Conrad Veidt Movies
Like so many German actors who played Nazis during World War II, Conrad Veidt was a fervent anti-Nazi and had fled Europe just one step ahead of the storm troopers. Veidt began his career at age 20 under the guidance of the great Max Reinhardt. His first taste of worldwide fame came by way of his highly stylized portrayal of the tormented Cesare in Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919). His performance in The Student of Prague (1926) led to his being briefly snatched by Hollywood, where he launched his American film career by donning several layers of age makeup and portraying the doddering Louis XI in The Beloved Rogue (1927). Veidt returned to Germany in 1929, but left for England with his Jewish wife when Hitler came to power. On a brief visit to his homeland, Veidt was detained by the German authorities for highly suspect reasons, and had to be rescued by his British studio. In 1940, he was back in America to complete his scenes in the U.S./British co-production The Thief of Baghdad. He remained in Hollywood for the rest of his career, essaying such villainous characters as the cunning Major Strasser in Casablanca (1942). Conrad Veidt died of a sudden heart attack after playing an Austrian undercover agent in Above Suspicion (1943). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1925
In this classic horror film, based on a novel by Maurice Renard and filmed by Robert Wiene (of Dr. Caligari fame), a world-famous pianist burns his hands in an airplane crash. A mysterious doctor offers to do a transplant and the pianist, his career on the verge of ruin, accepts. After a series of mysterious strangulations occur around him, the pianist beings to suspect the culprit might be his new pair of hands. His search for the donor is impeded as his new appendages slowly drive him insane. This film has been remade countless times, the most successful being the 1954 Mad Love version with Peter Lorre in the lead. ~ Brian Whitener, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Conrad Veidt
- 1924
This historical costume drama recalls the story of Carlos (Conrad Veidt) the crown prince of Spain and his love for Elisabeth Valois. Eugen Kloepfer plays Philip, with Egede Nissen as Eboil. No name is available for the actress who played Elisabeth. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
German filmmaker Paul Leni functioned as both director and production designer for the Caligariesque Waxworks (Das Wachsfigurenkabinett). Using a wax museum as the unifying factor, Leni weaves three separate stories of Evil Incarnate. Emil Jannings stars as middle-Eastern despot Harroun al Raschid; Conrad Veidt is cast as Ivan the Terrible; and Werner Krauss impersonates Jack the Ripper. Of the three, Ivan is perhaps the most odious, especially in his sadistic cat-and-mouse treatment of his victims (it is said that Russian director Sergei Eisenstein patterned his Ivan the Terrible after Veidt's). On the strength of this film, Leni was invited to Hollywood by Universal's Carl Laemmle, and the result was the classic "old dark house" meller The Cat and the Canary. Sadly, most surviving prints of Waxworks are taken from the watered-down, expurgated American released version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1921
aka Danton With Emil Jannings as George Jacques Danton and Werner Kraus (who played the title character in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) as Maximillian Robespierre, this German-made spectacle about the French Revolution should have been more impressive than it was. But it turned out to be a mixed bag and, like most historical films, it bent the past to fit its own agenda. In this case, Danton, the man of the people, is at odds with cold-hearted Robespierre. But when Danton falls for an aristocrat, Lucille (Charlotte Ander), Robespierre is able to turn the tide against him. Danton goes to the guillotine, along with Lucille's husband, Camille Desmoulins (Joseph Rumich) and two others. But Danton hints in his final scene that it won't be long before Robespierre follows him to his death. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Werner Krauss
Even though Americans embraced The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, they seemed a bit puzzled by this fanciful German-made melodrama. Three Oxford graduates -- Robert Allen (Paul Richter), Carl Langland (Olaf Fonss) and Indian Prince Ayan (Conrad Veidt) -- pledge to remain devoted to one another. It doesn't take long for the oath to be broken, as the prince believes that his wife, Princess Savitri (Erma Morini), has been unfaithful with Allen. He decides to bury his wife alive and has Yogi Ramigami (Berhard Goetze) travel to England to fetch Langland. But when he orders his old pal to build him a tomb, he refuses. The prince holds him prisoner, and his fiancee, Laura Valmy (Mia May), comes looking for him. She too is captured and Ayan, with Ramigami's help, subjects all of them -- Langland, Allen and Laura -- to cruel torture. Finally Langland tries to rescue Savitri from the prince's troops by carrying her across a suspension bridge, but she sacrifices herself by cutting the bridge's ropes and falling to her death. Meanwhile, the prince renounces his religion, damning him to a fate worse than death. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Erna Morena, Conrad Veidt, (more)
- 1921
This epic German production was said to have had a cast of 100,000. Whether there was any truth to this claim is extremely questionable, and there were but three really important roles in the film: Conrad Veidt as Lord Nelson, Werner Kraus as Sir William Hamilton, and Liane Haid in the role of a lifetime as Lady Hamilton. The film covers Lady Hamilton's life, including her beginnings as Emma Lyon, a blacksmith's daughter. Young Emma learns how to fend for herself by becoming the mistress to many men before marrying Sir William Hamilton, the uncle of her lover, Charles Greville. Then she meets and falls for Lord Nelson, the famed English Admiral. She helps Nelson achieve his first great naval victory, along with becoming his lover and bearing his child out of wedlock. Although both Hamilton and Nelson's wife appear to accept the scandalous relationship, when Hamilton dies, Emma is virtually cut out of his will. Emma lives a poverty-stricken life that is only brightened by the knowledge that Nelson will return -- but he doesn't. Nelson dies in the Battle of Trafalgar. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
Thought to have been lost for decades, German filmmaker Richard Oswald's 1919 picture Different From the Others was eventually discovered to have survived the Nazi era. The films stars Conrad Veidt of Casablanca and centers on the oppression brought upon Germany's homosexual men as a result of the penal code's controversial Paragraph 175. The silent film also stars Leo Connard and Ilse Von Tasso-Lind. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Conrad Veidt
