evoke any real self-exploration in the viewers. ~ Lucinda Ramsey, 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

The enduring popularity of German film star Hans Albers helped to make Vor Sonnenuntergang a success. Based on a play by Gerhardt Hauptmann, the film details a bittersweet May-December romance between ageing Mathias Clausen (Albers) and young, beautiful Inken Peters (Annemarie Dueringer). Though there were a few American observers who felt uncomfortable during the romantic scenes, German audiences ate them up like strudel. In his later performances, Hans Alber was inclined to hamminess, and this film is no exception; still, he is quite convincing in the film's more dramatic passages. Released in English-speaking countries as Before Sundown, Von Sonnenuntergang was the sole German entry at the 1956 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Die Wunderschoene Galathee restages the legend of Pygmalion in turn-of-the-century Vienna. Amorous sculptor Victor (Viktor de Kowa) selects shopgirl Leni (Hannelore Schroth) as his model. Once his masterpiece is completed, Victor abandons Leni--only to find himself romantically attached to the statue made in her likeness. Giving up such delectable romantic partners as a countess (Margarete Haagen) and actress Victoria (Gisela Schmidting), Victor seeks out and rediscovers Leni, whom he now realizes is the true love of his life. Slow going during the "serious" scenes, Die Wunderschoene Galathee truly comes to life during its musical highlights, especially those involving third-billed Willy Fritsch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Had it ever been released in the U.S., the Austrian Lambert Fuchlt sich Bedroht would have been retitled Lamber is Threatened. The film is what could be described as an existential murder yarn. The main character, played by Leopold Rudolph, kills a man out of revenge. Upon learning that no one really knew his victim, he assumes the dead man's identity. It takes an out-of-town private eye to get the facts straight and see that justice is done. The detective is played by Curd Juergens, soon to gain worldwide fame as Curt Jurgens. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Unter den Bruecken (Under the Bridge) was German filmmaker Helmut Kautner's final film under the aegis of the Third Reich. Heavily influenced by such prewar French directors as Vigo and Carne, the film is set amongst the barge workers of the River Havel. Refreshingly free of political propaganda, the story concentrates on a romance between a bargee (Carl Raddatz) and a waterfront lass (Hannelore Schrott). Unter den Bruecken was given its premiere in Stockholm in late 1946, then totally disappeared from view. Rediscovered some 30 years later, the film was hailed by critics as a sensitive depiction of old-world sentimentality at odds with the harshness of modern reality. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Der Gouverneur is based on The Flag, a play by Otto Emmerich Groh. German film favorite Brigitte Horney stars as Maria, the wife of straight-arrow, corruption-fighting General Werkonen (Willy Birgel). Though she admires and respects her husband, Maria is not in love with Werkonen, and before long is embroiled in an affair with the general's adjutant, Lt. Runeberg (Ernest von Klipstein). When Werkonen finds out what's been going on, the stage is set for a spectacular -- but futile -- gesture of self-sacrifice. The film was directed by Russia's Victor Tourjansky, who remained in Germany throughout WWII, seemingly impervious to the country's many political upheavals. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide