Helen Vita

In this standard, stereotypical, youth-oriented film, Mona (Claudia Demarmels) has just received the awful news that she has to move out of her apartment because her landlady plans on turning it over to her son -- and so the impossible quest for an affordable place begins. As Mona goes from door to door looking for her ideal new home, she encounters one adventure after another -- and unconsciously or not, seems headed toward a knight in shining armor and another good apartment all in one package. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Things run steadily downhill for Maxmilian (Towje Kleiner), a divorced journalist who is trying to sell a novel he has written. On the very day his divorce is finalized, he meets a divorced woman and begins an affair with her. At the same time he learns that he is about to be fired from his newspaper job, he discovers that the one publisher expressing interest in his novel wants him to write some sex scenes for it. Meanwhile, his new girlfriend has moved into his two-room apartment with all her furniture, practically crowding them out of it, and she is urging him to move to the countryside with her. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This fast-paced black comedy by wunderkind director Rainer Werner Fassbinder follows the frantic efforts of a starving and confused writer, Walter Kranz (Kurt Raab) to beg, borrow or steal enough money to survive on, and at the same time make some sense of his confusing life. Unable to write enough to keep his publisher's royalty advances coming, he seeks out a woman he imagines is a prostitute and interviews her for material. He is also inspired to utter some poetry, which his brassy, outspoken wife identifies as coming from the famous homosexuality-advocating mystical German poet, Stefan George. This inspires Walter to take a closer look at the "gay scene," and he quickly becomes a sort of celebrity there. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Originally a 1966 Broadway musical, this groundbreaking Bob Fosse musical was in turn based on Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin, previously dramatized for stage and screen as I Am a Camera with Julie Harris as Sally Bowles. Fosse uses the decadent and vulgar cabaret as a mirror image of German society sliding toward the Nazis, and this intertwining of entertainment with social history marked a new step forward for the movie musical. Michael York plays a British writer who comes to Berlin in the early 1930s in hopes of becoming a teacher. He makes the acquaintance of flamboyant American entertainer Sally Bowles, played by Liza Minnelli. Sally works at the Kit Kat Klub, a George Grosz-like Berlin cabaret where each night the smirking, androgynous Master of Ceremonies (Joel Grey) introduces a jazz-driven "girlie show" to his debauched audience. Virtually all the film's musical numbers are staged within the confines of the Kit Kat Klub, and each song comments on the plot and on Germany's "progression" from hedonism to Hitlerism. Most of the Broadway score by John Kander and Fred Ebb was retained, with the welcome addition of "The Money Song." Although it lost Best Picture to The Godfather, Cabaret won eight Oscars, including awards to Minnelli, Grey, and Fosse. A heavily expurgated 88-minute version of Cabaret has been prepared for commercial TV presentations, regarded by many as dramatically inferior to the full cut. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Willie (Heinz Erhardt) is a sympathetic tax collector nearing the end of his career and looking forward to retirement. He champions the cause of the needy and poor by losing the tax information that allows the government to collect the money. His boss is angry with Willie who is in danger of losing his pension over the incident. Pretending to be insane to escape punishment, his actions win the sympathies of a high ranking tax official. Willie's story endears him to the man and the general population and he is promoted to a high paying job in this delightful comedy. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This 1956 German release was the final installment in director Paul May's WW II trilogy. As in the first two 08/15 films, the story concerns a group of German soldiers as they try their best to survive and endure a war that none of them wanted. The leading characters are a lieutenant (Joachim Fuchsberger) and a staff sergeant (Peter Karsten), both of whom exact a personal revenge on a pair of hated SS officers. All that saves the two from being arrested and executed for murder is Germany's defeat at war's end. The comedy elements of the earlier films are muted in favor of melodrama and "significance." All three of the 08/15 films were inspired by the novels of Hans-Helmut Kirsti. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This sequel to the phenomenally successful German film 08/15 details the further exploits of a German army outfit during the early years of WW II. The first film concentrated on the basic-training period, while the sequel catches up with the protagonists at the dreaded Russian Front. O.E. Hasse, one of Germany's more popular leading men, stars as the unit's commanding officer. Among the returnees from the first film is Hans-Christian Blech, who rose to prominence as a result of the two 08/15 endeavors. American audiences may find it a bit off-putting that director Paul May was able to extract moments of humor from a subject as relentlessly grim as the war in Russia, but by and large he is successful. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Die Klein Stadt Will Schlafen Gehn translates literally to Little Town Will Go to Sleep. The town in question is a "respectable" German community, thrown into an uproar when a mail bag is stolen. It seems that the bag contained several compromising letters, which, if discovered, will result in a lot of trouble for a lot of local citizens. Somehow or other, the populace comes to the conclusion that the town's "black sheep," a hedonistic sculptor, is in possession of the letters, and that's where the fun begins. The fact that the film manages to squeeze in a bit of nudity enhanced its salability in America. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide