Ludwig Stossel Movies
Born and educated in Austria, actor Ludwig Stossel worked with many of the mittel-European theatrical powerhouses, including the great Max Reinhardt. The Nazi anschluss prompted Stossel to emigrate to England in 1938, where he began his film career. Like many European expatriates, Stossel found plenty of film work in Hollywood of the '40s. The actor has become ingrained in the consciousness of film buffs and Humphrey Bogart cultists for his brief role in Casablanca (1942), wherein he plays a German-Jewish refugee looking forward to leaving for America. Determined to speak nothing but English, Stossel never fails to elicit loud and loving laughter from film audiences by turning to his screen wife to ask for the time: "Liebchen...uh, sweetness-heart...What watch?" Nearly two decades later, Ludwig Stossel enjoyed another wave of public adoration for his appearances in Italian Swiss Colony Wine commercials; he was the little old tyrolean-outfitted fellow who turned to the audience and identified himself (with Jim Backus' dubbed-in voice) as "That li'l old winemaker....me." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1931
Forced to work nights, a young Austrian bureaucrat is unable to escort his lovely wife to a masquerade ball. Unbeknownst to our hero, his wife and her maid slip off to the ball on their own. Wifey makes the acquaintance of her husband's best friend who, unaware of her identity, is quite smitten by her and invites himself to her home. She manages to get rid of her lovesick swain by removing her mask and gown and disguising the maid as herself. Never revealing her true identity, the maid enjoys a passionate evening in her escort's apartment. The next day, the husband, who hasn't a clue as to what has transpired the night before, invites his friend home to "meet the missus." The friend is naturally terrified at the prospect that the wife will reveal their romantic rendezvous of the night before, little realizing that he'd actually spent the entire evening with the maid. How this situation eventually straightens itself out is far better seen than described. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ivan Petrovich, Liane Haid, (more)
- 1930
After completing his searing antiwar drama Westfront 1918, director G. W. Pabst shifted gears with the romantic seriocomedy Skandal um Eva (Scandalous Eva). Upon learning that her fiancee, the Minister of Finance, has fathered a child, schoolteacher Eva (Adele Sandrock) brings the kid to her home village, there to secretly care for the tot so as to avert scandal. Alas, before long Eve is falsely accused of being the unwed mother who brought the child into the world. Not only does she lose her teaching job, but she innocently sparks an investigation of the entire teaching staff. Only when several closeted skeletons have been revealed is Eva rescued from disgrace by her contrite fiance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adele Sandrock, Paul Henckels, (more)
