Curt Bois Movies
German actor Curt Bois took to the stage at age seven. After experience as a cabaret performer, Bois worked with the legendary impresario Max Reinhardt and appeared in 25 German films. He left Germany to escape Hitler in 1933, then re-established himself on the Broadway stage. His first film, in which he was seen in his standard characterization of a slick, self-important European, was 1937's Tovarich. Bois' best-known film appearance was brief: he played the obsequious pickpocket ("There are vultures everywhere) in the 1942 classic Casablanca. As a result, he spent many of his last years being interviewed on the subject of that film, his stories improving with each telling. Bois went on to work with such directors as Lubitsch and Ophuls before returning to Germany in 1950. Here he continued to appear in films, and in 1955 directed the feature Ein Polterabend. One of Curt Bois' last performances was as the wizened historian who endlessly wanders Berlin in hopes of properly capturing the city on paper in Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire (1988). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Damiel (Bruno Ganz) and Cassiel (Otto Sander) are angels who watch over the city of Berlin. They don't have harps or wings (well, they usually don't have wings) and they prefer overcoats to gossamer gowns. But they can travel unseen through the city, listening to people's thoughts, watching their actions and studying their lives. While they can make their presence felt in small ways, only children and other angels can see them. They spend their days serenely observing, unable to interact with people, and they feel neither pain nor joy. One day, Damiel finds his way into a circus and sees Marion (Solveig Dommartin), a high-wire artist, practicing her act; he is immediately smitten. After the owners of the circus tell the company that the show is out of money and must disband, Marion sinks into a funk, shuffling back to her trailer to ponder what to do next. As he watches her, Damiel makes a decision: he wants to be human, and he wants to be with Marion, to lift her spirits and, if need be, to share her pain. Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire is a remarkable modern fairy tale about the nature of being alive. The angels witness the gamut of human emotions, and they experience the luxury of simple pleasures (even a cup of coffee and a cigarette) as ones who've never known them. From the angels' viewpoint, Berlin is seen in gorgeous black-and-white -- strikingly beautiful but unreal; when they join the humans, the image shifts to rough but natural-looking color, and the waltz-like grace of the angels' drift through the city changes to a harsher rhythm. Peter Falk appears as himself, revealing a secret that we may not have known about the man who played Columbo, and there's also a brief but powerful appearance by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. Wings of Desire hinges on the intangible and elusive, and it builds something beautiful from those qualities. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, (more)
- 1983
Two well-known German actors, Curt Bois (1901-1991) and Bernhard Minetti (b. 1905) reminisce about their work on the stage in this charming documentary by directors Bruno Ganz and Otto Sander. Bois emigrated to the U.S. in 1933 but he found it difficult to obtain work in Hollywood or in New York and returned to Germany after the war. He met Charles Laughton, Bertolt Brecht, Buster Keaton, and other notables of stage and screen while he was in America. Minetti is shown at work in a rehearsal of "Faust" and at an empty, cavernous Olympic Stadium where he and friends think back to previous great soccer matches. Both Minetti and Bois contribute insights and information about their profession that only seasoned veterans like themselves can impart. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Curt Bois, Bernhard Minetti, (more)
Based on fact, The Boat is Full is set during World War II. A group of Jewish refugees desperately attempt to escape to the safety of neutral Switzerland. The problem: too many refugees, and too little room in the boat commissioned for the trip. Director Markus Imhoof is neither a polished nor a subtle filmmaker, nor is the acting of the highest calibre. This hardly matters: the intensity and sincerity of everyone involved in The Boat is Full compensates for any and all production crudities. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tina Engel, Martin Walz, (more)
- 1970
This documentary includes extremely rare footage of 1953 rehearsals and performances by the Berliner Ensemble of productions by Bertholt Brecht. Brecht was a rare innovator in the world of theater and created intense and very political symbolic dramas which were modern in content, but very ancient in feeling. Included are fragments from Puntila, Mother Courage and Urfaust. Commentary is provided by the administrator of the Brecht estate, Hans Mayer. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1966
Paul (Gert Froebe) is a gangleader who gives the former safecracker Georg (Mario Adorf) a job as a pimp after he is released from prison. Georg discovers his sweetheart Nelly (Karin Baal) has joined the joy girls he oversees. Jealousy among other mobsters cause them to make plans to eliminate Georg, who is more than willing to give up his job as flesh pedlar in this offbeat crime comedy. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mario Adorf, Karin Baal, (more)
- 1957
Der Stern von Afrika (Star of Africa) is the true story of German WWII hero Hans-Joachim Marseille. Joachim Hansen stars as Marseille, ace pilot of the German Luftwaffe. The obligatory (and probably fictional) romantic subplot is provided by Marianne Koch (who acted in the U.S. as Marianne Cook), cast as a winsome schoolteacher who falls in love with the dashing Teutonic flyboy. It is worth noting that there are no allusions to Hitler or Nazis in Der Stern von Afrika -- no mean feat, considering the subject matter. The exciting aerial sequences were staged with the cooperation of the Spanish Air Force. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marianne Koch, Hansjörg Felmy, (more)
- 1955
Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti (aka Herr Puntila and his Chauffeur Matti and Puntilla and His Hired Man) is based on the same-named play by Bertoldt Brecht. Curt Bois, best remembered as the oily pickpocket in Casablanca, stars as Puntila, a nasty Finnish landlord who turns into a nice guy whenever he's drunk (shades of Chaplin's City Lights). Puntila's chauffeur Matti (Heinz Engelman) shares several ribald adventures with his master, and at one point finds himself engaged to Puntila's nubile daughter Eva (Maria Emo). Brecht's merciless satire of class distinctions isn't quite as pungent as in the original, but audiences will get the point. Herr Puntila und sein Knect Matti was adapted for the screen by Vladimir Pozner (yes, that Vladimir Pozner!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Curt Bois, Heinz Engelmann, (more)
- 1950
In Ham Fisher's original Joe Palooka comic strip, Joe's pal Humphrey Pennyworth was a blimp of a man. In Joe Palooka Meets Humphrey, Mr. Pennyworth is played by Robert Coogan, a slim, athletic chap who was then starring as TV's Captain Video. At least Joe Kirkwood Jr. was closer to Fisher's visual concept of soft-hearted pugilist Joe Palooka. The plot finds Joe pitted against Humphrey in a charity bout. Eschewing the gangster and murder-mystery subplots of Monogram's previous "Joe Palooka" entries, this one is played strictly for laughs, even unto having Leon Errol (cast as Joe's manager Knobby Walsh) going through his "Mexican Spitfire" paces in a dual role. Also good for a few chuckles is Joe Besser (who physically was better suited for the part of Humphrey) as a nervous hotel desk clerk. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leon Errol, Joe Kirkwood, Jr., (more)
- 1950
Though usually associated with westerns, Columbia producer Harry Joe Brown proved to be up to the challenge of producing a satisfactory swashbuckler with Fortunes of Captain Blood. Based loosely on the same Rafael Sabatini novel which served as the inspiration for the 1935 Errol Flynn vehicle Captain Blood, the film stars Louis Hayward as Irish doctor Peter Blood, who is exiled from England after treating the wounds of an enemy to the crown. Blood and several other outcasts turn to piracy, terrorizing merchant vessels of all nationalities. Dogging Captain Blood's trail is the heavy of the piece, the Marquis de Riconete (George Macready). Also appearing are Patricia Medina (Columbia's stock costume-drama heroine) as the marquis' niece, and Alfonso Bedoya (immortalized as the Mexican bandit Gold Hat in Treasure of the Sierra Madre) as a sadistic prison overseer. The battle scenes in Fortunes of Captain Blood would be cannibalized time and again over the next few years by quickie-flick producer Sam Katzman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis Hayward, Patricia Medina, (more)
- 1949
A Kiss in the Dark opens with a shot of Jane Wyman in a two-piece bathing suit. Alas, the dictates of cinematic construction demand that some sort of plot must follow this promising beginning. Wyman plays model Polly Haines, one of several mildly eccentric tenants in an apartment building owned by neurotic concert pianist Eric Phillips (David Niven). Requiring absolute peace and quiet, Eric intends to evict his tenants and thereby have the building all to himself. Soon, however, he is won over by the apartment dwellers, who in their own various ways are as high-strung as the musician. He also falls in love with Polly, just as expected. The supporting cast of Kiss in the Dark is peopled by such expert farceurs as Victor Moore, Broderick Crawford, Wayne Morris, Joseph Buloff, and Curt Bois. Making her final screen appearance is Maria Ouspenskaya as the building's resident "earth mother." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Niven, Jane Wyman, (more)
- 1949
Based loosely on the Dostoyevsky novel, The Gambler stars Gregory Peck as a sensitive 19th-century Russian author. His "great sin" is gambling, which starts when he attempts to rescue aristocratic Ava Gardner from the gaming tables. He succeeds, only to lose himself to gambling fever, which costs him his friends, his reputation and his talent. Director Robert Siodmak was never happy with the screenplay for The Great Sinner, constant revisions bloated the film's rough-cut running time to nearly six hours! After Siodmak pared the film down, MGM insisted that the director reshoot the love scenes. Siodmak refused, thus the new sequences were filmed sans screen credit by Mervin LeRoy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, (more)
- 1949
It doesn't take a nuclear scientist to figure out that Smith Ohrig, the character played by Robert Ryan in Caught, is a thinly disguised takeoff of Howard Hughes. But whereas Howard Hughes was merely paranoid and eccentric, Smith Ohrig is an all-out psycho. Impulsively marrying ambitious model Leonora Eames (Barbara Bel Geddes), Ohrig keeps the poor girl a virtual prisoner in his palatial mansion, tormenting her with twisted mind games while he continues his premarital playboy activities. Coming to the realization that wealth and creature comforts are no substitute for stability, Leonora takes a "normal" job in the offices of society doctor Larry Quinada (James Mason). Falling in love with her boss, Leonora nonetheless returns to Ohrig when he turns on his patented charm. Only an act of God (accelerated by Ohrig's hedonistic lifestyle) rescues Leonora from a life of lavish bondage. Billed as Max Opuls on the credits of Caught, director Max Ophuls manages to implant his own distinctive style upon what is essentially a slick Hollywood studio product. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Mason, Barbara Bel Geddes, (more)
- 1949
Adapted from a play by Honore de Balzac, Lovable Cheat offers a veritable smorgasbord of Hollywood's top character actors. The title character, one Claude Mercadet, is played by Charlie Ruggles. Posing as a wealthy Parisian, Mercadet fleeces friends and casual acquaintances alike. He is forced into this life of crime to keep up appearances, so that his daughter Julie (Peggy Ann Garner) can land herself a rich husband. Iris Adrian enjoys one of her largest film roles as Ruggles' wife; Alan Mowbray is right in his element as an elegant butler; and future financial advisor Richard Ney is ironically cast as an impoverished bank clerk. Also on hand is Buster Keaton, as a nonplused creditor who spends his screen time waiting in vain for his missing business associate Godot (could playwright Samuel Beckett have seen this film?) Not entirely successful, Lovable Cheat is nonetheless a courageous exercise in the offbeat. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlie Ruggles, Peggy Ann Garner, (more)
- 1949
Another of 20th Century-Fox's Technicolor musical biopics, Oh You Beautiful Doll is allegedly the life story of popular composer Fred Fisher. As played by S. Z. "Cuddles" Sakall, Fisher is a serious musician who yearns to write opera rather than tin pan alley hits. Since the aged, portly Sakall couldn't be the romantic lead, he is third-billed in deference to June Haver as Fisher's daughter and Mark Stevens as a slick song plugger. Despite his shame at being popular, Fisher is gratified when his songs are given a classy symphonic arrangement at Aeolian Hall. Among the tunes heard in Oh, You Beautiful Doll are "Chicago," "Dardanella," "Peg o' My Heart" and the title song. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- June Haver, Mark Stevens, (more)
- 1948
Monogram's French Leave received an inordinate amount of press coverage because of its teaming of two former child stars. Jackie Cooper and Jackie Coogan play a couple of amorous merchant seamen on the loose in a small French village. Hoping to score with the local mademoiselles, the two Jackies become sidetracked with black market activities. The boys bend a few laws along the way, but everything turns out just fine. It was French Leave that convinced Jackie Cooper to seek out acting lessons rather than coast on his past fame; as for Jackie Coogan, he wouldn't truly make a comeback until losing his hair and re-emerging as a cantankerous character actor on such TV series as The Addams Family. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Cooper, Jackie Coogan, (more)
- 1948
The Woman in White attempts to translate the archaic prose of 19th century gothic-mystery writer Wilkie Collins to the medium of film. Gig Young plays a 19th century painter who, while en route to a country estate, encounters a strange, ethereal young lady (Eleanor Parker) who both begs his help and insists that he keep their meeting a secret. He will meet the girl again at several crucial junctures -- though she will fail to recognize him. The painter has unknowingly stumbled upon a scheme by the diabolical Count Fosco (Sydney Greenstreet) to claim an inheritance on behalf of a dissipated nobleman (John Emery); the plan involves a marriage of convenience to the hapless lady of the house (Alexis Smith), blackmail, hidden siblings, and the suppression of a dark family secret involving Fosco's neurotic wife (Agnes Moorehead). The full plotline is far too labyrinthine to go into detail here -- in fact, it can barely be followed in the film itself. While The Woman in White suffers from excess verbiage, the film is at its best in its shadowy, nocturnal "conspiracy" set pieces and in the scenes with timorous aristocrat John Abbott, to whom every raised voice is a threat to his fragile health. And keep an eye on Sidney Greenstreet's pet monkey, Iago, easily the most well-adjusted character in the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eleanor Parker, Alexis Smith, (more)
- 1948
The Dorothy Fields-Sigmund Romberg Broadway musical Up in Central Park has been retooled as a vehicle for a pleasantly plump Deanna Durbin. Set in New York in the 1870s, the film casts Durbin as hoydenish Irish immigrant Rosie Moore, who becomes the romantic bone of contention between muckraking newspaper reporter John Matthews (Dick Haymes) and corrupt but charming political boss Tweed (Vincent Price, considerably handsomer and slimmer than the real Tweed). With Rosie's help, John manages to expose Tweed's Tammany Hall shenanigans. Though only two songs have been retained from the original Broadway production, both Durbin and Haymes are afforded several opportunities to sing. Featured in the cast as Durbin's father is Albert Sharpe, who'd just completed a run in the smash New York musical Finian's Rainbow and who later played the title role in Disney's Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959). Best scene: The Currier & Ives ballet, one of the few holdovers from the stage version of Up in Central Park. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Deanna Durbin, Dick Haymes, (more)
- 1948
Sexual harassment can work both ways as can be seen in this romantic comedy when ad man endeavors to maneuver out of a relationship with his girlfriend. This is difficult as she controls a major account for his company and refuses to renew it unless he continues to go out with her. The frustrated fellow then begins having neurotic fits until, at last, he is taken off her account. For his new assignment, he must promote a psychiatrist's latest book. They meet and he is captivated by the lovely doctor. The nervous fellow then becomes her patient, and before long they both fall in love. Unfortunately, the other woman has not given up. His troubles are far from over when he later discovers that the shrink doesn't really love him--she is only using him for a case study. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hedy Lamarr, Robert Cummings, (more)
Based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, Arch of Triumph is a complicated war romance directed by Lewis Milestone. Dr. Ravic (Charles Boyer) is a refugee physician practicing medicine illegally in Paris under a false name. He saves Joan Madou (Ingrid Bergman) from committing suicide after the sudden death of her lover. He gets her a job singing at the nightclub where his only friend, Boris Morosov (Louis Calhern), is the doorman. Joan falls in love with Ravic, but he is deported and she finds herself the mistress of wealthy Alex (Stephan Bekassy). Meanwhile, Ravic seeks revenge against a Nazi officer (Charles Laughton) and war is declared between France and Germany. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Bekassy, Charles Boyer, (more)
- 1948
In this crime drama the trouble begins when a murder occurs aboard a docked ship. Another murder occurs aboard an airplane in flight. An insurance investigator comes to Tangier to look into the theft of 50,000 pounds of sterling from the ship. He is assisted by a cafe entertainer. Together they solve the mysteries and recover the missing silver. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adele Jergens, Stephen Dunne, (more)
- 1947
On February 17, 1947, two efforts from Paramount's Pine-Thomas productions were tradeshown in tandem. The first was I Cover Big Town; the second was Jungle Flight.The latter film stars Robert Lowery and Douglas Blackley as Kelly Jordan and Andy Melton, troubleshooting freight pilots engaged in shipping mining equipment to a remote Latin-American company. Hoping to make a quick financial turnover, Melton overloads his plane, and as a result dies in a fiery crash. These leaves Jordan to "fly solo" in every sense of the phrase, attempting to rescue the victims of a second plane crash--and to save runaway wife Laurey Roberts (Ann Savage) from her crooked husband Tom Hammond (Douglas Fowley). Barton MacLane glowers his way through the role of the mine's owner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Lowery, Ann Savage, (more)
- 1945
RKO Radio's first film in the three-color Technicolor process was the standard-issue swashbuckler The Spanish Main. Paul Henried is his usual stoic self as Laurent Van Horn, a Dutch sea captain shipwrecked on the coast of Cartagena, a Spanish-held island. Sentenced to be hanged, Van Horn and his crew escape from jail and take up piracy as revenge against Spain. Soon afterward, they capture a ship carrying Francisca (Maureen O'Hara), the fiance of Cartagena's corrupt governor Don Alvarado (Walter Slezak). Van Horn vengefully forces Francisca to marry him instead, which causes dissension at the Pirate colony of Tortuga. Naturally, Van Horn and Francisca eventually fall in love with each other, but the bad guys must be vanquished before a happy ending can be realized. Binnie Barnes steals the show as feisty female buccaneer Anne Bonney (who in real life looked less like Barnes and more like Walter Slezak!) The script is a cynical melange of pirate-movie cliches and the performances are generally routine, but The Spanish Main pleased the crowd in 1945, posting a profit of nearly $1.5 million and encouraging future Technicolor adventure films from RKO. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Henreid, Maureen O'Hara, (more)
- 1945
Ingrid Bergman and Gary Cooper paired off again after For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) with this overwrought melodrama based on the romance novel by Edna Ferber. Bergman plays Clio Dulaine, a beautiful half-Creole woman whose return to 1875 New Orleans from Paris creates a stir. Born out of wedlock, Clio's mother was a local woman who became pregnant by a wealthy, married landowner. Scandalized, his wife and family set about humiliating Clio's mother and even paid for Clio's voyage to France in an effort to get rid of the girl. Now Clio returns with a dwarf, Cupidon (Jerry Austin), and a maid, Angelique (Florence Robson) in her entourage. At the docks, Clio meets a handsome gambler from Texas, Colonel Clint Maroon (Cooper) and is smitten. To Clio's delight, their blossoming romance inspires calumny, but Maroon soon realizes that Clio is a gold digger. He departs for Saratoga Springs, where he is working on a venture involving the railroad. Clio follows him there, bent on marrying either Clint or his business partner, Bart Van Steed (John Warburton). Saratoga Trunk (1945) was exhibited to servicemen overseas in WWII for two years before it was released to the general public. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, (more)
- 1944
MGM's notion of a "B" picture would be an "A" production at any other studio, and Blonde Fever is no exception. Philip Dorn heads the cast as restauranteur Peter Donay, happily married to the pleasant but plain Delilah (Mary Astor). Approaching "that certain age", Donay's head is turned by curvaceous waitress Sally Murfin (Gloria Grahame, in her first important film role). At first only mildly amused by the flirtatious Donay, Sally begins turning on the charms herself when she finds out that he's won a $40000 lottery. It takes six reels, but Donay finally realizes how much he loves and needs his faithful wife, and how little Sally truly cares about him. Blonde Fever is based on a play by Ferenc Molnar, though it must have taken a lot of cutting to cram the original into 65 minutes' running time. PS: Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, personal friends of director Richard Whorf, show up in unbilled cameos. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Philip Dorn, Mary Astor, (more)
Thanks to its Jerome Kern/Ira Gershwin/Yip Harburg score and the luminescence of stars Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly, Cover Girl has taken on a legendary status in recent years. In truth, the film has a banal and predictable premise: a chorus girl (Hayworth) is given a chance for stardom by a wealthy magazine editor (Otto Kruger), who years earlier had been in love with the girl's mother. Offered an opportunity to be a highly-paid cover girl, our heroine would faithfully remain with her tacky nightclub act if only the club manager (Kelly), whom she pines for, would ask her. He loves her too, but doesn't want to stand in her way, so he fakes an argument to send her packing. You don't need a crystal ball to known that the girl and her guy will be reunited for the finale. Phil Silvers, everybody's best friend, and Eve Arden, Kruger's acid-tongued assistant, provide comic relief. The story sags badly at times, but the fans went home happy thanks to the powerhouse musical numbers, including Long Ago and Far Away and Kelly's famous "alter-ego" dance. The film skyrocketed both Hayworth and Kelly to superstardom, and didn't do Silvers any harm, either. Cover Girl is an extraordinarily lavish Technicolor production from the usually parsimonious Columbia Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rita Hayworth, Gene Kelly, (more)
