Max Reichmann

A new spin on the art of macroprojection, the “film symphony of the life and death of flowers” premiered on February 25th, 1926 in Berlin’s Piccadilly-Theater with an original music score and elaborate frame narrative.

Toni Lechner, innkeeper at the small Tirolese village of Heiligenblut, sings in church and is happy with his mother and his girlfriend Leni. One day an impresario arrives after an auto failure and hears Toni sing, tempting him into an operatic career. Toni accepts but with time he misses his people, not knowing his jealous prima donna has kept them apart from him.

Brothers Ralph and Gaston are performing in a circus tightrope act, in a fight over a woman. Ralph escalates the tension even further when he tries to rescue a young tightrope walker from the cruelty of her stepfather, the circus ringmaster.

A sailor falls for a music hall performer with marital problems, after having been at sea a long 12 years, only to learn the distressing news that she is his own sister.

A western woman falls in love with a chinese prince. When she accompanies him to his homeland, strange things await her. Based on the operetta of the same name with music by Franz Lehár and libretto by Ludwig Herzer and Fritz Löhner-Beda.

A safecracker and thief escapes from prison, founds a factory and becomes rich. After 20 years, his accomplice, released from prison, demands his share and gets it. But when he also demands the hand of the factory owner's daughter, the latter shoots him. However, the girl's groom is blamed for the murder. After two detectives and a female colleague have investigated, the guilt of the factory owner comes to light, who then dies.

The permanent lack of money is giving Kibis a real headache. The rent has been overdue for seven months and now he is threatened with eviction. Then one day he comes across the brochure "How to become rich and happy"...

Riccardo and his troupe travel around the world performing musical and dance numbers in vaudevillian and circus theaters. Dancer Kitty is so impressed when she hears him sing that she asks to enter the company, but is turned down by Riccardo. Then in the middle of a number at the Winter Garten she pops in and the audience loves it. Now she will try to win Riccardo's heart, although he has a secret from his past that might be an obstacle.

Set among the traveling circus community. Artists of many talents and origins. A showman causes an accident in which his wife is killed. He accuses the circus clown who spends ten years in prison. It was made as a polyglot film with each actor speaking in their own language.

Paul Wegener gives one of his most active performances here as Captain Ramper, a heroic aviator who makes a pioneering flight across the Arctic accompanied only by Ippling, his faithful mechanic (Kurt Gerron). Near the North Pole, their plane develops engine failure and crashes in the desolate wastes. Ippling dies straight off but Ramper finds a supply base containing food which has been left behind by a previous expedition. After fifteen years in the Arctic wastes, Ramper has considerably mutated.