Eta Klingenberg

Endstation offers the American viewer tantalizing glimpses of busy, bustling mid-1930s Vienna. Otherwise, this minor yarn of an amorous streetcar conductor is strictly formula material. The film benefits from the star power of Paul Horbiger, resplendently garbed in an elaborate conductor's uniform. Also worth noting is the performance of Maria Andergest as the woebegone hatmaker whose fate is inextricably linked with hero Horbiger. Incidentally though the direction is credited with one E. W. Emo, Paul Horbiger actually called most of the shots on Endstation.

Georg Alexander plays Douglas Mavis, the son of a rich English family who falls in love with a Berlin girl (Renate Müller) and marries her. However, he doesn't tell his family, and for a reason: the resolute head of the family (played by the inimitable Adele Sandrock) has other designs for her grandson. Further complications arise when the family lawyer (Adolf Wohlbrück) gets to know the Berlin lady without knowing who she is. And meanwhile, Mavis meets an alluring lady from a cabaret (Hilde Hildebrand).

Musician Robert Sand is released from prison in April 1933, after serving five years for manslaughter. Disappointed not to find his wife Marie waiting for him outside the prison gates, he heads into the city. At the same time, Marie makes her way in the other direction. For one portentous day, they look for each other in the noisy city of Berlin. Doubt, mistrust, and jealousy begin to germinate in Robert’s mind.