Ernst Busch Movies
- 1936
Der Kampf (The Battle) was produced in Russia by a group of German expatriates, victims all of Nazi oppression. It should not be surprising, then, that the story, tracing the rise of Naziism during the 1920's and 1930's, takes a strong anti-Hitler stance. The film's "money scene" is the burning of the Reichstag, which Hitler blamed on the communists but which is here firmly pinned on Der Fuehrer's stooges. A degree of verisimilitude is added by the casting of George Dimitroff, one of the real-life defendants of the Reichstag trial. Dimitroff is in fact the hero of the piece, shown living a full and rewarding life under the benevolent eye of the present Soviet regime. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lotte Loebinger
- 1932
A relocation camp for itinerant, deeply-depressed workers provides the setting for this provocative drama. Most of the camp residents have been so beaten down by cruel circumstance that they are unable to help themselves. Fortunately, a young woman comes to the camp and helps the youths. This marked the first film of celebrated actor Erwin Geschonnek. Bertolt Brecht wrote the script. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi
- Starring:
- Hertha Thiele, Ernst Busch, (more)
- 1932
Case Van Geldern is an excellent detective thriller with some genuinely surprising plot turns. Co-adapted by Hans Hyan from his own novel, the story concerns a lawyer who is accused of murdering his wife. The only person who knows the truth is a former client of the lawyer, a career criminal currently serving a lengthy prison term. Out of sympathy for the lawyer, the crook breaks out of jail just long enough to prove his old friend's innocence and track down the genuine killer. Reviewers in 1932 enjoyed Case Van Geldern but felt that the film's song numbers were extraneous. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Paul Richter, Ellen Richter, (more)
- 1931
Hell on Earth is the English-language title for the German antiwar drama Niemansland (No Man's Land). Most of the film takes place in a WW I trench, where five diverse individuals have been unwillingly thrust together. The characters are not given names, but designations instead: The Frenchman (Georges Peclet), The Englishman (Hugh Douglas), The Jew (Wladimir-later Vladimir-Sokoloff), The German (Ernst Busch) and The Negro (Louis Douglas). Despising one another at first, the five protagonists come to realize that they must learn to get along if they hope to survive. The pacifistic sentiments (not to mention the ethnic mix) of Niemansland would be verboten by the Nazi regime within a few years after its original 1931 release; indeed, all copies of this film were ordered to be destroyed by propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Georges Péclet, Hugh Douglas, (more)
Filmmaker G.W. Pabst's adaptation of Bertoldt Brecht and Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera (Die Dreisgoschenoper) is every bit as good as the stage original, and sometimes even better. Filmed in both German and French versions with different casts (a planned English-language version was abandoned), Threepenny is most readily available today in its German incarnation. Rudolf Forster stars as robber captain MacHeath -- aka Mackie Messer, or Mack the Knife -- who falls in love with Polly (Carola Neher), daughter of beggar king Peachum (Fritz Rasp). Despising MacHeath, Peachum plots the thief's downfall with his best friend, corrupt police official Tiger Brown (Reinhold Schunzel). The satirical "happy ending" of the original -- MacHeath, en route to the gallows, suddenly and without motivation promoted to knighthood! -- is altered somewhat by Pabst and his scenarists to accommodate a swipe against Depression-era bankers. Lotte Lenya, Weill's wife, brilliantly repeats her stage role as Pirate Jenny. Stylistically, Threepenny Opera is a Georg Grosz drawing come to life; despite its 1890s London setting, the film's calculatedly tawdry veneer is clearly meant to represent the wide-open Berlin of the 1930s. For the record: the French version of Threepenny Opera starred Albert Prejean as MacHeath. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Rudolf Forster, Carola Neher, (more)
- 1931
Kameradschaft is set in a mining community on the French/German frontier, where several French miners are trapped in a cave-in. Their only hope for rescue lies in a long-abandoned underground tunnel, buried since the First World War. Ignoring the ethnic and political differences that have long separated the two countries, a group of German miners pick their way through the old tunnel to save the entombed Frenchmen. They do this despite the reluctance of the mine owners, who'd rather keep the nationalistic lines drawn, no matter how many lives it costs. When asked why they're willing to rescue the same people who'd forced their country into bankruptcy after the war, the German workmen reply "Miners are miners." Once the Frenchmen are brought to surface, however, the owners see to it that the borders knocked down by the Germans are quickly replaced; everything has changed, yet nothing has changed. Ironically, the German public, whose decency and humanity is celebrated in Kameradschaft, tended to avoid the film. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Andrée Ducret, Ernst Busch, (more)
