Ernst Legal

France at the time of the Restoration. The young country gentleman Rastignac comes to Paris to study. He takes up residence in a poor boarding house, where his father Goriot, who has been excluded by his daughters, also lives. The penniless Rastignac is anxious to gain a foothold in Parisian society. His cousin advises him to take the rich banker's wife Delphine, one of Goriot's daughters, as his mistress, which he does. At the same time, however, he falls in love with the laundress Yvette. He is unable to make up his mind when boarding house guest Vautrin suggests a third option: To marry Victorine, the disinherited daughter of a millionaire, and kill her brother in a duel in order to get his inheritance after all. Rastignac agrees. This is his downfall. Instead of high society, he ends up in the gutter.

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Diederich Heßling is scared of everything and everyone. But as he grows up, he comes to realize that he has to offer his services to the powers-that-be if he wants to wield power himself. His life motto now runs: bow to those at the top and tread on those below. In this way, he always succeeds: as a student in a duel-fighting student fraternity and as a businessman in a paper factory. He cajoles the obese district administrative president Von Wulkow and wins his favor. He slanders his financial rivals and hatches a plot with the social democrats in the town council. On his honeymoon with his rich wife Guste, he finally finds a chance to do his beloved Kaiser a favor. And when a memorial to the Kaiser is unveiled in the town where Diederich lives and works, he delivers the address. He stands behind the lectern in the pouring rain, saluting his Kaiser. The crowd is dispersed. Everything is laid in ruins...

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Melodrama set during wartime.

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Penniless Peter Schild looks for work when arrived in Germany. Working as a private eye he has to observe a young lady who is willing to marry an unemployed actor against the will of her parents.

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Shortly after WWII, the DEFA Studios produced a series of operas and operettas which belonged to the classical German musical heritage. This enchanting film, the very first opera production of DEFA, stands out because of its lavish decor and costumes, its outstanding actors and their masterful voices of that time.

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In 1948, students from Berlin University take part in the filming of a movie about the 1848 revolution as extras. A dispute arises between Else and Heinz, who tends to dismiss the revolution as a comical affair. Two fiercely opposing camps form at the university. But Heinz begins to reflect, and reading about a young student who lost his life in the turbulent days a hundred years earlier slowly changes his attitude. The conclusion of the filming at the Wartburg also reunites him with Else.

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While on leave in Berlin during the Second World War, a soldier named Hans meets a young woman named Monika. They fall in love and make plans for a future together after the war. Yet their later attempts to find an apartment and get married are hindered by the housing shortage and they have to stay separately with relatives.

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Professor Schott, director of the Oberland Mountain Observatory, has discovered a new star, which he names "Nova Hercules." Working alongside him are Dr. Gerellis and Dr. Alvens, both vying for the affections of the new assistant, Dr. Aenne Bruck, while the professor's wife, unhappy in her marriage, is interested in Dr. Gerellis and therefore wants a divorce. Due to the emotional entanglements, disappointment, and jealousy, considerable tension arises at the observatory. Then Professor Schott is found dead—poisoned with cyanide. Initially, Gerellis is suspected of the murder, but a photograph of the newly discovered star takes an unexpected turn.

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Young newlywed Martin Mansfeld suspects his wife Maria Mansfeld of infidelity and together with his friend sets a trap for her.

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Jordan, a famous criminal lawyer, will only represent clients, of whose innocence he is convinced (must be financially not-too-well-off). One day, his future son-in-law, the jeweler Fabian, is arrested on suspicion of murder on the day before his wedding. He is said to have murdered his ex-wife, the dancer Ria Norady. The conductor Gillmore found her dead in her dressing room shortly after a visit from Fabian. Gisela Jordan asks her father to defend him. After speaking to Fabian, the lawyer is convinced he's innocent. But since there is no proof of this, he decides to go and try and find the real murderer himself.

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1944 film.

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The young Eva Heldmann has inherited a publishing house, which she is running in an exemplary fashion. However, she still has a co-heir, Stefan Gudewill, who is considered a good-for-nothing and who has been missing since he was 18 years old. With the help of a detective, Eva locates Stefan in a small town and goes to pay him off so she can run the publishing house alone. When she finally meets Stefan and gets to know him, she is convinced that he really is a good-for-nothing. But due to his rather swashbuckling style, she falls in love with him against her will. The two come together, but then split after a misunderstanding. Eva leaves, convinced she will never see him again. Yet one day, a new employee from the shipping department comes to her and Eva recognizes that it is Stefan, who wants to work his way up from the bottom to become a worthy partner.

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A man and a woman struggle to stifle their love for each other, even after he moves away to travel the world and she marries a suitor.

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A grieving husband tries to uncover the truth behind his wife's suicide, leading him to discover a tragic tale of infidelity and redemption.

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A dramatization of the melodramatic story that inspired the popular opera, Pagliacci.German language version of a film simultaneously shot in an Italian version.

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An aging musician looks back on his life, his roots in a country village, his loves, and his brief imprisonment.

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Movie adaptation of the Leoncavalo's famous opera. A troupe of traveling actors is being welcomed by villagers in Calabria in the summer of 1866.

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Historical drama portraying the life of German baroque architect Andreas Schlüter.

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Anna Jobst is the daughter of a rich, conservative farmer. Living on the bank of the Moldau, she wishes nothing more than follow the river to Prague, the "Golden City". After arriving, she quickly falls into a bad crowd.

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Already a famous painter, Rembrandt van Rijn is commissioned to paint the Amsterdam Archers' Guild. But upon completion of the picture, the men of the guild feel duped, because they don't consider themselves flatteringly depicted in the painting. They therefore decline to pay for the work. During this dispute, the painter finds out his wife is close to death. He finds himself terribly lonely after her passing and suffers from depression until he decides once more to marry.

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A widowed landlady in East Prussia, who, despite his acquittal by the court, believes the forester to have murdered her husband, opposes her son's marriage to the forester's daughter and even wants to sell the farm because of it. The exposure of a border smuggler as the perpetrator turns everything around for the better.

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An adventurous peasant is supposed to be hanged, but gets told about life after death, how beautiful it is, and wants to get into heaven anyway even if he should be pardoned. A woman complicates the matter.

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Eduard Winkelmann, the owner of an apartment building in Munich, never tires of making life difficult for his renters. One day, a young woman, Erika, shows up at his door. She is the illegitimate daughter of a long-past love affair.

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Because his future wife abandoned him shortly before the wedding, an old baron has decided that he doesn't want any women near him anymore. The daughter of the flaky woman decides to take it upon herself to get the baron and her mother back together again and dresses up as a gypsy boy to use music from "his" violin to soften the baron's heart ...

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A villager is tempted by a sophisticated city woman and almost kills his wife in a boating accident.

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The cashier, Jürgen Borb, has already worked for 10 years at Dadag in Hamburg and is an example for customer service and company loyalty. His professionalism are matched by the trust of his employers, who, while relating to him in an acceptable manner professionally, desire no closer contact with him outside of the workplace. When Borb suddenly disappears one day, Dadag's directors and Borb's colleagues are surprised. They become even more surprised when they soon discover that Borb has embezzled well over a million marks from the firm. His stepsister, Mette, doesn't believe that her stepbrother is an embezzler. In the meantime, she has fallen in love with a criminal investigator, who, she believes, is simply exploiting her affections to get to Borb. Then one day, the criminal investigator finds a body in the cellar of a house Borb rented under a false name and this man created a phony ID card for Borb, identifying him as a resident of a South American country.

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Der Florentiner Hut (The Leghorn Hat), a 1939 German film directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner

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When a young woman becomes aware of her husband's wandering attentions, she plots his retribution.

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Paris, 1830: Jean-Gaspard Debureau performs on the stage and delights his audience with song, wit and charm. He is, however, very unpopular with King Charles X, who is the target of much of Debureau's scornful jests. That would be a somewhat tolerable situation if it weren't for the fact that Debureau has fallen for a countess, who happens to be the King's mistress.

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When a young woman becomes aware of her husband's wandering attentions, she plots his comeuppance.

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A man, feeling unappreciated, leaves his wife for a cabaret singer, while the wife meets a young pilot and decides to join him abroad.

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Nazi era depiction of decadent British aristocracy: A madcap country heiress was betrothed to a Lord but runs off with a young inventor after she is found in a compromising position, to avoid a scandal.

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When the dancer Carmen visits the bullfighter Antonio, who has stabbed a gypsy, in prison, she meets the dragoon brigadier José. The two immediately take a liking to each other, and from that day on, José often visits the café where Carmen dances. When Carmen injures another dancer in a jealous quarrel, José is ordered to arrest her...

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