Luise Rainer Filmography

Born:: January 12, 1910 in Vienna, Austria
Occupation:: Actor
Biography:: The comet-like starring career of Austrian actress Luise Rainer began at the age of 16, when she gave a spectacular audition and was hired on the spot by famed impresario Max Reinhardt. She starred in several Reinhardt stage productions, and also appeared in a few Austro/German films. An MGM...Read More

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Hollywood Chinese: The Chinese in American Film

Actors: Turhan Bey, Joan Chen, Tsai Chin, Stephen Gong, James Hong

Synopsis: Filmmaker Arthur Dong's documentary Hollywood Chinese pays homage to the first century of the American film industry, as specifically colored and influenced by the Chinese immigrants to whom Hollywood owes an inestimable debt. Dong touches on everyone from actress Anna May Wong, of Limehouse Blues Read More

5/2/08
The Gambler

Actors: Michael Gambon, Jodhi May, Polly Walker, Dominic West, Luise Rainer

Synopsis: This British-Dutch-Hungarian biographical drama combines incidents from the life of novelist Feodor Dostoyevsky with a dramatization of his short novel The Gambler. The character of Polina in the novel was based by Dostoyevsky on Polina Suslova, his 1862-63 lover. In the tradition of Dennis Read More

1997
Dancer

Synopsis: This fictional story tells of two former lovers that are reunited in old age after many years of separation. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

1988
Combat!: Finest Hour

Synopsis: Oscar-winning Viennese actress Luise Rainer makes her first Hollywood appearance since the 1943 theatrical film Hostages in this episode, in which she is cast as French countess Loraine De Roy. Wounded in combat, Lt. Hanley (Rick Jason) is forced to take refuge in the servant's quarters of the Read More

1965
Tiefland

Actors: Leni Riefenstahl, Franz Eichberger, Bernhard Minetti, Maria Koppenhofer, Luise Rainer

Synopsis: After spending the 1930s as the Third Reich's principal cinematic chronicler, Leni Riefenstahl returned to fictional films with Tiefland. According to Riefenstahl, she had refused to make any more propaganda pictures--"for good reasons," she explained enigmatically--choosing instead to direct a Read More

1954
Hostages

Actors: Arturo de Cordova, Luise Rainer, William Bendix, Roland Varno, Oscar Homolka

Synopsis: Luise Rainer's last Hollywood film was the economically produced wartime drama Hostages. Adapted from the novel by Stefan Heym, the story is set in a Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakian village. Rainer plays Milada, the daughter of collaborationist Lev Preissinger (Oscar Homolka). Totally apolitical Read More

1943
Land of Liberty

Synopsis: Originally designed for exhibition at the 1939 World's Fair, Land of Liberty is a 137-minute compendium of filmclips from past American historical epics. The project was sponsored by the Motion Picture Producers & Distributors of America, Inc. and supervised by Cecil B. DeMille, who also edited Read More

1939
The Toy Wife

Actors: Luise Rainer, Melvyn Douglas, Robert Young, Barbara O'Neil, H.B. Warner

Synopsis: Directed by Richard Thorpe, this costume drama stars Luise Rainer as 16-year-old southern belle Gilberta, who, upon her return to Louisiana after a brief stay in France, discovers her sister Louise Barbara O'Neil) has recently gotten engaged. Gilberta (Rainer) quickly finds herself attracted to Read More

1938
The Great Waltz

Actors: Luise Rainer, Fernand Gravey, Milza Korjus, Hugh Herbert, Lionel Atwill, Curt Bois

Synopsis: The Great Waltz was the first of two films bearing the same title which told the life story of Austrian "Waltz King" Johann Strauss. European singing sensation Fernard Gravet stars as Strauss, while MGM's two-time Oscar winner Luise Rainer is top-billed as Poldi Vogelhuber. Poldi is the wife of Read More

1938
Dramatic School

Actors: Luise Rainer, Paulette Goddard, Alan Marshal, Lana Turner, Genevieve Tobin

Synopsis: Viennese-born Luise Rainer plays a young Parisian girl who attends an exclusive drama school, working nights at a factory to pay the tuition. Despite the jealousies of her fellow students, Luise allows nothing to discourage her from her goal to become as great an actress as her idol (Gale Sondergaard Read More

1938
Wenn die Musik nicht wär

Actors: Paul Hoerbiger, Ida Wuest, Karin Hardt, Sybille Schmitz

1937
The Big City

Actors: Luise Rainer, Spencer Tracy, Charles Grapewin, Janet Beecher, Eddie Quillan

Synopsis: The Big City is an improbable urban melodrama which takes place during a "taxi war" between honest independent cabdrivers and graft-ridden taxi monopolies. Looking for a scapegoat for a recent gangland bombing, crooked city officials deport the foreign wife (Luise Rainer) of rabble-rousing cabbie Spencer Tracy Read More

1937
The Emperor's Candlesticks

Actors: William Powell, Luise Rainer, Robert Young, Maureen O'Sullivan, Frank Morgan

Synopsis: Baroness Orczy, author of The Scarlet Pimpernel, came up with the story upon which The Emperor's Candlesticks was based. As in Pimpernel, the theme is international intrigue, but this time the setting is pre-World War One Europe and Russia rather than Revolutionary France. William Powell and Luise Rainer Read More

1937
The Good Earth

Actors: Paul Muni, Luise Rainer, Walter Connolly, Tilly Losch, Charles Grapewin

Synopsis: Based on Donald Davis and Owen Davis' stage-adaptation of Pearl S. Buck's sprawling novel, Sidney Franklin's The Good Earth is the story of a Chinese farming couple whose lives are torn apart by poverty, greed, and nature. Paul Muni stars as Wang Lung a hardworking, but poor, farmer who weds Read More

1937
The Great Ziegfeld

Actors: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer, Frank Morgan, Fanny Brice

Synopsis: In MGM's three-hour-plus The Great Ziegfeld, William Powell stars as the titular theatrical impresario, whose show business empire begins when he stage-manages a tour for legendary strongman Sandow (Nat Pendleton). With nary a penny in the bank, he charms European stage star Anna Held (Luise Rainer Read More

1936
Escapade

Actors: William Powell, Luise Rainer, Virginia Bruce, Frank Morgan, Reginald Owen

Synopsis: Set in the Washington of World War I, Escapade stars William Powell as a newspaper editor eager to sign up for an overseas assignment. Instead, he's ordered to stay in Washington to decode enemy messages. This assignment has been arranged by the dizzy niece (Rosalind Russell) of the Undersecretary Read More

1935
Sehnsucht 202

Actors: Magda Schneider, Fritz Schulz, Luise Rainer, Rolf von Goth, Attila Hoerbiger

Synopsis: Sehnsucht 202 (Longing 202) is all about a not-so-slight misunderstanding. A pretty young millionairess places an "Object: Matrimony" newspaper ad, signing herself "Longing 202." At the same time, a poor shop girl, in search of a job, places a separate classified ad -- likewise identifying herself Read More

1932