Helene Thimig Movies

God's Angels are Everywhere was originally released as Gottess Engel Sind Uberall. Just before the end of WWII, a soldier returns to his hometown of Vienna. Here he meets his spiritual alter ego, a young war refugee searching for his mother. Forming a strong alliance, the soldier and the boy find they have a lot more in common than they ever imagined. As indicated by the title, the film's denouement is largely shaped by divine intervention (or at least that's what the audience is supposed to conclude). God's Angels are Everywhere possesses an indefinable appeal that reached far beyond its target Austrian audience. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The tense psychological drama Cry Wolf offers a fascinating if not altogether successful change of pace for action star Errol Flynn. Most of the story takes place at a remote and forbidding mansion, where Sandra Marshall (Barbara Stanwyck), the widow of the house's owner, arrives to take charge. An apparent golddigger, Sandra refuses to be bought off with a small cash settlement and insists on claiming her late husband's entire estate, which earns her a powerful enemy in the form of research scientist Mark Caldwell (Flynn). Upon learning that her headstrong sister-in-law Julie (Geraldine Brooks) is kept a virtual prisoner in the house, Sandra begins suspecting that Caldwell is up to no good-a suspicion seemingly confirmed when Julie dies under mysterious circumstances. But as the story slowly unravels, it becomes clear that Caldwell is actually the hero of the piece, while the villain is...well, best not to give too much away here. Cry Wolf was Geraldine Brooks' first film, and the second for her costar Richard Basehart. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a play and novel by Margaret Kennedy, Escape Me Never is a remake of the same-named 1935 British film. Largely set in Italy, the story concerns the relationship between poverty-stricken musician Sebastian Dunbrok (Errol Flynn) and unwed mother Gemma Smith (Ida Lupino). Suspecting that her fiancé, Caryl (Gig Young), Sebastian's brother, is the father of Gemma's child, young heiress Fennella McLean (Eleanor Parker) retreats to the Italian Alps. Attempting to straighten out the situation, Sebastian finds himself falling in love with Fennella. For his brother's sake, Sebastian breaks off the relationship and marries Gemma, but while awaiting the birth of her child, he writes a heartfelt ballet score dedicated to Fennella. However, when Gemma's baby dies, the conscience-stricken Sebastian changes the dedication to his wife, whom he has learned to genuinely love. The main redeeming feature of this treacly soap opera is the stirring musical score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Setting something of a record for flashbacks within flashbacks, The Locket recounts the mental disintegration of bride-to-be Laraine Day. As a child, Day was accused of stealing a locket at a fancy party. She has spent her life getting even for this false accusation by becoming a kleptomaniac and ruining the lives of those around her. She drives one man (Robert Mitchum) to suicide, and stands by as another man is executed for a murder which she has committed. Assuming her revenge on the world is complete when she becomes engaged to the son of the woman who'd accused her of thievery, Day is overtaken by the demons within her and collapses on the altar. The Locket is difficult to follow at times, especially when seen in commercialized chunks on the Late Late Show. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Vicki Baum, the author of the novel Grand Hotel, also wrote this similarly structured tale about a group of disparate characters brought together in a towering hotel in Germany as the nation teeters on the verge of collapse near the end of World War II. Martin Richter (Helmut Dantine), a member of Germany's anti-Nazi underground, has escaped from a prison camp and is now on the run from the Gestapo; he's hiding out at the Hotel Berlin, once a palace of luxury but now a shadow of it's former glory. Martin used to work with Johannes Koenig (Peter Lorre), once a renowned scientist before he was forced to use his gifts for his Nazi captors; he now lives under an assumed name and scrapes by as a waiter rather than support the Axis war machine. Arnim Von Dahnwitz (Raymond Massey) is a disgraced Nazi general on the outs with Gestapo leader Joachim Helm (George Coulouris), who has a lot on his mind -- he's looking for Martin, he's riding herd over Arnim, and he has designs on Arnim's mistress, Lisa Dorn (Andrea King). Lisa, a stage actress of some success, is one of the few at the hotel who is able to live in some semblance of the glamour of Berlin's glory days; her wardrobe makes her the envy of Tillie Weiller (Faye Emerson), the hotel's concierge who pretends to be everyone's friend but is actually keeping tabs on the anti-Nazi activities of her tenants and is preparing to turn them in to the Gestapo. Hotel Berlin was completed in great haste, since midway through production it became obvious that Berlin would soon fall and the war in Europe would be over. Warner Bros. was so eager to get the film into theaters -- before the war's end would make the film seem dated -- that Hotel Berlin went through the studio's editing department in less than a week. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This odd combination of roughneck comedy and serious domestic drama was adapted by Louise Randall Pierson from her own autobiographical novel. Rosalind Russell is cast as young Louise Randall, the headstrong daughter of a New England merchant. Inheriting her father's business, Louise intends to persevere in a "man's world," and to that ends takes business courses at Yale. Here she meets and marries banker's son Rodney Crane (Donald Woods), with whom she has four children. When wishy-washy Rodney runs off with another woman, Louise marries a second time to irresponsible but likable gambler Harold Pierson (Jack Carson) -- and gets pregnant again. Though Louise and Harold are as different as night and day, theirs is a lasting union, which remains solid despite whatever misfortunes come their way. The story ends at the outbreak of WW II, with Louise and Rodney bidding a tearful but hopeful goodbye to their three grown sons as the boys prepare to enter military service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Master Race argues persuasively that, although it appeared that the Nazis would lose WW2, it was foolish to assume that Hitler's legacy would not insinuate itself into the postwar era. Nazi bigwig Von Beck (George Coulouris) arrives in a small Belgian village on the eve of its liberation by the Allied troops. It is Von Beck's plan to foment disharmony and bigotry amongst the villagers, thereby laying the groundwork for a German victory in the next war. But Von Beck soon discovers that the populace isn't quite as gullible as the herrenvolk had been when Hitler rose to power. Still, the film ends with a warning: the only way to avoid future world conflict is to thoroughly crush the instigators of the present war. Ironically, after hostilities ceased, Herbert J. Biberman, cowriter-director of The Master Race, was castigated by the anti-Red brigades for being, among other things, a "premature anti-fascist." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though it takes several liberties with facts and motivations, The Hitler Gang is a reasonably absorbing chronicle of Hitler's rise to power. An obscure German corporal in WW1, Adolf Hitler (played by Robert Watson, better known for his comic portrayals of Der Fuhrer), embittered by the Versailles treaty, joins a minor-league politcal party called the National Socialists. With the help of some clever "spin doctors" like Joseph Goebbels (Martin Kosleck) and Heinrich Himmler (Luis van Rooten), Hitler takes the Nazis over from the ineffectual Captain Roehm (Roman Bohnen). Arrested for such political imbroglios as the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler is sentenced to a short prison term, during which he writes his manifesto "Mein Kampf." Quickly enlisting the support of other disenfranchised losers, Hitler becomes a force to conjure with, finally winning political respectability when a senile General Von Hindenburg (Sig Ruman) appoints him to a choice political post. With the death of Hindenburg in 1933, Hitler is able to completely dominate the German government, whereupon he immediately embarks upon indoctrinating Germany's youth in the "glories" of Nazism, slaughtering his political enemies, and fomenting the second World War. Though the film was made in 1944, it ends on a note of hope, assuring the audience that Hitler and his minions could not long endure the Allied counterrattack (the filmmakers were far less certain of this than they would be some six months later). Understandably propagandistic, The Hitler Gang cannot be termed 100 percent accurate: For example, Hitler's persecution of the Jews is depicted as a cynical political tactic rather than the end result of deep-set European anti-semitism, while the death of his niece Geli Raubal (Pobly Dur) is misrepresented as a murder rather than a suicide. But considering the lies that were being spewed forth by the Nazis on a daily basis, the few factual gaffes in The Hitler Gang are eminently forgivable. The film's only real drawback is Robert Watson's two-dimensional portrayal of the title character, though even such accomplished actors as Alec Guinness and Derek Jacobi have found Hitler a virtually unplayable part. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Norwegian resistance to the Nazi occupation of their country inspired several wartime films from Hollywood, including this Warner Bros. production, filmed in and around Monterey, California. In October 1942, a German observation airplane discovers a seaside village named Trollness where the Norwegian flag is flying over the town square. A ground patrol discovers an empty town littered with corpses, including a number of Nazi officials. The story of the massacre is told in flashback. Errol Flynn plays Gunnar Brogge, a fisherman engaged to Karen Stensgard (Ann Sheridan), whose father, Martin (alter Huston), is the village physician. Gunnar and Karen are working to undermine the Nazis. The town is divided, with the minister leading a contingent which believes that violence, even against the sadistic Germans, is morally wrong. Karen is concerned about the imminent arrival of her brother, who is known to be friendly to the German occupiers; she fears he may learn of plans by the British to deliver a supply of guns to the resistance. The Nazi commandant, Captain Konig (Helmut Dantine), keeps up the pressure to learn of any opposition to his administration, eventually deciding to execute a selected number of the villagers to force someone to reveal the extent of the resistance's schemes. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

Mensch Ohne Namen (Men Without Names) is a modernized adaptation of Honore de Balzac's Colonel Chabert. Long believed dead, WWI captain Heinrich Martin (Werner Kraus) returns to Berlin after a 16-year absence. Suffering from amnesia, Martin suddenly remembers that he has a wife and that he used to run a successful auto-manufacturing business. Not surprisingly, his wife has remarried, and his business is now the property of her second husband. Vainly, Martin battles the bureaucracy to regain ownership of his business but is forced to give up the fight. He starts life anew in a poor, provincial community, finding happiness with a pretty typist. Thanks to his new wife's business savvy, Martin is able to regain his status in the manufacturing world and becomes a millionaire all over again. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide