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1-14 of 14
- A boxing instructor for the Berlin police has a side gig as a singer, which leaves little time for his wife, in this operetta.
- Josette needs to marry within a year to get her aunt's money.Her fiance,an Englishman, has gone away .After getting permission from her godfather to do a "white marriage," she realizes that she really loves the godfather instead.
- This is an earlier, much less successful version of the The Punch Bowl (1944), but the story is basically the same: The famous writer Hans Pfeiffer has problems in directing his latest play about a high-school class. He's told the reason is that he never attended a regular school, so he decides to swap roles with his younger brother Erich, who's a never-graduating, always kidding senior in a small-town high-school. When Erich aka Hans suddenly turns from class clown into the role model of a pupil, everyone believes it's just another prank. So Hans is practically forced to take over Erich's standard... and enjoys it.
- A janitor has three daughters. Amelie is employed in the fashion shop of Leopold Siedentopf who seduces her, Annie works for a photographer and Martha is a launderer and is in love with Franz, a chauffeur who uses the boss's car to drive the three girls to work every morning. When he reports late to work one day, he clumsily tells his boss, Mr. Brandstetter, that he ran over a young girl. When he demands to see the victim, Franz introduces him to Annie and he falls in love with her. They soon get married. Annie's mother, who feels ashamed of her social condition, uses an apartment in her building whose lodgers are on vacation as her own when her son-in-law visits her and pretends she is the widow of a secret service agent. However, when Mr. Brandstetter surprises his chauffeur speaking too casually with his wife, not knowing that he is actually her brother-in-law, gets the wrong idea and Annie, upset with the whole thing, goes back to her mother's. Brandstetter decides to drown his sorrow and goes out to a party where, by chance, he meets Amelie and Martha. When Franz sees his girlfriend with his boss, he too gets upset. Annie and Martha are soon joined by Amelie at their mother's because she also left her husband who, it turns out, was unfaithful. The next day, Brandstetter comes back to the janitor's building where everything is explained. He embraces his new family. Franz and Martha make up and Amelie also finds happiness with Emil the bartender, an old flame of hers whom she always loved.
- The taxi driver Fritz gets to know the millionaire-heiress Iris and marries her against the wishes of her family. They live together in a small apartment and are very happy. But Fritz wants to offer Iris more.
- Jean Fleury, a young engineer who has designed a revolutionary engine for the Revoil motor company, is engaged to Aimée Valois, a seamstress, his neighbor across the hall. But the charming young lady is hired one day by a nightclub and lets herself be lured by the easy life in Paris. So much so that, to Jean's great distress, she breaks up with him. But, along with time, Aimée gets tired of her vain and frivolous lifestyle and comes back to Jean.
- The following is the story of the film, summarized chronologically. The film actually begins in the middle of the story, with the murder prosecution and conviction of Jadzia (Andrzejewska). She then tells her appellate attorney Krystyna what happened: Jadzia is a poor, lonely government worker in Warsaw who lives in a rooming house and studies at night with ambitions of becoming a nurse. On what is supposed to be a day trip to the countryside with her office mates, she is seduced and abandoned by a stranger named Janusz (Damiecki) whose face is not shown. Distressed over her being abandoned, Jadzia becomes distracted at work and is fired for making too many mistakes. She cannot hold down a job due to fainting spells which, it turns out, are due to pregnancy. She is evicted from the rooming house and becomes homeless. While weeping with her infant son at the river's side, his basket cradle accidentally drops into the river. Jadzia calls for help, but it is too late, and those who respond to her cries for help accuse her of murder. She is charged with murder under Article 25, Section 1 of Poland's Penal Code. A court-appointed lawyer defends her, but he is not very effective, so she is convicted and sentenced to death. The trial scene opens with the testimony of the one of the women who was nearby when Jadzia's infant son fell into the river. She stands, facing the panel of three judges, and the presiding judge in the middle asks her whether she confirms her previous written statement. The presiding judge wears the distinctive chain and medallion of Poland's coat of arms, which is a White Eagle. The coat of arms is also displayed prominently on wall behind presiding judge. A large crucifix rests on the bench near the presiding judge. The traditional bell for calling the court to order is resting next to the crucifix, but in this film the presiding judge is never shown using it, not even when the panel emerges to pronounce the verdict and sentence. After the witness affirms her written statement, the presiding judge confirms that neither of the other two judges has a question and then dismisses the witness. The testimony is heard by twelve jurors, all male, who sit in a separate jury box to the right hand of the panel of judges. The presiding judge then asks the prosecutor, who sits at the right end of the bench, near the jury box, to give his summation. Before speaking, the prosecutor stands and dons his cap. When he is through speaking, he removes the cap. The defendant sits in a dock to the left, across from the jury. As is customary in civil law countries, defense counsel speaks last. His client Jadzia sits behind him, guarded. There is a crucifix hanging on the wall behind them. During defense counsels plea, the film cuts abruptly to the judges returning to the bench to pronounce the verdict of the jury and to pronounce sentence. The abrupt cut implies that the deliberation was done quickly. All three judges remain standing as the presiding judge pronounces the guilty verdict and the death sentence. Incidentally, a female attorney Krystyna (Eichlerówna) is watching the proceedings from the gallery and believes that Jadzia has been convicted in error, so she volunteers to handle the appeal to the court of second instance. An appeal in civil law courts is essentially a re-trial. However, what is depicted in Life Sentence is more likely a new trial and not an appeal, because a 12-man jury is empaneled, and evidence and argument are once again presented to a three-judge panel. We are shown only the layout of the court and a glimpse of Krystynas impassioned plea to the jury. Cut to Krystynas informing Jadzia that she has been acquitted. Without consulting with her husband Janusz, Krystyna takes Jadzia home to stay indefinitely, providing her with her own room and a bank account. Jadzia and Janusz meet, and Krystyna learns that her husband is the cad who seduced and abandoned Jadzia. Janusz shoots himself in the head and survives, and Krystyna forgives him. We are left to speculate about Jadzia's future.
- An elderly choir master loves his young housekeeper, but steps aside so that a student from the young generation can marry her instead.
- In this satire on nobility a presumed Swedish count about to be married to the daughter of another aristocrat is revealed to be the son of a servant girl, having been switched at birth.
- Aimless Bohemians are encouraged to find their salvation in Arbeit (Work) in this propagandistic Nazi era German production.