Gwynplaine, son of Lord Clancharlie, has a permanent smile carved on his face by the King, in revenge for Gwynplaine's father's treachery. Gwynplaine is adopted by a travelling showman and becomes a popular idol. He falls in love with the blind Dea. The king dies, and his evil jester tries to...
Prim professor Immanuel Rath finds some of his students ogling racy photos of cabaret performer Lola Lola and visits a local club, The Blue Angel, in an attempt to catch them there. Seeing Lola perform, the teacher is filled with lust, eventually resigning his position at the school to marry the...
As a young couple stops and rests in a small village inn, the man is abducted by Death and is sequestered behind a huge doorless, windowless wall. The woman finds a mystic entrance and is met by Death, who tells her three separate stories set in exotic locales, all involving circumstances similar...
Dr. Mabuse and his organization of criminals are in the process of completing their latest scheme, a theft of information that will allow Mabuse to make huge profits on the stock exchange. Afterwards, Mabuse disguises himself and attends the Folies Bergères show, where Cara Carozza, the main...
There is hunger in Siberia during the Russian Civil War. One day while dim-witted peasant Sergei is searching corpses for food, he meets a young woman looking for the town of Novokursk. She asks Sergei to help her get there, and to tell anyone they might meet that he is her husband.
This is a real curiosity; at best a reasonable film, but also a charming little gem. There is a story (in the line of "A Star is Born"), but this merely serves as an excuse, as it is more importantly a kind of moving encyclopedia of about 35 stars making their debut in a talkie (although some of...
Setting the standard for his later light-hearted biopics The Private Life of Henry VIII and Rembrandt, producer-director Alexander Korda steadfastly refuses to take any of The Private Life of Helen of Troy seriously. Maria Corda, wife of the director, plays the title character as a fetchingly...
Therese Duverne (Viola Dana) is bored with her even-tempered husband, Edmond (Adolphe Menjou). Isabelle Fevre (Gale Henry) suggests that Edmond go to the bicycle races and stay out all night. Then she takes Therese there and introduces her to manly Petit Mathieu, one of the racers (Maurice B....
Eva goes to Budapest to visit her friend Tini's wedding but as soon as she arrives, the husband-to-be breaks up with Tini. When Eva decides to take things into her own hand and follows him to the Hotel Atlantik.
Éva Balogh travels to Pest to attend her friend's wedding, but the wedding is cancelled because the groom backs out at the last minute (for the third time). Éva mistakenly blames Paul Murray, the world-famous pianist, for the broken marriage promise. The pianist, who changes his girlfriends...
To avert war between their countries an official marriage is arranged between Crown Prince Boris of Moraine and Princess Flavia of Norvia. Prince Karl of Norvia sees in the alliance an opportunity to gain control of both kingdoms but upon visiting Boris finds him unyielding and independent. Flavia,...
Archduke Alexander (Clive Brook) is better known for his sexual conquests than his diplomatic triumphs. After a lifetime of loving 'em and leaving 'em, the Archduke finally meets a girl he can't leave, Hungarian lass Judith Peredy (Billie Dove). She resists his advances but can't hide the fact that...
A Hungarian-Austrian comedy and one of the last emigrant films made in Austria before the industry submitted to pressure from Nazi Germany and ceased to employ Jewish filmmakers.
A French orphan who grew up in a convent sets out to see Paris. It turns out that she is the heir to a fortune but doesn't know it, and has been lured to Paris by one of the heirs who does know who she is; he plans to swindle her out of her inheritance so he can have everything.
When a criminal named King Fu who has terrorized a city substitutes himself for a stage actor who resembles him, the staff and spectators at that night's show think the actor is giving an unusually good performance.
By pure chance, Jessie and his four jazz musicians are hired to play at the cabaret theatre “Trocadero”. Unfortunately, she knows nothing about music and it doesn’t help that all four musicians are in love with her. Jessie doesn’t reciprocate their feelings, because she has a thing for...
The sons of small town store owner Anton Polgar have abandoned him for the big city, until financial problems there lead him to rescue them and bring them back.
Out of the three-part burlesque, the only surviving one is the one called Pufi would buy a pair of shoes, with Hungarian inserts. The film is shot on a real-life location, in a Budapest shoe shop, and it portrays the mutual efforts of a puny sales assistant and Pufi, the bladder-of-lard customer,...
