Die Republik der Backfische

The delightful Johann Strauss comic opera Die Fledermaus was mercilessly lampooned in this truly bizarre production. For starters, a framing device has been added: After appearing in 300 consecutive appearances of Fledermaus (which translates as The Bat) the lead tenor (Georg Alexander) imagines that he's seeing bats everywhere. Driven a bit over the edge by all this, he falls asleep and has a nightmare about the opera, with a group of non-singers cast in the leading roles. The original libretto about romantic assignations, political imprisonments and mistaken identity is burlesqued to the hilt: at one point, the hero finds out that his prison cell is surrounded by rubber tubes!

Mayor Eberhorn is known as a womanizer to everyone in the village. Katchen, his wife, is constantly trying to convert him to a proper way of life … but in vain. When one morning, Casanova finds a stroller with a clever slogan referencing his affairs at his front door, Eberborn seeks revenge. Top suspects for the prank? The “Spassvogel”: seven friends led by the former sailor Hannes Strobel.

Christl, the forester’s daughter, apprehends a young hunter in the forest and only lets him go after he pays a small fine. But when Christl goes to the emperor shortly afterward to plead on behalf of her beloved—a Hungarian officer who has fallen out of favor—she can hardly believe her eyes: the young hunter was the emperor.

The bored heir to a soap factory is able through pure chance to work incognito in the 153rd branch of the business. While doing so, he falls in love with a beautiful customer, gets into a rivalry with a jealous worker and helps to expose a dishonest boss.

Fred von Wellingen is a wealthy industrialist, part of a large family-owned corporation. Fred has fallen for Lia, a comely bartender in the Berlin Cabaret. He proposes to her, much to the horror of his family, which considers Lia and her unsophisticated father far below their caste. The family convinces Fred to give up the girl in exchange for increased position and income in the company. But Fred's lapse is momentary, and he again pursues Lia. But she, by this time, has learned of his erstwhile agreement and has agreed to marry someone else.

Peter Ohlsen, a perpetual student, leads a dissolute life and has been living off his filthy-rich father for years. When Peter comes home drunk from a party with his friends yet again, he finds a three-year-old boy in his bed who had been left with his housekeeper along with a letter. The letter states that Peter is the boy’s father and that he is hereby entrusted with the child’s upbringing.

The film tells the story of an ambitious young man, Tom, who loves Grete, daughter of the manager of the national railroads; but Grete's father prefers Lund, an upright and uptight army officer. To prove his worth, Tom organizes a daring robbery of the nightly Bergen Express in the hopes of outwitting his rival, who's been assigned to track down the thieves.

In this classic German thriller, Hans Beckert, a serial killer who preys on children, becomes the focus of a massive Berlin police manhunt. Beckert's heinous crimes are so repellant and disruptive to city life that he is even targeted by others in the seedy underworld network. With both cops and criminals in pursuit, the murderer soon realizes that people are on his trail, sending him into a tense, panicked attempt to escape justice.

The rise and inevitable fall of an amoral but naive young woman whose insouciant eroticism inspires lust and violence in those around her.

After a detective is assaulted by thugs and placed in an asylum run by Professor Baum, he observes the professor's preoccupation with another patient, the criminal genius Dr. Mabuse the hypnotist. When Mabuse's notes are found to be connected with a rash of recent crimes, Commissioner Lohmann must determine how Mabuse is communicating with the criminals, despite conflicting reports on the doctor's whereabouts, and capture him for good.

After returning from a concentration camp, Susanne finds a traumatized ex-soldier living in her apartment in bombed out Berlin. Together the two try to move past their experiences during WWII.

A young honeymooning couple are lured away to a seaside resort by a high-society sleazeball, who has plans to seduce the girl, while at the same time her hubby in desperation stakes all his money on the roulette wheels.

Jenny confronts her cousin Harry: Did he embezzle her fortune? No. But he escapes with married lover Germaine only to return quickly because her husband pursues them. Jenny is convinced Harry is his own double and arrests him at gunpoint.

A fisherman's daughter assumes the blame, to save the honor of a battalion one of whose officers is obsessed with poaching, in this rural melodrama.

Counterfeit money is discovered near the Bodensee. The investigators for the "Reichszentrale für Falschmünzerei" get wind of it and open up an investigation. When the band of counterfeiters try to recruit a young graphic artist into their ranks, he quickly rats on them to the police. The investigation soon leads to Switzerland, where the nest of criminals is stormed with the help of the Swiss police.

As the title "The Queen's Heart" suggests, this early German black and white version of Mary Queen of Scott's eventful reign and death focuses on her emotional perception rather lyrically, with some songs, mainly by her.

German colonial soldiers fight against the British during World War I.

Daughter of a French officer and an Annamite, Mahlia was brought up in Indochina by Mr. and Mrs. de Roussière. Their son, Henri, would like to marry her but they are against it. Mahlia flees and Henri is killed for trying to protect her. The young girl enters the Mission to raise children there in the love of France.

In a transport museum, the items on display begin to tell their stories. Most interesting is the history of the Pullman car. In the beginning, it served as transport for a princely family; then became the headquarters car for the military high command; and then, most adventurous of all, it ended up with a circus. Converted to a bar, it finally had its day and was supposed to serve as a placard carrier. Luckily, the museum saved it from this sad fate.

In a harbor bazaar of the Pacific town of Kona, the young sailor Kiwe is offered a mysterious bottle, which supposedly gives her owner power and wealth and should fulfill all his wishes. The required return is however high. From now on, the soul of the new owner belongs to the devil.

The engineer Karl Hartmann invents a new, gigantic brown coal excavator. He discovers that there are large deposits below his home country and decides to use the excavator there.