Fred Tanner Movies

An idealistic young doctor (Tadeusz Lomnicki) takes a job at a woman's hospital in this routine medical drama. He loses his confidence and questions whether the medical field is right for him before a series of interactions between patients and their families restores his faith and dedication to heal the afflicted. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This is not the only European drama to handle the universal topic of how to find affordable housing when you are dirt poor with several mouths to feed, but it is one of the more engaging of its type. Laced throughout with comic nuances, the story starts out with an impoverished couple and their brood of half a dozen children barely managing to survive in a small shanty. One day the wealthy owner of an apartment complex makes the family an offer they would never turn down -- a modern, capacious apartment at a fraction of its real value. The family jumps at the chance and they move in, not knowing that the landlord only plans to take advantage of their raucous children to drive out some unwanted tenants. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Based on a popular novel titled ~Anne Baebi Jowaeger~, this is the second of a two-part drama that takes aim at crippling superstitions and local prejudices in 19th-century Switzerland. A backward, village mentality is keeping modern medicine in abeyance as a young couple, Jakobli (Peter Brogle) and Meyeli (Kathrin Schmid) turn their back on "newfangled" medicine when their baby gets sick. The result is that the infant dies and Jakobli's mother-in-law goes into a depression, retires into self-imposed isolation, and nearly destroys them as the farmwork is ignored. Meanwhile, a new country doctor (Peter Arens) is trying to open up the minds of the peasants to medicine as it should be practiced. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Der 10. Mai (The Tenth of May) was the date in 1940 that Hitler invaded the Low Countries: Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg. Neutral Switzerland, which hadn't experienced a war since the 14th century, hurriedly fortified its borders with battalions of inexperienced soldiers. The panic, confusion and isolated acts of courage which occurred on that fateful day are re-created in this Swiss docudrama. The story is "personalized" by concentrating on a fugitive German soldier (Heinz Reincke) who falls in love with the Swiss girl (Linda Geiser) who shelters him. Produced on a bare-minimum budget, Der 10. Mai is impressive more for its sincerity and raw energy than for its actual cinematic merits. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Unlike previous adaptations of the Johanna Spyri children's classic, this 1952 English-language version of Heidi was lensed on location in Switzerland. Elsbeth Sigmund plays the title character, who endures all sorts of hardships and setbacks before finding happiness in the form of her ex-curmudgeon grandfather (top-billed Heinrich Gretler). Isa Gunther co-stars as the crippled girl whom Heidi befriends; with her twin sister, Guenther had previously starred in the successful German farce Two Times Lotte(1950), which served as the inspiration for the 1961 Disney film The Parent Trap. Thanks to the built-in popularity of the Spyri original, Heidi managed good international booking even before it was finished. The film was the fourth effort by Praesens Productions, which had previously struck box-office gold with Four in a Jeep(1951). It was directed by Italy's Luigi Comencini, a specialist in films featuring wise-beyond-their-years children. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide