Our new book on the Karl Ritter lost LEGION CONDOR feature film has been praised in the German film journal Filmblatt:

From the book review in Filmblatt (Autumn 2019 #69, Jhrg. 24) on LEGION CONDOR – KARL RITTER`S LOST 1939 FEATURE FILM, written by film scholar and historian Dirk Alt :

 

"meticulous research....a source-rich monograph"

"Gillespie's Ritter Book Trilogy is an indispensable reference for all researchers of Nazi cinema."

 

 

A review in the prestigious Historical Journal of Film, Radio & Television has now been published  by a well–known German film scholar, Friedemann Beyer.   The "HJFR&T " is published quarterly and ths review appears in the latest Summer 2020 issue. Quotes from the review can be found here.

 

 

Poster Exhibition "Plakativ" in Potsdam !

 

 

 

47 of our original posters are on display in Potsdam, Germany, at the Potsdam Filmmuseum outside of Berlin, from 12 April to 28 August 2019. Four posters from our Collection are from the Weimar Era, 42 from the Third Reich era, and one from the BRD era. Our page on this exciting exhibition is found here.

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Our new book – available  now  !

The third book in our trilogy on film director Karl Ritter tells the full story of his planned sequel to the 1938 smash hit, Pour le Mérite. That film ended with the establishment in 1935 of the new German Luftwaffe. The sequel, Legion Condor,  partially filmed, then abandoned, in July–August 1939, was to show the airforce in battle for the first time, and in victorious battle in Spain.  Today, almost nothing is known about the film except in the broadest of terms because no film script was ever discovered since the Ufa studios were ransacked in 1945. Until now.

 

The book is entitled " Legion Condor – Karl Ritter's lost 1939 feature film. "   The author is William Gillespie. The book is 244 pages long, with 126 footnotes, as well as 38 B&W illustrations/photos and 4 colour plates.  Amongst the 38 B&W photographs are twelve never–before–seen Ufa press photos from the scenes of the film actually shot in the Ufa studios before the production was suddenly cancelled. The book, perfect–bound,  is the same 6 x 9 inch paperback format as our previous two Karl Ritter books; making a Karl Ritter trilogy of a combined 800+ pages, almost 600 footnotes, and nearly 200 B&W photographs/illustrations as well as 24 full–colour plates between the three books.  We have a web page devoted to the book you can see here. 

The book is in print and it is in stock here in Australia.   Our Poster Shop is where to order ---  scroll down towards the bottom of the page and ORDER the book for €30 ppd. and it will be shipped to you.  Thank you.

 

 

 The Gillespie Trilogy on Film Director Karl Ritter.....

 

 

These three  Karl Ritter books combined have:

• 838 pages

• 591 footnotes

• 188 B&W photographs, maps, sketches (many previously unknown)

• 24 full colour full-page plates

• extensive Bibliographies

We have added some material on the dubbed French version shown during WWII of the Steinhoff film OHM KRÜGER, as well as on the Soviet dubbed version shown in 1948 in the Soviet Union during Stalin's post–war attacks on the Allies, including the British government. This new material can be found at the bottom of our special page on the film, found here.

 

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It is something of a standing joke amongst film historians who do research at the famed Bundesarchiv–Filmarchiv in Berlin–Lichterfelde that no matter how early they arrive, the Visitor Locker #1 is always already taken. We were blessed with this Locker on 28 September 2018 whilst visiting the federal film archive to do research on our book, Legion Condor – Karl Ritter's lost 1939 feature film.  We were so surprised that we took a photo! A good omen for the book,  in our opinion.   :--)

 

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The first–ever book on the banned             propaganda film Besatzung Dora (1943) !    

Our book  " The Making of The Crew of the Dora," written by William Gillespie, was published by German Films Dot Net in  early 2016. The book uses research from the exclusive access to Karl Ritter's unpublished diary entries from May 1942 through to August 1943 to tell the story of how Besatzung Dora  was conceived, written, produced, and filmed in occupied France, in Berlin, in Italy and deep inside the Soviet Union, 85 miles south of the Siege of Leningrad, between August and December 1942. Over 50,000 words of these diary entries have been transcribed from Ritter's Sütterlin handwriting and translated into English by the author. The book will also contain 90 photographs, sketches, maps and charts -- many of which are being published for the first time -- with 219 footnotes. The book is 320 pages long, Perfect–bound in a trade paperback, 6 x 9 inches in dimension.  The book has been issued ISBN # 0-9808612-3-5. It is available for purchase exclusively within Australia via this website's Poster Shop, at a price of the rough equivalent of AUD$48 postpaid within Australia (Listing is priced  €29).  The US retail price is US$29.95 from International Historic Films and on Amazon Books, plus approximately US$24 in international postage.

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We note two examples of film director Karl Ritter being given far more acknowledgement and exposure than prior to our publication of the two books about his life and about his last propaganda film, Besatzung Dora. 

 

The new book on NS Film by noted film historians Norbert Grob and Friedemann Beyer, listed on Amazon.de mentions Ritter alongside Riefenstahl, Steinhoff and Käutner. No other German film history book in memory mentioned Ritter's name in it's back cover description. The book has two chapters devoted to Ritter's films Urlaub auf Ehrenwort and his Stukas.  

Our book on KARL RITTER is cited in a footnote in the book.

 

 

And, at International Historic Films in Chicago, USA, in their Best Sellers list of DVDs in 2017/2018;  5 of the 6 titles listed were Karl Ritter feature films, alongside the stunning  DVD  re–mastering and transfer of the great U-Boote films U–Boote–Westwärts!. Onwards and upwards!

To visit the Karl Ritter page in the latest IHF catalogue with all the DVDs available from Ritter, please click on this link.

 

 

 

 

 The brand new 2018/2019 IHF (International Historic Films, Chicago) new print catalogue #32–C  has two double–spread pages -- 4 pages in all -- devoted   to the films of Karl Ritter, as well as to the two books published by German Films Dot Net, Karl Ritter - His Life and 'Zeitfilms' under National Socialism (2nd ed.) and The Making of the The Crew of the Dora.  ALSO new DVD releases – such as For the Rights of Mankind (1934).

You can order a free copy of this incredible 72 page catalogue by clicking on this link and filling in your postal details.

 

 

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Legion Condor NEWS!  We have scans of the original 1939 private, unpublished diaries of Director Karl Ritter for the months he wrote, prepared, and started filming his feature film, following on the heels of the huge success of his documentary film on the Spanish Civil War, Im kampf gegen den Weltfeind (The Battle against World Enemy Nr. 1).The feature film had to be abandoned after 15 film–shooting days, due to the signing of the Nazi–Soviet Pact on 23 August 1939. The film's script was discovered after 80 years by German Films Dot Net, and we are working on a monograph on this fascinating film. It was meant to be the sequel to Ritter’s controversial Pour le Mérite, which premiered in late December 1938,  just a few months before Legion Condor was scripted. You can find more on this film on our webpage here.

 

28 May 2018: The F.W.Murnau Stiftung, Wiesbaden, is presenting the 100th anniversary of Uƒa exhibition with our  Münchhausen posters, as per arrangement with the Potsdam Filmmuseum. The exhibition will be opening in August, in the Filmhaus shown below. We are delighted to have our posters on display in a second German city, before they travel back Down Under.

 

 

 

 

 

8th December 2017: The Uƒa 100th Jubilee Exhibition opened at the Potsdam Film Museum with sixty attendees. Our 7 Münchhausen posters from across 1943 Europe were on display, as well as related ephemera. The exhibition will run until 25 February 2018. We show here a photo taken at the opening.

 

29 September 2017  -- OUR POSTERS IN POTSDAM !! Seven of our original 1943/1944 posters of the Uƒa Agfacolor film Münchhausen from France, Italy, Spain (shown, left) , Böhmen & Mähren, Belgium and Sweden have been shipped to the Potsdam Film Museum outside of Berlin, to be displayed in a 100th Uƒa studio anniversary exhibition which will run from 7th December this year until 25 February 2018 inclusive.  The posters range in size from a massive French monster, 2.4 meters x 1.2 meters, to a "Daybill" style one from Sweden, measuring just 30 cm x 90 cm small. If you are in greater Berlin during this time, please visit the Potsdam Film Museum and enjoy the Uƒa exhibition!  The Potsdam Film Museum is in the old horse stables (Marstall) of Friedrich the Great, which is located an easy 5 minute stroll from the Potsdam Bahnhof train station. We are proud to have collaborated with the Filmmuseum, and look forward to further such exhibitions in 2018/2019 and beyond.  The brochure about the Uƒa/Münchhausen exhibition in Potsdam's Film Museum can be found here.

12 August 2017: In the past two months we have sold through our Poster Store the  impossible–to–find–another original 1933 poster for the important and now lost propaganda film Blutendes Deutschland,the Lot of very rare Hitlerjunge Quex film promotional materials; the also very rare autographed photo of Karl Ritter, the original French press–book for the Veit Harlan film Jud Süss / Le juif Suss, and the beautiful,  late war (1944) film poster for the Prussian military melodrama Die Affäre Rödern, and the Dr. Hans Traub booklet. 

We now have just two remaining NS film posters to offer: the exceedingly rare wartime Occupied Belgian  1941 poster for  Hitlerjunge Quex,  and the small window poster for the Hans Albers film - which was awarded the 1934 National Film Prize by the Propaganda Ministry – Flüchtlinge.  Don't hesitate to order and know that you have reserved and acquired these rare film treasures before they are sold to someone else. Thank you for your custom.

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