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© 2026 The Couch Critic
Browse 38 movies from Richard Oswald Produktion
Sep 1920
Mar 1922
Moritz Stiefel faces expulsion due to poor marks. When he is caught with an essay titled “Shame and Lust”, he is indeed kicked out – instead of classmate Melchior Gabor, who actually penned it. Gabor was drawing on his experiences with neighbourhood girl Wendla. Then Wendla turns up pregnant. Stiefel descends into despair ... Exploitation between Eros and Thanatos in this “sexual tragedy of youth” based on Frank Wedekind’s play. Setting the film in the 1920s provided a chance to explore “modern” youth culture, complete with cigarettes, jazz music, the gramophone, and a goodly bit of alcohol. Richard Oswald, a master of films of manners and young sex beginning in the 1910s, fully explores the temptations of the youthful body, even early childhood flirtatiousness. At the same time, with his target audience in mind, the film laments the bigotry and double standards of the adult world.
Jan 1929
A demon, a reaper, and the ghost of a prostitute read gothic short stories and act them out.
Nov 1919
The married Lady Emma Hamilton has an ill fated romance with Admiral Horatio Nelson.
Oct 1921
A young count rents a villa near Rome to be near a woman he's courting. While there, he strikes up a friendship with a young woman living with a violent husband.
Sep 1928
Paris, France, 1784. After living many tribulations, Joseph Balsamo, known as Count Cagliostro, an infamous adventurer, enigmatic magician and necromancer, experienced physician and ruthless swordsman, triumphs among the members of the decadent French aristocracy. But a bold foretelling about a very prominent noblewoman causes his fall in disgrace… (Partially lost film.)
Apr 1929
An episode in the life of the Austrian composer Franz Schubert, who wrote the most beautiful love songs, but whose love life was very unhappy: The timid, myopic and rather portly Schubert falls for the beautiful, blond Countess Maria Esterhazy and has impossibly unrealistic fantasies about the two of them as she only admires him for his music. When he’s fired from his position as a teacher in the parish school, the village innkeeper Therese, who secretly has the hots for Schubert, gets him an engagement at a concert in Palace Esterhazy.
Jan 1931
Nov 1921
Drama about street walker Elena who marries shop keeper Albert. When her former pimp Peter shows up, her life is ruined. She shoots him and poisons herself.
Feb 1920
Dida Ibsen, daughter of impoverished farmers, has, according to her father's will, to marry the main creditor. But she refuses and decides to live with a married man as a mistress, till he gets his divorce. In the town she opens a restaurant with the money of her wealthy lover, from whom she soon gets pregnant, but their dreams of marriage fail, his wife refuses the divorce. After a while, she decides to marry one of the regular guests at her restaurant, van Galen, who spent quite some time in the tropics and because of this is at the brink of madness. Shortly after the marriage his condition worsens and life becomes hell for Dida.
Dec 1918
Thomas Bezug, the richest man in the world, is a solitary, domineering and cruel cripple, who hardly can move on his crutches. He dwells a fanatical love for his son, whom he holds like a monkey in a cage. His servants are defaced dwarfs. His secretary is trying to steal Bezugs assets. These are the night people.
Jan 1920
Aug 1922
Alexander Bessel is a young man in a failing marriage. His wife cheats on him, and so the outbreak of WW1 comes in handy for a change. When a young French soldier dies right in front of him, Bessel seizes the opportunity, assuming his identity.
Dec 1927
Woman doesn't let the man know whether he is the father of the child.
Mar 1918
Mr. and Mrs. Linsemann have been happily married for a year. In their chic home, a modern villa financed by a loan and not yet fully paid off, the lady of the house intends to throw a big one-year anniversary party to please her husband. For this reason, she invites all his relatives to a large party, including her wealthy Uncle Adolf, from whom she hopes for a substantial financial boost to help pay off the loan. But this bash soon turns into a disaster, because the guests are quite a handful: there's dear, well-behaved Uncle Emil, who was always under the thumb of his rather unpleasant brother Adolf; the Webers with their teenage son; Cousin Wilhelm and his wife; and Mr. and Mrs. Stempel. A musician, a nanny, and a singer are also in attendance.
Aug 1930
Conrad Veidt plays a famous musician who is blackmailed for being gay. Eventually he stands trial and is convicted. At the end the film pleads for the abolition of §175 (the law that punishes homosexuality).
May 1919
A scientist, Professor Jakob ten Brinken, interested in the laws of heredity, impregnates a prostitute in a laboratory with the semen of a hanged murderer. The prostitute conceives a female child who has no concept of love, whom the professor adopts. The girl, Alraune, suffers from obsessive sexuality and perverse relationships throughout her life. She learns of her unnatural origins and she avenges herself against the professor.
Mar 1930
The Devil decides to go and visit Kurfürstendamm, where all his clients seem to come from. He settles at "Pension Elvira", where everybody cheats and deceives him. He comes to the conclusion, that Hell is a much better place.
Jul 1920
Apr 1918