Fritz Wepper Movies
Unusual because it has no spoken dialogue, Dernier Combat effectively chronicles the fate of a handful of people after a worldwide disaster has left the planet desolate and bleak and the people physically unable to speak. A young man (Pierre Jolivet) longs for female companionship and so he puts together a serviceable plane and flies to the remains of a city where survivors live in the ruined hulks of cars -- or wherever they can. The problem is that there are very few women to be found here as well. After the young man enters the city, he comes across an older doctor who has returned to his psychiatric clinic and is barricaded there, defending the clinic against the attacks of a violent barbarian intent on further destruction. This murderous aggressor is not only after the doctor but also a women who is hiding in the clinic -- and when the young man joins up with the doctor and sees the woman, his future takes a new course. Le Dernier Combat (also known as The Last Battle) was the first feature-length film by a 24-year-old Luc Besson (The Big Blue, La Femme Nikita, The Fifth Element). The film won two major prizes at the 1983 Avoriaz Science Fiction Film Festival, and collected more than 18 prizes at other international festivals -- though it was overlooked by France's Caesars and the U.S. Academy Awards. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Pierre Jolivet, Jean Bouise, (more)
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, Rovi
- Starring:
- Liza Minnelli, Michael York, (more)
- 1970
This comedy finds a group of students playing a practical joke on the school director (Theo Lingen). His twin brother Taft went to Africa and struck it rich, and the two have not seen each other for 40 years. The students send him a letter stating his brother has passed away and he will inherit the fortune if he can adhere to certain conditions. They include taking care of a monkey, spending three weeks in jail, and letting the students pass the rest of their tests. Comedy ensues as he tries to meet the conditions of the bogus will as the students take advantage of the gullible educator. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Uschi Glas, Hansi Kraus, (more)
- 1969
Two physician brothers meet after several years when one is accused of murder. Dr. Jan Diffring (Curt Jurgens) is the sympathetic doctor who helps people from all walks of life. Drunken sailors, prostitutes and the poor are aided by the dedicated doctor. His brother Klaus (Horst Naumann) is a gynecologist who caters to the wealthy social elite. Klaus hobnobs with the blue-bloods and takes part in orgies out of sheer boredom. When a sailor is accused of a brutal murder, the trail leads to the arrogant Klaus. The accused sailor has a world of friends who stand by him while the bad doctor is abandoned by his upper-crust clientele as he finds he really has no friends. Klaus considers suicide as the only way out as things close in around him in this dark drama. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Curd Jürgens, Horst Naumann, (more)
- 1969
A Scotland Yard detective investigates a series of murders of gangsters and girls. Inspector Perkins (Horst Tappert) is the prim and proper but cynical sleuth who knows the killings are drug-related. The trail first leads to Yvonne (Karin Huebner), a former victim of the white slave trade who seeks revenge on those who sold her into human bondage. Perkins must convince his stuffy superior Sir Arthur (Herbert von Meyerinck) that there is more to the case than is first apparent. Perkins dodges bullets, deals with double-crossing gangsters, and jealous career-minded agents as he searches for the man with the glass eye in this suspenseful crime thriller. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Horst Tappert, Karin Huebner, (more)
- 1963
William C. Barton (Peter Van Eyck) is an Allied pilot who is shot down over Belgium during World War II. With the country crawling with Nazis, heroic resistance fighters try to smuggle William and some escaped prisoners of war into Spain, but when he is seen writing a letter with a German address, he is mistaken for a spy and shot. Marie Versini plays a member of the resistance, with Walter Rilla as her father. Fritz Wepper plays a U.S. pilot who is also shot down and tries to escape. The feature was awarded the Federal Film Prize in 1964 and was the country's official entry at the Locarno Film Festival. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Van Eyck, Marie Versini, (more)
In a rather confusing and slow-paced manner, this wartime drama about a real-life dilemma is meant to highlight the dedication of Colonel Alois Podhajsky (Robert Taylor), the instructor at a prestigious Vienna equestrian school. The colonel is in charge of the safety and health of the royal Lipizzaner horses and he has a serious problem. He has not been able to secure German permission to leave for a safe haven with the horses and, at the same time, he has to get them together with the Lipizzaner mares in order to continue the species. The trouble is that the mares are in the hands of the enemy. And so the colonel sets out to get the horses through a German checkpoint, and convince General Patton (John Larch) to help him with his mission. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robert Taylor, Lilli Palmer, (more)
- 1961
Christian de Bresson plays the son of East German minister Michael Gwynn. The Communist regime has decreed that all children of "dissidents" will be denied entry in a prestigious music conservatory. Anxious to be accepted, young de Bresson prepares to answer the seven questions required by the conservatory, the seventh of which will require him to deny his religious convictions. Before this can happen, the boy is invited by the Communist Party to perform at the Berlin Youth Festival. The boy's father protests, knowing that the Communists intend to use his son as a political pawn, to "prove" to the world that East Germany affords equal rights to persons of the cloth. It is de Bresson himself who decides to quit the Festival and defect to the West. Financed by Lutheran Film Associates, Question 7 was given an honored showcase by the Berlin Film Festival--held, of course, in the western sector. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michael Gwynn, Margaret Jahnen, (more)
- 1959
Bernhard Wicki's directorial debut, this is an excellent little film with little plot and no known names on the roster. In the final days of World War II, German teenagers join the Nazi army in a futile attempt to stop the enemy invasion. A sympathetic officer places the boys as guards of a seemingly unimportant bridge. The seven youths are thrown into battle when American tanks unexpectedly appear and try to cross the bridge. The film has a definite anti-war message. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Fritz Wepper, Michael Hinz, (more)
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