Birthday:
09-22-1885
Deathday:
05-12-1957 (71 years)
Birthplace:
Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]
Biography
Erich von Stroheim (September 22, 1885 – May 12, 1957) was a multifaceted Austrian-American actor, director, and writer known for his contributions to cinema during the silent film era. He was renowned for his meticulous attention to detail as a director and for portraying intense, often morally ambiguous characters on screen. Stroheim gained fame for directing and starring in films like "Greed" and "The Merry Widow." His style was marked by elaborate storytelling and a commitment to realism. Stroheim's career was impactful, though often marked by conflicts with studios due to his uncompromising vision, which led to some of his films being heavily edited against his wishes.
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Their works
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Sunset Boulevard
Act like Max von Mayerling
event1950 star_border 8.3
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A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.
Grand Illusion
Act like Le capitaine von Rauffenstein
event1937 star_border 7.8
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A group of French soldiers, including the patrician Captain de Boeldieu and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal, grapple with their own class differences after being captured and held in a World War I German prison camp. When the men are transferred to a high-security fortress, they must concoct a plan to escape beneath the watchful eye of aristocratic German officer von Rauffenstein, who has formed an unexpected bond with de Boeldieu.
Alraune
Act like Jacob ten Brinken
event1952 star_border 5.3
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In the 1800s, a stormy love relationship develops quickly between a young medical student and a woman believing herself to be the daughter of his scientist uncle, the student having never heard of her before their chance encounter and both unaware that she is the result of the scientist's illegal experiments with artificial insemination..
The Great Flamarion
Act like The Great Flamarion
event1945 star_border 6.2
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A beautiful but unscrupulous female performer manipulates all the men in her life in order to achieve her aims.
Foolish Wives
Act like Count Wladislaw Sergius Karamzin
event1922 star_border 6.6
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A con artist masquerades as Russian nobility and attempts to seduce the wife of an American diplomat.
Screen Snapshots, Series 3, No. 12
Act like Self
event1922
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Another entry in the popular one-reel series.
The Wedding March
Act like Nicki / Prince Nickolas
event1928 star_border 7
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A young impoverished aristocrat falls in love with an inn-keeper's daughter, but has to marry money.
Five Graves to Cairo
Act like Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
event1943 star_border 6.9
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The British Army, retreating ahead of victorious Rommel, leaves a lone survivor on the Egyptian border who finds refuge at a remote desert hotel. He assumes the identity of a recently deceased waiter and is helped by the hotel's owner, despite protest from the French chambermaid, who fears the imminent arrival of Rommel and the Germans.
The Honeymoon
Act like Prince Nicki
event1929
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The honeymoon of Prince Nicki in the Alps, and the wedding of Mitzi and Schani. Mitzi still loves Nicki, and jealous Schani decides once again to kill the prince. Schani shoots at Nicki, but Cecilia throws herself in front of Nicki. Schani becomes a fugitive and goes into hiding. Nicki and Mitzi meet one last time, where Mitzi tells Nicki that she will go to a convent. Nicki goes off to war, where he is killed. Sequel to von Stroheim's The Wedding March released only in Europe. The only known copy was destroyed in a fire at the Cinémathèque Française in 1959.
Personal Column
Act like Pears, l'ex-couturier
event1939 star_border 6.6
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To try solving the strange disappearances of 11 young Parisian women, the police obtain the services of Adrienne Charpentier, friend of the latest missing person.
Boys' School
Act like Walter, le professeur d'anglais
event1938 star_border 7.3
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In a college, three friends form a secret society. Their objective - going to America. One night, after one of their secret meetings, one of them sees a man coming out from a wall. The next day, after he talks about it, he disappears. Then, the second one vanishes. Are they gone to their dreams? That's when the art teacher is murdered. Suspicions now are too high so the third one decides to investigate.
The Mask of Diijon
Act like Diijon
event1946 star_border 4.9
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A stage illusionist plots a revenge after a particularly humiliating comeback attempt.
The North Star
Act like Dr. von Harden
event1943 star_border 6.1
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A Ukrainian village must suddenly contend with the Nazi invasion of June 1941. Later re-edited and released as "Armored Attack."
Alibi
Act like Winckler
event1937 star_border 6.5
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Paris, 1937. Winckler kills his enemy Gordon, a Chicago mobster, from the stage of a Parisian music hall, where he performs telepathy. He pays another artist, Helene, so that she tells the police they've spent the night together, which doesn't fool Callas, the police officer who investigates the murder. He hires one of his fellow officers in order to seduce Helene.
Portrait of a Murderer
Act like Eric
event1949 star_border 5.7
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A circus daredevil is the next victim of a danger-seducing woman who tricks him into a potentially deadly stunt after he attempted to kill her.
Blind Husbands
Act like Lt. Erich von Steuben
event1919 star_border 6.4
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An Austrian military officer and rogue attempts to seduce the wife of a surgeon. The two men confront each other in a test of abilities that ends surprisingly.
La Vie des artistes
Act like Self
event1938
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Everything you wanted to know about your favorite circus, radio and movie stars. They tell you about their lives and likes and dislikes.
The Legend of Rudolph Valentino
Act like Self (archive footage)
event1961
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A documentary of Hollywood's first great Latin Lover, the contradictions in his personal life, and his premature death.
The Lost Squadron
Act like Arthur von Furst
event1932 star_border 6.3
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When World War I comes to an end, three pilots find themselves on hard times. They wind up in Hollywood, where they work as stunt fliers for a sadistic director.
Three Faces East
Act like Valdar / Schiller Blecher
event1930 star_border 4.7
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The action takes place during the Great War in the home of the First Lord of the Admiralty.
Marthe Richard
Act like van Ludlow
event1937 star_border 4.5
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Fictionalized reconstruction of the life of the French spy Marthe Richard who decided to contact the secret services during the First World War.
Storm Over Lisbon
Act like Deresco
event1944 star_border 4.8
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A nightclub star helps trap an enemy agent on the trail of an American newsman.
As You Desire Me
Act like Carl Salter
event1932 star_border 6.2
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Bar entertainer Zara is a discontented alcoholic who is pursued by many men but lives with novelist Carl Salter. One day, Tony shows up on Salter's estate claiming that Zara is actually Maria, the wife of his close friend Bruno, claiming that her memory was destroyed during World War I. Zara doesn't remember but leaves with Tony to Salter's dismay. Bruno, now an officer in the Italian Army, tries to coax Maria's memory back on his large estate. No one is really sure if Zara is Maria, and when Salter shows up with a mental case from Trieste that he claims is the real Maria, everyone on Bruno's estate is desperately searching for the truth.
Devil and the Angel
Act like Frank Davis
event1946 star_border 5.4
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The Director of an international banknote printing institute, mutilated by the face of the Great War, Frank Davres, falls in love with a young woman, Jeanne, admirably beautiful, but blind. He marries her. For her, he ruins himself and comes to issue counterfeit banknotes. The young woman does everything to make people forget her infirmity. One day, following an operation, she recovers her sight and notices the physical and moral ugliness of her husband. She hides her cure until the day when Frank, taken by the police, kills one of his accomplices and commits suicide. Jeanne leaves to join a friend with whom she was performing in a circus.
Thunder Over Paris
Act like Korlick
event1940 star_border 5.5
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An international crook hunted by the police comes to Paris to save his daughter from the clutches of a blackmailer friend of a cabaret singer with eccentric outfits.
Behind the Facade
Act like Eric, German naturalized French
event1939 star_border 7.8
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In the elevator of two large Parisian buildings, a telegraph operator discovers the body of an elderly woman, Madame Mathieu, the owner of both buildings. Boucheron, the local superintendent, is dispatched to investigate, along with his rival, Inspector Lambert of the "Sûreté". To solve the enigma, they scour staircases and corridors, visiting every floor of both buildings, courtyard and facade. Their gruff rivalry allows them to complement each other in discovering who committed the crime among a gallery of characters, humble or rich, who all have something to be ashamed of... A rare, fast-paced, picturesque comedy set against the backdrop of a police mystery.
The World Will Shake
Act like Emil Lasser / Monsieur Frank
event1939 star_border 6.7
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In this sci-fi film, a scientist invents a prescient machine that can tell people when they will die. Oddly enough, the people do not want to know and therefore begin to riot…
The Great Gabbo
Act like Gabbo
event1929 star_border 5.5
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For the ventriloquist Gabbo his wooden dummy Otto is the only means of expression. When he starts relying more and more on Otto, he starts going mad.
The Lady and the Monster
Act like Prof. Franz Mueller
event1944 star_border 5.8
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A millionaire's brain is preserved after his death by a scientist and his two assistants, only to create a telepathic monster.
Friends and Lovers
Act like Victor Sangrito
event1931 star_border 5
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British Army captain Geoff Roberts carries on an affair with Alva, the wife of the cruel Victor Sangrito. Sangrito, however, is well aware of the affair, as he uses his beautiful wife to lure men into romance with her, then blackmailing them to save their careers.
Stroheim in Vienna
Act like Self
event1948
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Issue No. 162 (date: July 16, 1948) of the Austrian newsreel "Welt im Film" shows Erich von Stroheim's arrival in Vienna as part of the cast of Ernst Neubach's French feature film "Le signal rouge" (1949). Translation of the newsreel voice-over: "On board the Arlberg Express, the famous American film star Erich von Stroheim arrived in Vienna. He is accompanied by the producer and author-director Ernst Neubach, the French actresses Denise Vernac and Claude Chenard, and upcoming talent Franck Villard. Erich von Stroheim, born in Vienna, left Austria for Hollywood before World War I and made a big international career there. This is his film debut in his home country."
The Unbeliever
Act like Herr Lieutenant Kurt von Schnieditz
event1918 star_border 6.1
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A wealthy young American, bred to class distinction and racial intolerance, enters the Marines during the First World War. In the course of his training and his experiences in the trenches fighting, being wounded by, and being hospitalized with Germans, he comes to a recognition of the equality and brotherhood of men.
The Crime of Doctor Crespi
Act like Dr. Andre Crespi
event1935 star_border 4.6
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A crazed scientist invents a serum that induces a catatonic state in anyone who gets the injection. He uses the serum to paralyze his enemies, in order to bury them alive.
The Heart of Humanity
Act like Eric von Eberhard
event1918 star_border 6.1
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The story centers around Nanette, an American girl living in a small Canadian village, who is in love with John Patricia, the eldest of five brothers. The war interrupts their romantic idyll, as everyone goes overseas to Belgium and France. Nanette becomes a Red Cross nurse and is terrorized by the evil Prussian Lt. von Eberhard.
Série noire
Act like Sacha Zavaroff
event1955 star_border 2
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Léo Fardier is a police inspector who goes to prison undercover as a convict. He shares a cell with Mariani, a Corsican mafioso, whose trust he earns. The day Léo leaves prison, the criminal entrusts him with a letter to deliver to his estranged wife. He finds her, and she falls under his spell. The problem is that he, too, has fallen in love with her.
So Ends Our Night
Act like Brenner
event1941 star_border 6
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An anti-Nazi on the run and a young Jewish couple race across Europe trying to escape Hitler's ever powerful influence.
Crimson Romance
Act like Capt. Wolters
event1934 star_border 6
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After Fred von Bergen, a German immigrant in America, is forced from his job by anti-German hysteria before the first world war, he and his friend Bob Wilson leave America and join the German air force. There, both men fall in love with ambulance driver Alida Hoffman. When America enters the war, Bob is caught between loyalty to his home country and the threat of execution for desertion and treason to Germany. It remains for his friend Fred to extricate him from the dilemma - but at what cost?
The Man You Loved to Hate
Act like Self (archive footage)
event1979 star_border 6.3
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The Man You Loved To Hate blends revealing interviews, rare photographs, and clips from von Stroheim's legendary and lesser-known works to create a fascinating tribute to one of American cinema's most complex artists.
Scotland Yard Investigator
Act like Carl Hoffmeyer
event1945 star_border 5.7
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A London curator loses the Mona Lisa to a collector, who discovers it's a fake.
Other Side of Paradise
Act like William O'Hara
event1953 star_border 5
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Complicated intrigues fester in the warmth of Segnac, a charming village on the Cô te d'Azur. The hô teliers' daughter, Violaine, has only a few months to live and loves Blaise d'Orliac, who is closely watched by his mistress Michèle. Old O'Hara is platonically in love with Violaine and encourages Blaise's meetings with the young girl. Michèle interferes. Blaise kills her. O'Hara believes Violaine is guilty and wants to accuse himself. Violaine, on the verge of death, exonerates Blaise. M. Dautrand, who was playing the part of a holiday painter but is really a police officer, decides after reading the girl's diary to leave Blaise in peace. Violaine dies happily.
Threats
Act like Le professeur Hoffman
event1940 star_border 5.4
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"Menaces" deals with the months before WW2 in a hotel :t he fear of the impending war never leaves the guests of an hotel in Paris.
La Danse de mort
Act like Edgar
event1948 star_border 5.9
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A sinister fortress on an island where the sun never seems to shine. An officer whose values have long gone a thing of the past.
Fugitive Road
Act like Hpt. Oswald Von Traunsee
event1934
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An Austrian officer must face up to the good and evil aspects of his own personality as he becomes involved in a war.
The Hun Within
Act like Von Bickel
event1918
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A German-American father, loyal to his new U.S. home, finds himself on opposite sides with his son in the wartime conflict between Germany and America. The son becomes involved with German agents plotting against U.S., and the father must decide between his son and his adopted homeland.
Edge of Outside
Act like Self (archive footage)
event2006 star_border 5.8
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An hour-long documentary designed to celebrate the spirit of the independent filmmaker from D.W. Griffith to Quentin Tarantino. Interview footage and film clips are blended together to form a chronological approach to the subject matter.
Gibraltar
Act like Eric Marson
event1938 star_border 6.2
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A British officer poses as a traitor in order to infiltrate a team of terrorists who are sabotaging ships, while a seductive cabaret dancer is working for the mysterious genius who runs the enemy spy ring.
I Was an Adventuress
Act like Andre Desormeaux
event1940 star_border 6.3
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Posing as the fabulously glamorous Countess Tanya Vronsky, a poor young ballet dancer and her two accomplices are really a team of skilled con artists! They mingle with Europe's high society, always looking for the next wealthy victim to fleece with their fake jewellery scam... Then Tanya meets the dashing young Paul Vernay. At first she wants to rob him. Then she decides she wants to marry him and to leave her criminal past behind her. Her accomplices agree but only if she'll join them in one last, big swindle...
Greed
Act like Balloon Vendor (uncredited)
event1924 star_border 7.4
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A lottery win of $5,000 forever changes the lives of a miner turned dentist and his wife.
Souls for Sale
Act like Self - Celebrity Director
event1923 star_border 6.2
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A young woman hits Hollywood, determined to become a star.
Old Heidelberg
Act like Lutz
event1915 star_border 4
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Karl Heinrich is the heir to the throne of the small European principality of Rutania, but he's a lonely child, not allowed to play with other children and knowing little about life outside the castle. When he reaches maturity, he is sent to attend the University of Heidelberg, and finds fellowshi with classmates and a blossoming love with Katie Ruder, his only friend during childhood and the niece of an innkeeper. However, political turmoil in Rutania forces him to return. War is declared. Heinrich returns to Heidelberg one last time to bid a somber farewell to his beloved Katie.
Ghosts
Act like School Clerk
event1915 star_border 4.5
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Helen Alving leads an outwardly contented life. On the eve of the 10th anniversary of her husband's death, she is about to open an orphanage as a memorial to him. To mark this occasion, her bohemian painter son Oswald has returned from Paris. Helen plans to take the opportunity to tell Oswald the truth about his father. But ghosts of the past erupt during an eventful evening, bringing the facade of civilised family life crashing down.
The Flying Torpedo
Act like Accomplice
event1916
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In the future (1921), an alliance of several foreign countries plot to attack the US. American officials, coming to the realisation that the country is basically defenceless, offer $1,000,000 to anyone who can come up with a weapon to defeat the invaders. Winthrop Clavering, a writer and inventor, hears of the reward and tells his friend Bartholomew Thompson, a scientist and inventor who has been working on developing flying torpedo. However, enemy agents have also heard about Thompson's project, and set out to kill him and steal his plans. This film is now considered lost.
Erich von Stroheim - Der Mann mit dem bösen Blick
Act like (archive footage)
event1966
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Documentary on Erich von Stroheim
Ultimatum
Act like General Simovic
event1938
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About the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the beginning of the First World War. Focuses on the relationship between a Serbian officer and his Austrian-born wife and their involvement in espionage between the countries.
Gambling Hell
Act like Werner von Krall
event1942 star_border 6.4
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In Macao, where places of pleasure and arms trafficking are concentrated, a tragedy opposes an adventurer and his daughter whom he has brought up in ignorance of his profession. She is torn from her environment and saved from tragedy by a young journalist who loves her.
Napoleon
Act like Ludwig van Beethoven
event1955 star_border 6.3
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The film follows the life of Napoleon from his early life in Corsica to his death at Saint Helena. The film is notable for its use of location shooting for numerous scenes, especially at the French estates of Malmaison and Fontainebleau, the Palace of Versailles, and sites of Napoleonic battles including Austerlitz and Waterloo.
The Social Secretary
Act like The Buzzard
event1916 star_border 5.6
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An attractive young girl struggles to hold a job as she deals with unwanted romantic advances from her boss.
Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages
Act like Second Pharisee (uncredited)
event1916 star_border 7.1
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The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
1925 Studio Tour
Act like Self
event1925 star_border 6.2
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A tour of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio in 1925 shows the people who make the movies there, and gives viewers a glimpse at how movies are made.
Midnight... Quai de Bercy
Act like Le professeur Kieffer
event1953 star_border 6.5
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Having recently moved into her new apartment, Irène Cazenave, the widow of a well-known police officer, is forced by one of her husband's colleagues to take part in an investigation. The building's provocative concierge has been found murdered. We watch a parade of suspects, only to learn at the end that Irène killed the janitor under blackmail. She kills herself.
La madone des sleepings
Act like Dr Siefgried Traurig
event1955 star_border 3
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Lady Diana Winham is beautiful, wealthy and a widow, so she's courted. She travels Europe in luxury trains, earning her nickname. One of her riches, a uranium deposit in a South American country, attracts the attention of international secret agents. Lady Diana is at the center of a spider's web, with the French, British and Germans all trying to get their hands on her. Helped by the love of Armando, whom she met in San Miguel, she gives the deposit to her secretary Gérard as a reward for his services.
Rail Pirates
Act like Tchou King
event1938 star_border 6
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Henri Pierson, the chief engineer of a railway line crossing Yunnan in China, must prevent the incessant attacks of a gang of looters.
Panthea
Act like Lieutenant
event1917
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A woman sacrifices everything for her husband's career.
His Picture in the Papers
Act like One of the Weazels (uncredited)
event1916 star_border 4.6
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Produced at the Reliance studio in Yonkers, New York, HIS PICTURE IN THE PAPERS solidly established Fairbanks as the American ideal of pop, vim, and vigor. Furthermore, the film brought him together with the two collaborators who were to play a profound role in the evolution of his screen persona: writer Anita Loos and her future husband, director John Emerson. The theme was, according to Emerson and Loos, "the great American love of publicity."
The Lafarge Case
Act like Denis
event1938 star_border 5.8
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Based on true facts, a news item which was widely talked about in the nineteenth century, this is the story of a wife who might have poisoned her husband .
Alarm in Morocco
Act like Conrad Nagel
event1953
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When 1 of 2 Foreign Legion officers is killed after witnessing a secret experiment on a death ray (capable of shooting down aircraft) in southern Morocco, the other gets vengeance by infiltrating the organization responsible.
Armored Attack!
Act like Dr. Otto Von Harden
event1957 star_border 6.2
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A Ukrainian village must suddenly contend with the Nazi invasion of June 1941. Re-edited version of The North Star (1943), to remove positive references to Soviet Union and include narration about the Hungarian Uprising of 1956.
The Red Signal
Act like Mathias Berthold
event1949
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A physician whose wife was killed when two trains collided has remained a tormented soul,In his mind,he can still hear his wife whisper "Stop the train! Stop it!" .
Hearts of the World
Act like A Hun
event1918 star_border 6
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A group of youngsters grow up and love in a peaceful French village. But war intrudes and peace is shattered. The German army invades and occupies village, bringing both destruction and torture. The young people of the village resist, some successfully, others tragically, until French troops retake the town.
One Does Not Die That Way
Act like Eric von Berg
event1946
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In the studio where the famous director Eric Von Berg reigns, Pierre Vanier, the male star of the film and the lover of Berg's muse, dies while rehearsing a scene. Over the course of a tangled investigation, the culprit is unmasked. This honest dresser is the adoptive mother of Vanier's wife, too unhappy with such a husband. The inspector, moved, concludes a suicide.
Quand Jean devint Renoir
Act like Captain von Rauffenstein (archive footage)
event2017 star_border 10
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The fascinating story of a man destined to be only a son of and who sought all his life to become "someone" by getting rid of the overwhelming image of his genius as a father, the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
Immediate Call
event1939
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In September 1938, an American diplomat negotiated in London the peace of Munich, rather than rush to Paris where his wife, a famous film actress, is about to fall into the arms of a young first. He gains peace but loses his happiness.
Under Secret Orders
Act like Col. W. Mathesius / Simonis
event1937
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During the First World War, a woman doctor falls in love with one of her patients who turns out to be a German spy. She herself ends up working for German intelligence.
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