Such Great Foolishness

In 1848, the freedom-loving Hungarian people, led by Ludwig Kossuth, rose up against the hated rule of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty. In its expansionist policy, the Austrian monarchy had long relied on Hungarian feudal lords who betrayed the interests of their people. The anger of the rebels was directed against the Austrian oppressors and their Hungarian supporters. Against the backdrop of these historical events, the personal fate of the Hungarian patriot Maria Ilona is shown.

Lola Montes, previously a great adventuress, is reduced to being the attraction of a circus after having been the lover of various important men.

Johann Strauss firmly established himself as the leader of a dance orchestra in Vienna in the 1840s. His sons Johann junior and Josef have clearly inherited their father's talent. Nevertheless, father Johann is strictly opposed to both of them training as composers.

The husband of Countess Manon Moreau is found murdered. André Rabatin, who belongs to the same club as Count Moreau, is the suspect. Rabatin, a old-school gentleman, affirms his innocence to the widow and claims that the death of the count must have been a tragic accident. Manon believes Rabatin and begins to fall in love with him. But Rabatin himself suspects that she has murdered her husband.

The young Marion is arrested by the police for pimping, prostitution and indecent exposure. Reporter Axel Rottmann sense a lucrative story for his newspaper. He makes a deal with Marion, to tell her story.

The love of a young Austrian aristocrat to a circus rider is put on a heavy load test when becomes obvious that the former officer has killed the brother of the young woman, a traitor of the country, in the duel.

Johann Strauss helps the business of a Viennese wine merchant and his daughter by showing up to conduct the orchestra at a party.

Begun in 1944/45, finished and released in 1949, this is a biography of the composer Carl Michael Ziehrer, who overcomes hypersensitivity in competitive situations which leads initially to failures in both career and romance.

Two German soldiers in the Norwegian Campaign.

The street urchin Scampolo (which means, "A Nothing"), who sleeps at night in a telephone booth and earns a little money running errands for a laundry, falls in love with a despondent, out-of-work bank manager in Depression-torn Germany, and thereby becomes a woman in the eyes of other men.

Tenor Mario Monti is searching for his wife Bianca's daughter, who is believed to be dead. Before Mario, Bianca was married to Carlo Scarpia, Mario's patron. When Carlo discovered that his wife and Mario were having an affair, he left them both and, as he was leaving, told Bianca that their daughter Mary had died. In reality, she grew up without knowing her real parents. Mario tracks Mary down in Munich, where she works as a ballerina at the State Opera.

Klementine Plamershof is a fun-loving young woman. She has long been “confined” to a girls’ boarding school, where she is studying music with growing reluctance.

Biopic about Ludwig van Beethoven.

On New Year's Eve 1900, Paul Holzgruber started a new praxis as a radiologist. The young Maximiliane Frey is his assistant and they have worked side by side for years helping people. Holzgruber repeatedly points out the dangers of radiation to Maximiliane, but is silent about the ulcers on his hand and the severe pain they have caused. Maximiliane has gotten to know the widower Axel von Bonin and has fallen in love with him. But then she is diagnosed with incurable cancer. To spare Axel the inevitable grief over her impending death, she leaves him and dedicates what is left her life to medicine.

An episode in the life of the Austrian composer Franz Schubert, who wrote the most beautiful love songs, but whose love life was very unhappy: The timid, myopic and rather portly Schubert falls for the beautiful, blond Countess Maria Esterhazy and has impossibly unrealistic fantasies about the two of them as she only admires him for his music. When he’s fired from his position as a teacher in the parish school, the village innkeeper Therese, who secretly has the hots for Schubert, gets him an engagement at a concert in Palace Esterhazy.

In postwar Vienna, Austria, Holly Martins, a writer of pulp Westerns, arrives penniless as a guest of his childhood chum Harry Lime, only to learn he has died. Martins develops a conspiracy theory after learning of a "third man" present at the time of Harry's death, running into interference from British officer Major Calloway, and falling head-over-heels for Harry's grief-stricken lover, Anna.

A risque drawing is published and threatens to compromise the model, a doctor's wife. Artist Heideneck protects her and invents a name. But the name exists, and this respectable lady is drawn into the artist's shady affairs.

When linguistics professor Henry Higgins boasts that he can pass off Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle as a princess with only six months' training, Colonel George Pickering takes him up on the bet. Eliza moves into Higgins's home and begins her rigorous training after the professor comes to a financial agreement with her dustman father, Alfred. But the plucky young woman is not the only one undergoing a transformation.

Composer Franz Schubert becomes involved with a family with three daughters, falling in love with the two blonds, first one, then the other; but will he notice the quiet brunet third daughter, who has fallen madly in love with him?

Ariane was Hungarian director Paul Czinner's first talking picture. Starring in the title role is Czinner's charming wife, Elizabeth Bergner, likewise making her talkie debut. Young, naive Ariane sets herself for an emotional fall when she falls in love with Konstantin (Rudolf Forster), a much older and very married businessman. For his part, Konstantin regards the girl as just another harmless fling -- until he realizes a shade too late that he's really in love with her after all. Filmed in German, Ariane was simultaneously lensed in an English-language version, The Loves of Ariane.

Musical comedy about a famous opera star in Vienna.

Prince Alexander loves the commoner Vera and defies his uncle the Tzar as well as his peers by arranging his wedding. But Vera leaves him because she does not want to be the cause of him spending the rest of his life as a social outcast.

A classical art junk dealer and an almost bankrupt hairdresser who unexpectedly makes an inheritance go hunting behind thirteen chairs from which of a 100,000 DM contains which the rich aunt has hidden there.

Young Count Georg Wolkersheim is sent to the Congress of Vienna to represent the interests of his country, Reuss-Schleiz-Greiz. Tensions arise between the count, his wife Melanie, and their two chamberlains, and when the four attend a court ball, Melanie leaves Georg, assumes the identity of a famous actress, and attracts the affections of Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria.

The residents of the villages Strasslach and Rott are anything but friends. The residents of the “enemy” town are ridiculed at every chance the residents of the other village can get to do so. And it’s no different, when Rott is getting ready to celebrate the 300th anniversary of its founding. The residents of Strasslach ridicule their neighbors, because the Rotters don’t want to celebrate the anniversary, because it’ll cost money. Even the church doesn’t have an organ, because that would cost money, too.

The wintry mountainscapes of Bavaria provide the backdrop for this airy German comedy. The story is set in motion when young clerk Boenecke (Richard Romanowsky) accidentally delivers a check to the wrong bank. Boenecke's boss Schumann (Walter Steinbeck) suspects the clerk of embezzlement -- especially since our hero has taken off on an extended Alpine vacation with his sweetheart Hilde (Magda Schneider). Before this comic chain reaction can be straightened out, hero and heroine have become entangled with a gang of female pickpockets. Essentially a "moonlight and strudel" confection, Winterachtstraum was perfect escapist entertainment for Magda Schneider's legions of fans.

It’s 1910 and we’re in the duchy of Lauffenburg. Everybody is celebrating the 600th birthday of the local hero, Otto the Ironman, who in his time saved the duchy from annexation and beat the enemy so badly, that he fled ... well, that’s what it says in the history books, at least. Local gossip asserts, however, that Otto wasn’t even part of the battle and was spending his time having fun with a pretty girl. When one day a piece is introduced at the court theatre, which tells the heroic story of Otto, the director rejects the mediocre story.

A young woman working as a secretary for a Berlin car business tries to impress a rich Australian visitor by pretending she is a foreign countess.

After living in the tropics for five years, Peter Asfeld returns to Amsterdam and wants to marry his childhood friend Julia Vermehren. However, his future father-in-law has read in the horoscope that Peter will one day commit a theft and demands that he do so before the wedding. Peter can't get the thought out of his head, and even in his dreams he commits all kinds of crimes. Inspired by so much imagination, he kidnaps Julia, his future wife, the next day. But the horoscope was wrong.

Peter, a writer, lives the life of a carefree bachelor, but soon gets to know a charming girl during a trip, falls in love with her, and marries her right away. Only after he returns to his elegant apartment in Vienna, does he start to wonder, whether Marianne will fit in amidst his circle of spoiled acquaintances. His well-meant advice on how she should behave makes Marianne so insecure, that she ends up acting quite clumsy and scares off his friends. Peter is angry and Marianne is so upset, that she wants to return back to her parents. On the way there, she has an experience, which shows her her mistake. She turns around and now strives to become an elegant lady of the world.