Young Heini Volker has a problem. His unemployed father demands he joins Berlin’s young communists. But his heart belongs to the Hitler Youth. As violence escalates between these camps, Heini’s quandary deepens. How he finds his way to National Socialism is the story of Hitlerjunge Quex. Produced in 1933, just after Hitler’s ascension to power, this movie draws from the real-life story of Herbert Norkus, a Hitler Youth killed by communists in 1932. With its vivid recreations of Depression-era misery, it offers a fascinating portrait of Berlin’s working-class life viewed through the transformative lens of Nazi ideology. An immediate box office success, the film became a Nazi propaganda staple, viewed by 20 million by 1945.Read More »
Third Reich Cinema
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Hans Steinhoff – Hitlerjunge Quex: Ein Film vom Opfergeist der deutschen Jugend AKA Our Flags Lead Us Forward (1933)
1931-1940GermanyHans SteinhoffPoliticsThird Reich CinemaWar -
Willi Forst – Mazurka (1935)
1931-1940CrimeDramaGermanyThird Reich CinemaWilli ForstQuote:
A female cabaret singer is put on trial for murdering a predatory musician.Wikipedia wrote:
Warner Brothers Studios acquired the U.S. distribution rights but shelved the film in favor of its own scene-by-scene 1937 English language remake, Confession, which starred Kay Francis. Mazurka’s sets were designed by the art director Hermann Warm. It was partly shot on location in Warsaw. The film was made by Cine-Allianz whose Jewish owners Arnold Pressburger and Gregor Rabinovitch were dispossessed during pre-production of the film.Read More » -
Nicolas Farkas – Port Arthur (1936)
1931-1940DramaGermanyNicolas FarkasThird Reich CinemaWarEspionage, war and romance in the Far East in 1904: Russian naval officer Boris Ranewsky marries Youki, the sister of a fanatical Japanese officer – but war is imminent…Read More »
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Gerhard Lamprecht – Einmal eine große Dame sein AKA Just Once A Great Lady (1934)
Gerhard Lamprecht1931-1940ComedyGermanyMusicalThird Reich CinemaQuote:
People on Sunday. Kitty Holm’s girlfriends dream of men and clothes. But Kitty, a salesgirl in a car showroom has bigger dreams – she wants to be a great lady. On Monday, Kitty manages to sell a luxury automobile for the princely sum of 40,000 deutsche marks. It seems her dream might be fulfilled when buyer Mr. Thurner, and his daughter Ria, ask Kitty to deliver the new auto to Wolfenstein Castle herself. On the drive, she plays the great lady, but when she introduces herself as a countess to the son of the family, she’s gone just a bit too far … Gerhard Lamprecht’s merry sound film operetta celebrates the escapist dreams of glory of lowly shop girls that were the hallmark of Erich Pommer’s comedies for the Ufa studio. Read More » -
Kurt Gerron & Karel Pecený – Theresienstadt. Ein Dokumentarfilm aus dem jüdischen Siedlungsgebiet AKA Theresienstadt: A Documentary Film from the Jewish Settlement Area (1944)
1941-1950DocumentaryGermanyKarel PecenýKurt GerronPoliticsThird Reich CinemaTheresienstadt (1944)
Quote:
The Führer Gives a City to the Jews is the only film known to be made by the Nazis inside an operating concentration camp. Germany’s Ministry of Propaganda produced this 1944 film about Theresienstadt, the “model” ghetto established by the Nazis in 1941 in Terezin, a town in the former Czechoslovakia.Read More » -
Veit Harlan – Opfergang AKA The Great Sacrifice [+Commentary] (1944)
Veit Harlan1941-1950GermanyThird Reich CinemaIMDb wrote:
Idle intellectuals Albrecht, Octavia and Äls, are given to quoting and emulating their philosopher hero, Nietzsche. Albrecht later contracts typhus bringing the foster child gravely ill Äls out of an infected area.Read More » -
Paul Martin – Glückskinder AKA Lucky Kids (1936)
1931-1940ComedyGermanyMusicalPaul MartinThird Reich CinemaSynopsis:
Glueckskinder (Children of Fortune) serves as yet another sprightly vehicle for European film favorites Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch. Unlike the stars’ previous musical concoctions, this one takes place in New York City (or a reasonable facsimile constructed on the UFA back lot). To save Ann Garden (Harvey) from going to jail, reporter Gil Taylor (Fritsch) pretends to be married to her. Gallantly, he hides her identity from his own newspaper’s society columnist, and gets fired as a result. The rest of the picture finds Ann and Gil trying to “play house” without such niceties as a steady income. Near the end, the story goes off on a new tangent when it is suspected that Ann is the long-lost niece of a millionaire; she isn’t, but Gil’s coverage of the story gets him his job back, and everyone lives (presumably) happily ever after.Read More » -
Harald Braun – Nora (1944)
1941-1950DramaGermanyHarald BraunThird Reich Cinemaletterboxd:
The film is an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House. The film uses Ibsen’s alternate ending where the unhappy couple are reconciled at the end.Read More » -
Arthur Maria Rabenalt – Achtung! Feind hört mit! (1940)
1931-1940Arthur Maria RabenaltDramaGermanyThird Reich CinemaWarSynopsis:
Action takes place in a factory producing cables for barrage balloons shortly after the critical September days in 1938. British Intelligence try to discover the production secrets and one of their agents is very active in the factory. The agent plays on the vanity of the owner’s secretary, takes advantage of losses at the gaming tables of one of the firm’s employees and blackmails another. The son of the owner is led astray by the female accomplice of the British agent. The secretary’s courage together with the son’s patriotism finally unmasks the entire plot…Read More »