A young shoemaker is arrested for stealing a small amount of money, and is jailed for fifteen years. Upon his release, he wants to get a permit to get a job and start anew, but finds that without a job he can't get a permit, and without a permit he can't get a job. Ensnared in the absurd net of Prussian bureaucracy, he can't see any way out. That is, until he enters a thrift shop and spots a Prussian officer's uniform that fits him like a second skin...
The adaptation of the eponymous play by Carl Zuckmayer tells the story of renegade general Harras of the German Luftwaffe, who during WWII openly criticizes the Nazi regime. As a consequence, he is put under surveillance, and even imprisoned for a brief period of time. Still remaining outspoken, Harras realizes the horrific dimensions of this hopeless and injust war waged by Germany.
Gabriela once a famous singer who enjoyed great success. She married, had a daughter Andrea, but pursued her career. Now that Andrea has matured into a young woman, Gabriela is overwhelmed by maternal remorse.
Agathe Zausel doesn't have it easy. Not only could her doll factory be running better, but her sons-in-law Fred and Otto also seem to have nothing but fantasies on their minds instead of devoting their full attention to the family business. Fred has taken it into his head to secretly compose pop songs, while Otto is secretly designing a rocket plane. As they both try to keep their pastimes a secret from Agathe, she can only fear the worst.
Bored with her marriage, Franziska decides to travel to Venice.
After his owners abandon him in the woods, a puppy befriends a family of rabbits.
Musician Peter Karmann, whose main profession is teaching Asian languages, goes on a grand tour of Africa with a ballet troupe. Unfortunately, the well-behaved Peter looks very much like the notorious smuggling baron Jack Castillo. As soon as he arrives in Tangier, he soon ends up in captivity. Rescue comes in the form of the beautiful and clever Marcella, who is madly in love with Peter.
The fate of a pianist who returns from the Second World War with a wound to his right hand.
Martha Krapp is amazed when her husband Josef suddenly appears at the door. He has rarely been seen in recent years, instead traveling the world and earning himself the nickname "Don Chaussee". In his absence, the bible-thumping Martha has been running the Sonnenhof children's home with loving severity.
A young horse lover falls in love with the handsome vet who looks after a special racehorse. But before the two can be happy together, there are a lot of obstacles in their way.
Roberto Bolle smuggles himself as a stowaway on an ocean liner that of Hamburg gen New York sets sail. On board is also his lover Barbara Shadwell, whom he wants to marry, but who, at the request of her mother, the syrup millionaire Ceila Shadwell, should marry the oatmeal millionaire David.
A dance and music film tailored completely for Marika Rokk: After her divorce, the wife of a composer uses her wit and charm to engage Marika as a singer and dancer on the stage. This manages to give life once again to the extinguished love between her and her former husband.
1802: The adventurous life story of Hans Bückler, known as “Schinderhannes”, who fights against the French occupying forces and large landowners who exploit poor farmers in the Hunsrück region during the Napoleonic Wars.
When the wife of Sebastian Schumann left her family, he told his little daughter that her mother has died, because he thought that this was the easiest way for her to accept that her mother is now gone. But this was only the beginning of a lot of lies he tells her continuously, mostly about himself and his job. This way he also tries to hide away from her the fact that he had to quit his job as a traveler and is now paid much less than before.
1958: during the Russian campaign, a military priest is called upon to assist Private Baranowski, who has been sentenced to death for desertion, on his last night. It is also the last night before the departure for Stalingrad, which the soldiers know means certain death. The priest leaves his room to a captain so that he can meet his fiancée one last time. He himself remains in Baranowski's cell and struggles with his conscience and his emotion - even more so when he learns that the young doomed man committed desertion out of love. But the execution is carried out, and a member of the firing squad finds only cynical words for the soldier's fate.
Two GIs haven fallen in love with "Fräuleins", decide to stay in Germany and open a typically American drugstore in the center of the small town where their girlfriends live.
Set in German-occupied France in 1944 where a female resistance operative and a German army officer fall in love.
