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Spione
''Spione'' (English title: ''Spies'', under which title it was released in the United States) is a 1928 German silent espionage thriller directed by Fritz Lang and co-written with his wife, Thea von Harbou, who also wrote a novel of the same name, published a year later. The film was Lang's penultimate silent film and the first for his own production company; ''Fritz Lang-film GmbH''. As in Lang's Mabuse films, such as '' Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler'' (1922) and ''The Testament of Dr. Mabuse'' (1933), Rudolf Klein-Rogge plays a master criminal aiming for world domination. ''Spione'' was restored to something short of its original length by the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation during 2003 and '04. No original negatives survive but a high quality nitrate copy is held at the National Film Archive in Prague. Plot Germany, 1927: Beautiful Russian spy Sonja Baranikowa seduces Colonel Jellusič into betraying his country (an unnamed eastern European one) for her employer, Haghi, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thea Von Harbou
Thea Gabriele von Harbou (27 December 1888 – 1 July 1954) was a German screenwriter, novelist, film director, and actress. She is remembered as the screenwriter of the science fiction film classic ''Metropolis'' (1927) and for the 1925 novel on which it was based. Harbou collaborated as a screenwriter with film director Fritz Lang, her husband, during the period of transition from silent to sound films. Early life, family, and education Thea von Harbou was born in Tauperlitz (now part of Döhlau), Bavaria, in 1888, into a family of minor nobility and government officials, which gave her a level of sophisticated comfort. As a child, she was educated in a convent by private tutors who taught her several languages as well as piano and violin. She was a child prodigy. Her first works, a short story published in a magazine and a volume of poems published privately, focused on perceptions of art, subjects considered unusual for a girl of thirteen. Despite her privilege ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lien Deyers
Lien Deyers (formerly Nicolina Dijjers Spanier, born Nicolina Spanier; 5 November 1909 – after March 1982) was a Dutch actress based in Germany. Early life Lien Deyers was born Nicolina Spanier in Amsterdam on 5 November 1909, the daughter of Nathan Spanier, a piano teacher (1857–1916), and Johanna Adriana Nicolina Liefjes, a seamstress (1889–1920). She had a half-brother, Andries Liefjes, (1906–1960), who was from a previous relationship of Liefjes. After Spanier’s death, Johanna married the hotel-owner Egbert Dijjers (1874–1948) and the family moved to The Hague. At the early age of five her potential was noted by Amsterdam theatre owner and film producer David Sluizer, but she did not enter the film business. Deyers spent most of her childhood years in The Hague until her stepfather, Dijjers, remarried to the Austrian actress Lotte Erol. Deyers then traveled between The Hague, Vienna (where the family mostly lived), and Lausanne, where she went to a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rudolf Klein-Rogge
Friedrich Rudolf Klein (24 November 1885 – 29 May 1955), better known as Rudolf Klein-Rogge, was a German film actor, best known for playing sinister figures in films in the 1920s and 1930s as well as being a mainstay in director Fritz Lang's Weimar-era films. He is probably best known in popular culture, particularly to English-speaking audiences, for playing the archetypal mad scientist role of C. A. Rotwang in Lang's ''Metropolis'' and as the criminal genius Doctor Mabuse. Klein-Rogge also appeared in several important French films in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Biography Friedrich Rudolf Klein was born in Cologne, Germany on 24 November 1885. His father, Hermann Rudolf Klein, was a military lawyer who served as (the equivalent of Judge Advocate General) for the 15th Division of the Prussian Army, garrisoned at Cologne. His mother, Maria Bertha Emma Rose, was the daughter of a prominent landowner () in Lichteinen, East Prussia. The elder Klein hoped his son would f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gerda Maurus
Gerda Maurus (25 August 1903 – 31 July 1968) was an Austrian actress. She was of Croatian descent and initially made her name on stage in Vienna. While performing in the theatre, she was discovered by the director Fritz Lang during a visit to his native city. Lang cast her in the female lead in his silent thriller film ''Spione'' (1928) and she appeared in a number of German films during the Weimar and Nazi eras. Selected filmography * ''Spione'' (1928) * ''Frau im Mond'' (1929) * ''High Treason'' (1929) * ' (1930) * ''The Daredevil'' (1931) * '' Alarm at Midnight'' (1931) * '' The Stranger'' (1931) * '' Checkmate'' (1931) * '' Death Over Shanghai'' (1932) * '' The White Demon'' (1932) * ''Invisible Opponent'' (1933) * '' The Double'' (1934) * '' A Woman With Power of Attorney'' (1934) * ''The Cossack and the Nightingale'' (1935) * '' The Call of the Jungle'' (1936) * '' Daphne and the Diplomat'' (1937) * '' My Wife's Friends'' (1949) * ''The Little Town Will Go to Sleep '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Willy Fritsch
Willy Fritsch (27 January 1901 – 13 July 1973) was a German theater and film actor, a popular leading man and character actor from the silent-film era to the early 1960s. Biography Early life He was born Wilhelm Egon Fritz Fritsch, the only son of a factory owner in Kattowitz (present-day Katowice) in the Prussian province of Silesia. After the bankruptcy of his father in 1912, the family moved to Berlin, where Fritsch Sr. worked as an employee of the Siemens-Schuckert company. Young Willy originally planned an apprenticeship as a mechanic, but soon began working as an extra at the Großes Schauspielhaus theatre. 1919–1932 From 1919 he attended Max Reinhardt's drama school at the Deutsches Theater, where he debuted with small roles and played as understudy at times side by side with Marlene Dietrich (i.e. '' Spring Awakening''). He made his feature debut in films as a supporting player in 1920's '' Miss Venus'' and got his first important engagement in '' His Mysterious Adv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hertha Von Walther
Hertha von Walther (born Hertha Stern und Walter von Monbary, 12 June 1903 – 12 April 1987) was a German film actress. She appeared in 80 films between 1921 and 1983. Biography Hertha von Walther was born Hertha Stern und Walther von Monbary on 12 June 1903 to Clara Stern und Walther von Monbary (née Gabain) and the Prussian general Arthur Stern und Walther von Monbary (1853–1917). Her father had been born Arthur Stern-Gwiazdowski in Poland to a mother of French descent and was the adopted son of Rudolf Walther von Monbary. At 17 years old, von Walther left the boarding school she had been attending in Wolfenbüttel and went to the Leipzig acting school with a scholarship. Her first stage experience came at the Leipzig Opera, where she played as an extra. She later moved to Berlin and found work at the Theater am Zoo and the Renaissance Theater. von Walther made her film debut in ''Destinée'' (1920), followed by Julot the Apache (1921), and Duke Ferrante's En ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fritz Arno Wagner
Fritz Arno Wagner (5 December 1889 – 18 August 1958) is considered one of the most acclaimed German cinematographers from the 1920s to the 1950s. He played a key role in the Expressionist film movement during the Weimar period and is perhaps best known for excelling "in the portrayal of horror" according to noted film critic Lotte H. Eisner. Background Born in Schmiedefeld am Rennsteig, Germany, Wagner received his training at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1910, while still attending the University of Leipzig, he managed to secure a job as a clerk at the Pathé film company. In 1912, he became both secretary and chef at the Pathé offices in Vienna and later in Berlin. Career as cinematographer Interested in cinematography he became a newsreel cameraman in 1913 and was stationed in New York for Pathé Weekly where he reported on the Mexican Revolution. At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, he returned to Germany to enlist in his country's elite Hussar caval ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spy Film
The spy film, also known as the spy thriller, is a genre of film that deals with the subject of fictional espionage, either in a realistic way (such as the adaptations of John le Carré) or as a basis for fantasy (such as many James Bond films). Many novels in the spy fiction genre have been adapted as films, including works by John Buchan, le Carré, Ian Fleming (Bond) and Len Deighton. It is a significant aspect of British cinema, with leading British directors such as Alfred Hitchcock and Carol Reed making notable contributions and many films set in the British Secret Service. Spy films show the espionage activities of government agents and their risk of being discovered by their enemies. From the Nazi espionage thrillers of the 1940s to the James Bond films of the 1960s and to the high-tech blockbusters of today, the spy film has always been popular with audiences worldwide. Offering a combination of exciting escapism, technological thrills, and exotic locales, many spy fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 63. One of the best-known ''émigrés'' from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute. He has been cited as one of the most influential filmmakers of all time. Lang's most celebrated films include the groundbreaking futuristic ''Metropolis'' (1927) and the influential '' M'' (1931), a film noir precursor. His 1929 film '' Woman in the Moon'' showcased the use of a multi-stage rocket, and also pioneered the concept of a rocket launch pad (a rocket standing upright against a tall building before launch having been slowly rolled into place) and the rocket-launch countdown clock. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erich Pommer
Erich Pommer (20 July 1889 – 8 May 1966) was a German-born film producer and executive. Pommer was perhaps the most powerful person in the German and European film industries in the 1920s and early 1930s. As producer, Erich Pommer was involved in the German Expressionist film movement during the silent era. As the head of production at Decla Film, Decla-Bioskop, and, from 1924 to 1926, at UFA, Pommer was responsible for many of the best known movies of the Weimar Republic such as '' The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'' (1920), ''Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler'' (1922), '' Die Nibelungen'' (1924), ''Michael'' (1924), '' Der Letzte Mann / The Last Laugh'' (1924), '' Variety'' (1925), '' Tartuffe'' (1926), '' Manon Lescaut'' (1926), '' Faust'' (1926), ''Metropolis'' (1927) and '' The Blue Angel'' (1930). He later worked in American exile before returning to Germany to help rebuild the German film industry after World War II. Early life and career Pommer was born in Hildesheim, Province of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Hörbiger
Paul Hörbiger (29 April 1894 – 5 March 1981) was an Austrian theatre and film actor. Life and work Paul Hörbiger was born in the Hungarian capital Budapest, then part of Austria-Hungary, the son of engineer Hanns Hörbiger, founder of the ''Welteislehre'' cosmological concept, and elder brother of actor Attila Hörbiger. In 1902, the family returned to Vienna, while Paul attended the '' gymnasium'' (high school) at St. Paul's Abbey in Carinthia. Having obtained his ''Matura'' degree, he served in a mountain artillery regiment of the Austro-Hungarian Army in World War I, discharged in 1918 with the rank of an ''Oberleutnant''. After the war, Hörbiger took drama lessons and began his acting career in 1919 at the city theatre of Reichenberg (Liberec). From 1920, he performed at the New German Theatre in Prague. His fame grew when in 1926 he was employed by director Max Reinhardt at the ensemble of the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, reaching a high point with his appointmen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Craighall Sherry
Craighall Sherry (April 8, 1869; Glasgow, Scotland, UK - 1943 (age 73); Uxbridge, Middlesex, UK) was a British stage and film actor. Selected filmography * '' The Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands'' (1927) * ''Spione'' (1928) * '' Number 17'' (1928) * '' The Informer'' (1929) * ''The Loves of Robert Burns'' (1930) * ''Nell Gwyn'' (1934) * ''Royal Cavalcade ''Royal Cavalcade'', also known as ''Regal Cavalcade'', is a 1935 British, black-and-white, drama film directed by six separate directors: Thomas Bentley (Supervising Director), Herbert Brenon, Norman Lee, Walter Summers, W. P. Kellino and Mar ...'' (1935) Bibliography * Ott, Frederick W. ''The Films of Fritz Lang''. Citadel Press, 1979. External links * 1869 births 1943 deaths Scottish male silent film actors 20th-century Scottish male actors Scottish male stage actors {{UK-film-actor-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
