
103 minutes
3/17/1937
Der Herrscher (The Sovereign) was based on Before Sunset, a play by Gerhart Hauptmann. The great Emil Jannings stars as Mathias Clausen, a self-made businessman who is forced to do a great deal of soul-searching when his wife unexpectedly dies. Determining to start life anew, he falls in love with his secretary Inken (Marianne Hoppe) and impulsively takes a vacation to Italy. Clausen's selfish grown children, not wishing to share their father's affections -- nor his money -- with his new wife-to-be, go to court demanding that Clausen be declared mentally incompetent. Upon finding this out, Clausen flies into a rage, leaving the audience to wonder whether or not he really as gone off his trolley. Der Herrscher was directed by Veit Harlan, more famous (or notorious) for his viciously anti-Semitic Jud Suess (1940).

Emil Jannings
as Matthias Clausen

Marianne Hoppe
as Inken Peters

Hilde Körber
as Bettina Clausen

Käthe Haack
as Ottilie Klamroth

Herbert Hübner
as Direktor Erich Klamroth

Maria Koppenhöfer
as Klothilde Clausen

Paul Bildt
as Diener Winter

Heinrich Schroth
as Direktor Hofer

Max Gülstorff
as Sanitätsrat Geiger

Harald Paulsen
as Rechtsanwalt Hanefeld
Paul Wagner
as Professor Wolfgang Clausen

Hannes Stelzer
as Egert

Rudolf Klein-Rogge
as Direktor Bodlfing