Oskar Homolka was an Austrian film and theatre actor, who went on to work in Germany, Britain, and America. Both his voice and his appearance fitted him for roles as communist spies or Soviet officials, for which he was in regular demand. By the age of 30, he had appeared in more than 400 plays; his film career covered at least 100 films and TV shows.
Heinrich Wilhelm "Heinz" Rühmann was a German film actor who appeared in over 100 films between 1926 and 1993. He is one of the most famous and popular German actors of the 20th century, and is considered a German film legend. Rühmann is best known for playing the part of a comic ordinary citizen in film comedies such as Three from the Filling Station and The Punch Bowl. During his later years, he was also a respected character actor in films such as The Captain from Köpenick and It Happened in Broad Daylight. His only English-speaking movie was the 1965 Ship of Fools.
Hocus-pocus is an exclamation used by magicians, usually the magic words spoken when bringing about some sort of change.
Lilian Harvey was a British-German actress and singer, long based in Germany, where she is best known for her role as Christel Weinzinger in Erik Charell's 1931 film Der Kongreß tanzt.
Willy Fritsch was a German theater and film actor, a popular leading man and character actor from the silent-film era to the early 1960s.
Spione 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, Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler (1922) and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933), Rudolf Klein-Rogge plays a master criminal aiming for world domination.
Der Kongress tanzt is a German musical comedy film produced in 1931 by Ufa, directed by Erik Charell, starring Lilian Harvey as Christel Weinzinger, the glove seller, Willy Fritsch as Tsar Alexander I of Russia and his doppelgänger, Uralsky, Otto Wallburg as Bibikoff, his Adjutant, Conrad Veidt as Prince Metternich, Carl-Heinz Schroth as his Secretary, Pepi, Lil Dagover as the Countess and Alfred Abel as the King of Saxony.
Oscar or Oskar is a masculine given name of English and Irish origin.
The Friedhof Heerstraße cemetery is located at Trakehnerallee 1, district of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf in Berlin, Germany, to the east of the Olympiastadion. It covers an area of 149,650 square meters.
Curt Goetz, born Kurt Walter Götz, was a Swiss German writer, actor and film director. He was regarded as one of the most brilliant German comedy writers of his time. With his wife Valérie von Martens, he acted in his own plays and also filmed them. He was a distant relative of Irish writer George Bernard Shaw, to whom he was often compared.
Willy Schmidt-Gentner was one of the most successful German composers of film music in the history of German-language cinema. He moved to Vienna in 1933. At his most productive, he scored up to 10 films a year, including numerous classics and masterpieces of the German and Austrian cinema.
Burglars is a 1930 German musical comedy film directed by Hanns Schwarz and starring Ralph Arthur Roberts, Lilian Harvey, Willy Fritsch, and Heinz Rühmann. It is also known in English by the alternative title Murder For Sale. It is based on the French play "Guignol le cambrioleur" by Louis Verneuil, who co-wrote the screenplay. A French-language version, titled Flagrant délit, was filmed at the same time. The film was intended by the studio UFA as a follow-up to the hit musical The Three from the Filling Station.
The Temporary Widow is a 1930 British-German comedy film, an English-language parallel version directed by Gustav Ucicky and starring Anglo-German actress and singer Lilian Harvey, Laurence Olivier in his first film role, and Athole Stewart.
Hocuspocus is a 1953 West German comedy crime film directed by Kurt Hoffmann and starring Curt Goetz, Valerie von Martens and Hans Nielsen. Based on Goetz's own play from 1926 and on the first movie of 1930 of which an English-language version was made at the same time, it was remade in 1966 in color as Hocuspocus.
The Three from the Filling Station is a 1930 German musical film directed by Wilhelm Thiele and starring Lilian Harvey, Willy Fritsch, Heinz Rühmann, and Oskar Karlweis. Produced by Erich Pommer, the film was a major success for the UFA studio, outgrossing even The Blue Angel. Several songs composed by Werner R. Heymann and performed by the Comedian Harmonists have remained popular up to today. The film also had a heavy influence on Hollywood musicals during the 1930s.
Oskar Leopold Karlweis was an Austrian-American stage and film actor, active internationally in both the silent as well as the sound era.
Lucky Kids is a 1936 German romantic comedy film directed by Paul Martin and starring Lilian Harvey, Willy Fritsch, and Paul Kemp. It was shot at the Babelsberg Studios in Berlin. The film's sets were designed by the art director Erich Kettelhut.
Seven Slaps is a 1937 German comedy film directed by Paul Martin and starring Lilian Harvey, Willy Fritsch and Alfred Abel. Like the earlier Lucky Kids, which had the same director and stars, it was an attempt to create a German version of screwball comedy. While the previous film had a New York setting, this takes place in London. It was shot at the Babelsberg Studios in Berlin. The film's sets were designed by the art director Erich Kettelhut. It was loosely remade in 1970 as Slap in the Face.
A Blonde Dream is a 1932 German musical comedy film directed by Paul Martin and starring Lilian Harvey, Willy Fritsch and Willi Forst. A separate English-language version Happy Ever After was made as a co-production with Gainsborough Pictures. A French-language version was also released.
