Ernst Stahl-Nachbaur Movies

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, Rovi

Hasenklein was based on a stage play by Hans Mahner-Mons. Arriving in the big city to visit his daughter, provincial dressmaker Jacob Tiedke finds himself attending a political meeting. Through a series of hilarious misunderstandings, our hero is elected a member of Parliament then is promoted to the Presidency. Tiedke wants nothing to do with all this, but the more he tries to disqualify himself, the more his followers are convinced that he's a legislative genius. After using his political clout to smooth the romantic path for his daughter and her sweetheart, Tiedke blissfully returns to the small-town dress shop whence he came. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Fritz Lang's classic early talkie crime melodrama is set in 1931 Berlin. The police are anxious to capture an elusive child murderer (Peter Lorre), and they begin rounding up every criminal in town. The underworld leaders decide to take the heat off their activities by catching the child killer themselves. Once the killer is fingered, he is marked with the letter "M" chalked on his back. He is tracked down and captured by the combined forces of the Berlin criminal community, who put him on trial for his life in a kangaroo court. The killer pleads for mercy, whining that he can't control his homicidal instincts. The police close in and rescue the killer from the underworld so that he can stand trial again in "respectable" circumstances. Some prints of the film end with a caution to the audience to watch after their children more carefully. Filmed in Germany, M was the film that solidified Fritz Lang's reputation with American audiences, and it also made a star out of Peter Lorre (previously a specialist in comedy roles!). M was remade by Hollywood in 1951, with David Wayne giving a serviceable performance as the killer. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The 1930 Hollywood feature Laughter, which starred Nancy Carroll and Fredric March, was also lensed in two foreign-language versions. Both the German Die Manner um Lucie and the French Rive Gauche were directed by Alexander Korda. Liane Haid, Walter Rilla and Oskar Karlweis star in this Teutonic spin on the original Harry D'Arrast-Douglas Doty screenplay (D'Arrast also directed the English-language Laughter). Liane assumes the Nancy Carroll role as a Follies dancer who marries likeable millionaire Karlweis. He denies her nothing, not even an extramarital fling with composer Rilla. The complications that follow are both sophisticated and logical, with the characters behaving like human beings rather than French-farce stick figures. We'll let the auteur theorists argue over whether Alexander Korda's direction was any more accomplished than Harry D'Arrast's. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This German comedy borrows freely from virtually every "college" picture made on both sides of the Big Pond. Campus life is nothing but an elongated party, with male and female students flirting, drinking, and singing, then drinking some more (the more things change...) Rich American girl Betty Bird shows up at Heidelberg college, whereupon students Willy Forst and Hans Brausewetter literally fall over themselves trying to impress her. But Bird is not so easily impressed; whoever asks for her hand will have to prove his worth academically as well as amorously. The most amusing moment occurs at the beginning of the film, when upon hearing a tour guide relate the entire plotline of the picture, a man jumps up and shouts "That isn't possible nowadays!" ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Most of Berlin After Dark is set in that city's Elysium amusement park, at the time of a hotbed of criminal activity. The owners of the Elysium have a falling out, and before long one of the two men turns up dead. Affable, cigar-smoking detective Harry Ramsay (Paul Rehkopf) attempts to solve the murder, with no small help from his wife Edith (Grita Lay). The principal suspect is Fat Frank (Fritz Kamper), owner of one of the park's gambling concessions. But this solution is a bit too easy, as proven in the final reels when a hitherto undetected culprit steps forward to take the blame. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A father-son conflict set against the tumultuous background of the First World War lies at the center of this high-class soap opera. S.I. Rupp (Emil Jannings) is a former butcher who has been elevated to the pinnacle of success in postwar Europe, by virtue of having made a few correct decisions about business during the recently ended world war. Now he is one of the wealthiest men on the continent, and beloved of the press and public for his charitable work, his beef company feeding thousands every day who would otherwise starve; and he has in his employ, at his beck-and-call, numerous members of the former aristocracy, reduced to penury by the dissolution of countries and governments. Rupp is a decent man but also a crude man, given to acting on his impulses, and like many a self-made man he also has a tendency to brook no contradiction or interference when he thinks he's right, which is most of the time. The one person in the world whom he loves and respects is his son, Fred (Hermann Thimig), by his first marriage, who, among his other attributes, is a champion-level racing-car driver. Rupp's personal life explodes, however, when he agrees to marry a beautiful former aristocrat; through a misunderstanding, Rupp thinks his son is also interested in his bride-to-be, and father and son end up estranged, just when Rupp's enemies and rivals are preparing to destroy him and his empire. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi