''Fugitive Road'' is a 1934 American

comedy drama film Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

directed by Frank R. Strayer and starring

Erich von Stroheim Erich Oswald Hans Carl Maria von Stroheim (born Erich Oswald Stroheim, ; September 22, 1885 – May 12, 1957) was an Austrian-American director, screenwriter, actor, and producer, most noted as a film star and avant-garde, visionary director of ...

Wera Engels Wera Engels (12 May 1905 – 16 November 1988) was a German actress. After successful leading roles in productions of the well-established German UFA-studios in Babelsberg as well as in France, she was invited to Hollywood. Producers saw her a ...

and

Leslie Fenton Leslie Fenton (12 March 1902 – 25 March 1978) was an English actor and film director. He appeared in more than 60 films between 1923 and 1945. Early life Fenton emigrated to America with his mother, Elizabeth Carter Fenton, and his brothe ...

. It is set a border post in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

following

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

."Stroheim Returns in Film at Rex" (''Spokane Daily Chronicle'', April 3, 1936, page ten)
/ref> A variety of different people trying to cross the border end up stranded there, including an American gangster and a naïve young Russian woman hoping to sail to New York to join her brother. It was shot at the

Universal Studios Universal Studios may refer to: * Universal Studios, Inc., an American media and entertainment conglomerate ** Universal Pictures, an American film studio ** Universal Studios Lot, a film and television studio complex * Various theme parks operat ...

with sets designed by the

art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

Edward C. Jewell.

Plot

Cast

as Hauptmann Oswald Von Traunsee *

as Sonya Valinoff *

as Frank Riker *

George Humbert George Humbert (born Umberto Gianni; July 29, 1880 – May 8, 1963) was an Italian-born American actor who appeared in more than 100 films between 1918 and the 1950s. He emigrated to the United States as a steerage passenger on board the Italian ...

as Papa Vinocchio *

Hank Mann Hank Mann (born David William Lieberman; May 28, 1887 – November 25, 1971) was a Russian-born, American comedian and silent screen star who was a member of the Keystone Cops, and appeared as a supporting player in many of Charlie Chaplin's ...

as Johann, Traunsee's orderly *

Harry Holman Harry James Holman (March 15, 1862 – May 3, 1947) was an American actor. He appeared in approximately 130 films from 1923 to 1947. Biography Born in Conway, Missouri, Holman dropped out of school in the ninth grade and began seeking w ...

as Burgomaster *

Ferdinand Schumann-Heink Ferdinand Schumann-Heink ( Schumann; born 9 August 1893 – 15 September 1958) was a German-born American character actor with over 65 films to his credit. Though most of his films were uncredited roles, he wrote the screenplay for the 1930 fi ...

as Doctor *

Michael Visaroff Michael Simeon Visaroff (born Mikhail Semenonovich Vizarov (Russian: Михаил Семёнович Визаров); December 18, 1889 – February 27, 1951) was a Russian-born character actor, who worked in the United States on stage and s ...

as Police capt. with moustache *

Wilhelm von Brincken Wilhelm von Brincken (May 27, 1881 – January 18, 1946), also known as Wilhelm L. von Brincken, William Vaughn, William von Brinken, and William Vaughan, was a German diplomat and spy during World War I, who went on to become an American charac ...

as Lieutenant Berne * Harry Allen as Herbert Smythe, ambulance driver *

Anna Demetrio Anna Demetrio (1890–1959) was an Italian-born American film actress.McLaughlin p.170 Speaking English with a heavy accent, she often played stock foreign characters in a series of supporting roles. In 1950 she starred in the sitcom '' Mama Rosa ...

as Mama Vinocchio *

Leonid Kinskey Leonid Kinskey (18 April 1903 – September 8, 1998) was a Russian-born American film and television actor, best known for his role as Sascha in the film ''Casablanca'' (1942). His last name was sometimes spelled Kinsky. Life and career Kinskey ...

as Nicholas Petrovich, tall smuggler *

Florence Enright Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence was a centre of medieval European tr ...

as Burgomaster's Wife * Harry Schultz as Sergeant *

Edith Kingdon Edith Mary Kingdon Gould (August 24, 1864 – November 13, 1921) was an American actress. She married George Jay Gould, American railroad developer and speculator known as one of the ruthless robber barons of the Gilded Age. Early life She w ...

as Tourist * Vangie Beilby as Tourist *

Hans Fuerberg Hans may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Hans (name), a masculine given name * Hans Raj Hans, Indian singer and politician ** Navraj Hans, Indian singer, actor, entrepreneur, cricket player and performer, son of Hans Raj Hans ** Yuvraj Hans, Punjabi a ...

as Second Lieutenant

References

Bibliography

* Michael R. Pitts. ''Poverty Row Studios, 1929–1940: An Illustrated History of 55 Independent Film Companies, with a Filmography for Each''. McFarland & Company, 2005.

External links

* * *
''Fugitive Road''
at ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...

'' (a slightly different version of this 1987 write-up was originally published in ''The Motion Picture Guide'') 1934 films 1934 comedy-drama films 1930s American films 1930s English-language films American black-and-white films American comedy-drama films Chesterfield Pictures films English-language comedy-drama films Films directed by Frank R. Strayer Films set in Austria Films set in the 1910s {{1930s-comedy-drama-film-stub