Margarete Kupfer

The tragic story of Don Jose, a Spanish cavalryman, who falls under the spell of a gypsy girl, Carmen, who treats him with both love and contempt and leads him into temptation and thus damnation. (imdb)

Women and their virtue, in the Orient. Yannaia, a young dancer who is happy to have men desire her, comes to the attention of an old but powerful sheikh; his son also wants her. The leader of the minstrel troupe, a hunchback, loves Yannaia and opposes her sale to the sheikh... (imdb)

This hilarious three-reel farce from director Ernst Lubitsch stars Ossi Oswalda as Ossi, a vivacious young woman whose ideas of fun -- smoking cigarettes, playing cards, dating boys -- unnerves her stodgy Uncle (Ferry Silka) and even stodgier Governess (Margareta Kupfer). (All Movie Guide)

Lea, Damen Pola Negri, is a Jewish girl who wants to go to St. Petersburg to help her ailing foster father. She's learning to be a wise and independent girl (those kind of characters that Damen Negri was so fond of during her career) but she is warned by her teacher that because she is Jewish she will not be given the usual work/travel permits, if she wants to travel she will have to be given a special paper, a yellow ticket. These permits are usually given to a certain kind of woman.... (imdb)

Promotional film for War loans and bonds. Mother Froehlich sells her clock and send the money to her son fighting in war. Then they get attacked and someone else finds the lucky coin....

If watching a fellow facing indifference/rejection in the slums of Berlin didn't convey enough pathos, Gerhard Lamprect gathered much of the same crew from Die Verrufenene and turned his attention to the city's population of unwanted children for the heart-tugging Die Unehelichen, released the following year. The trio of foster children at the center of Die Verrufenene are survivors who use their own resourcefulness to get by when the kids' guardians and the system itself let them down.

The European mentality of this German silent was a bit racy for mainstream American tastes of the era; nevertheless, the images created by director Paul Czinner told this story well. A wife (Elizabeth Bergner) is bored by her overweight slob of a husband (Emil Jannings). She gives in to the temptation of a slickly seductive poet (Conrad Veidt). The cuckolded husband (a common role for Jannings) tries to convince the pair to stop the philandering, but the wife runs off with her lover anyway.

It was not just the children who were treated badly by the wealthy Weimar republic. Robert Kramer is released from prison but struggles to adjust to civilian life. His father disowns him out, his wife has left him for another man. There is no work. He eventually arrives in a shelter for the homeless, and seeks salvation through Emma, a prostitute. (imdb)

Sándor Barinkay joins the gypsies en route to his home village hiding his real identity as an Hungarian nobleman, whose parents were sent to exile. He claims his former properties, now taken by a pig merchant who plays the fool to the villagers' delight. Yet this man has an interesting daughter, and there's also the beautiful gypsy Saffi to consider. And a family hidden treasure to be found. (imdb)

"Zuflucht" directed by Carl Froelich in the late 20's is an interesting melodrama about a revolutionary long haired man (Francis Lederer) who spent nine years in Russia where he ignored the worries that his foolish decision has caused his bourgeois family. When he finally returns to his own country, he is ragged, hungry and ill, but he meets a poor girl (Henny Porten) who takes care of him. (imdb)

Sculptor Thea Roland is searching for a man with a beautiful body to model for her when she meets the English boxer Jerry. The two end up in a "clinch", from which Thea emerges pregnant. However, Jerry doesn't find out that he is a father until the next time he visits Berlin. Thea rejects his marriage proposal; her life is to remain as unconventional as her art. (berlinale.de)

Der Fall Rosentopf was one of a series of films in which the character of Sally, portrayed by Lubitsch, appeared. This character often came from a small town to a big city as a small apprentice, for example, and subsequently rose through the social ranks.

Christa, the forester's daughter, falls in love with the emperor. But that love will be clouded by reasons of state.

Drama based on a play by Friedrich Wolf. Hete is pregnant, hoping to have soon a family with her fiancé Paul. When the factory, where she and Paul work, sacks all striking workers, she tries to find a legal way for abortion. But there is only the illegal option - the eponymous cyanide.

Silent version of a story later remade in French and German as Baby: A count's daughter wants a stage career, her show girl friend wants an education, so they change places.