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Strafsache van Geldern. Willi Vogel, der Ausbrecherkönig

The Van Geldern Case. Willi Vogel, The Jailbreak King
Film still from STRAFSACHE VAN GELDERN: In a glamorous living room are a man and a woman. She is lying on a day bed and smoking a cigarette, he is standing in front of her.
© Bundesarchiv

Wed 26.10.
19:00

  • Director

    Willi Wolff

  • Germany / 1932
    78 min. / DCP / Original version with English subtitles

  • with

    Paul Richter, Ellen Richter, Lucie Höflich, Fritz Kampers, Lizzi Waldmüller

  • Premiere der Restaurierung des Bundesarchivs von 2022

  • Cinema

    Arsenal 1

    zu den Ticketszu dem Kalender

A murder in a villa in West Berlin. The victim is Martha van Geldern (Ellen Richter), a former revue star and now proprietor of a high-class fashion salon. The accused is her husband (Paul Richter), himself a criminal defense attorney. All evidence points to him until a former client from the Berlin underworld comes to his aid: the jailbreak king, Willi Vogel (Fritz Kampers). Ellen Richter's last surviving feature film is many things at once: a crime thriller, a courtroom drama, and the story of an impossible friendship. Not least, this talkie serves as an archive that preserves the memory of its star’s earlier successes in the silent era. In repurposed footage from the now lost film Die schönsten Beine von Berlin (Saucy Suzanne, 1927), we see Ellen Richter as a star attraction of the Ziegfeld Follies in extravagant costumes, radiant and smiling. A few months later, the Nazis came to power and ended her career for good. (Philipp Stiasny/Oliver Hanley)

Funded by:

  • Logo Minister of State for Culture and the Media