Karl Stepanek
Also Known As: Karl Stepanek, Karel Štěpánek, Karel Stepanek
Biography: Though born in Czechoslovakia, actor Karel Stepanek was generally regarded as a German actor due to his extensive film work in Germany (as Karl Stepanek) in the years before World War II. Stepanek fled to England in 1940, where, like many European refugee actors, he specialized in portraying Teutonic villains. He tried to stay away from out-and-out Nazi roles, but his predilection for wearing black uniforms and barking out guttural commands left little doubt as to the political preferences of Stepanek's screen characters. One of his most typical characterizations could be found in the 1946 POW drama, The Captive Heart; Stepanek also registered well as a friendlier foreigner in The Fallen Idol (1949). Commuting between London and Hollywood, Karel Stepanek continued to fight World War II, usually on the wrong side, into such '60s films as Sink the Bismarck! (1960), I Aim at the Stars (1960) and Operation Crossbow (1965).
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Brünn, Moravia, Austria-Hungary [now Brno, Czech Republic]
Birthday: October 27, 1899
Deathday: December 25, 1980
Adult: No
Gender: Male
Popularity:
Known For:
Man of the Moment
Overview: Norman is a file clerk who accidentally becomes a British delegate to a diplomatic conference, befriends the queen of a remote island, and winds up a knight. Norman leaves rooms in shambles, tailors in shreds, and diplomats in bandages. Chased by gunmen and assassins of foreign powers, Norman finds himself running through active TV studio sets and interrupts various programs and performances in progress
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-01-01
Popularity:
Murderers Club of Brooklyn
Overview: Fifth Jerry Cotton Movie. A rich capitalist is blackmailed and threatened with the murder of his daughter.
Genres: Crime
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1967-03-17
Popularity:
The Fallen Idol
Overview: Phillipe, the son of an ambassador in London, idolizes Baines, his father's butler, a kind of hero in the eyes of the child, whose perception changes when he accidentally discovers the secret that Baines keeps and witnesses the consequences that adults' lies can cause.
Genres: Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-09-30
Popularity:
Devil Doll
Overview: An evil hyponotist/ventriloquist plots to gain an heiress' millions.
Genres: Horror Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1964-09-01
Popularity:
Operation Crossbow
Overview: Allied agents infiltrate the Nazi rocket complex at Peenemunde in order to obtain their secrets and sabotage the plant. The film alternates between German developments of the V-1 missile and V-2 rocket (with a German cast speaking their own language) and discovery by British Intelligence of the weapon.
Genres: Drama War Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1965-04-01
Popularity:
Affair in Trinidad
Overview: A nightclub singer enlists her brother-in-law to track down her husband's killer.
Genres: Romance Thriller Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-07-29
Popularity:
Anastasia
Overview: Russian exiles in Paris plot to collect ten million pounds from the Bank of England by grooming a destitute, suicidal girl to pose as heir to the Russian throne. While Bounin is coaching her, he comes to believe that she is really Anastasia. In the end, the Empress must decide her claim.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-12-13
Popularity:
The Cockleshell Heroes
Overview: During WW2, German ships are "safely" docked upriver at Bordeaux, but the British send a team of kayakers to attack them.
Genres: War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-11-16
Popularity:
Never Let Me Go
Overview: An American reporter falls in love with a Russian ballet dancer.
Genres: Romance Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-03-18
Popularity:
City Beneath the Sea
Overview: Two adventures dive for treasure off the coast of Jamaica.
Genres: Adventure Action Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-04-21
Popularity:
Sink the Bismarck!
Overview: The story of the breakout of the German battleship Bismarck—accompanied by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen—during the early days of World War II. The Bismarck and her sister ship, Tirpitz, were the most powerful battleships in the European theater of World War II. The British Navy must find and destroy Bismarck before it can escape into the convoy lanes to inflict severe damage on the cargo shipping which was the lifeblood of the British Isles. With eight 15 inch guns, it was capable of destroying every ship in a convoy while remaining beyond the range of all Royal Navy warships.
Genres: War Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-02-11
Popularity:
The File of the Golden Goose
Overview: U.S. Secret Service agent Peter Novak goes undercover with Scotland Yard officer Thompson to halt a murderous gang of counterfeiters known as the Golden Goose. Although Peter is unsure about John's loyalties, the two infiltrate the gang and win the trust of thug Nick "The Owl" Harrison before enduring a series of double-crosses.
Genres: Drama Thriller Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1969-10-13
Popularity:
Die Fledermaus
Overview: The delightful Johann Strauss comic opera Die Fledermaus was mercilessly lampooned in this truly bizarre production. For starters, a framing device has been added: After appearing in 300 consecutive appearances of Fledermaus (which translates as The Bat) the lead tenor (Georg Alexander) imagines that he's seeing bats everywhere. Driven a bit over the edge by all this, he falls asleep and has a nightmare about the opera, with a group of non-singers cast in the leading roles. The original libretto about romantic assignations, political imprisonments and mistaken identity is burlesqued to the hilt: at one point, the hero finds out that his prison cell is surrounded by rubber tubes!
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1937-10-30
Popularity:
The Captive Heart
Overview: A series of stories about the lives and loves of men in a Prisoner of War camp over five years. The main story is of Hasek (Redgrave) a Czech soldier who needs to keep his identity a secret from the Nazis. To do this, he poses as a dead English Officer and corresponds with the man's wife. Other inmates’ stories are also revealed. Location shooting in the British occupied part of Germany adds believability.
Genres: Drama War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1946-04-29
Popularity:
They Met in the Dark
Overview: A Royal navy Commander is tricked by a pretty girl who is working for the Nazis. She tricks him into revealing some military secrets and he is court martial. He vows to track her and her accomplices down.
Genres: Mystery Romance Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-08-11
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Conspirator
Overview: A newlywed suspects her husband of being a Communist spy.
Genres: Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-07-28
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Walk East on Beacon
Overview: An FBI agent works with a refugee scientist and the Coast Guard to crack a Soviet spy ring in Boston.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-06-01
Popularity:
The Frozen Dead
Overview: A crazed scientist keeps the heads of Nazi war criminals alive until he can find appropriate bodies on which to attach them so he can revive the Third Reich.
Genres: Science Fiction Horror
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1966-10-15
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Secret Venture
Overview: An American is visiting Britain and finds himself in possession of a briefcase full of secret documents that the spies of many different countries seem determined to get.
Genres: Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-11-10
Popularity:
Sperrbezirk
Overview: The story of a pimp who falls in love with one of his victims, is "purified" by it, but also perishes. A colportage that vacillates between sentimentality, brutality and speculation.
Genres: Thriller
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1966-06-02
Popularity:
A Prize of Gold
Overview: A U.S. sergeant, a British sergeant and a British pilot hijack gold for a German refugee's war orphans.
Genres: Drama War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-10-14
Popularity:
Before Winter Comes
Overview: Drama/Comedy set in a refugee camp in occupied Austria after World War II. A shrewd multi-lingual interpreter who mediates between Russian and British military brass enters into a friendly rivalry with British Major Giles Burnside, who is in charge of assigning the displaced persons into either the American or Russian zones.
Genres: Drama Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1969-01-17
Popularity:
Tale of Three Women
Overview: A compilation of 3 stories, "The Wedding Gift", "The Thief of London" and "The Final Twist". Originally part of the Danziger Brothers series "Calling Scotland Yard"
Genres: Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1954-01-01
Popularity:
Licensed to Kill
Overview: An English spy (Tom Adams) guards a Scandinavian scientist (Karl Stepanek) who has sold an anti-gravity device to each side.
Genres: Action Adventure Comedy Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1965-07-05
Popularity:
Dangerous Cargo
Overview: Inspired by the real events of the attempted heist at Heathrow Airport in 1952, a criminal tricks an old friend into giving away the location of a shipment of gold bullion so he and his gang can steal it.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1954-05-01
Popularity:
Cairo Road
Overview: In colonial Egypt, a British police officer sets out on a daring hunt for drug smuggling gangs operating along the notorious Cairo Road.
Genres: Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-06-21
Popularity:
West of Suez
Overview: In this suspense movie, a Yankee mercenary is hired to blow up an Arab dignitary.
Genres: Drama Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1957-03-01
Popularity:
Operation Amsterdam
Overview: When Germany invades Holland in 1940, a British intelligence officer and two Dutch diamond merchants go to Amsterdam to persuade the Dutch diamond merchants to evacuate their diamond supplies to England.
Genres: Drama History War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1959-01-12
Popularity:
Five from the Jazzband
Overview: By pure chance, Jessie and his four jazz musicians are hired to play at the cabaret theatre “Trocadero”. Unfortunately, she knows nothing about music and it doesn’t help that all four musicians are in love with her. Jessie doesn’t reciprocate their feelings, because she has a thing for Martin. Unfortunately, Martin believes that Jessie stole his car … and so, right before the premiere at the cabaret, she ends up in jail.
Genres: Music Drama
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1932-03-19
Popularity:
Berlin-Alexanderplatz: The Story of Franz Biberkopf
Overview: Franz Biberkopf has served four years in prison. His return to normal life is not successful.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1931-10-07
Popularity:
Tomorrow We Live
Overview: British World War II film set in occupied France, portraying the activities of members of the French Resistance and the Nazi tactic of taking and shooting innocent hostages in reprisal for acts of sabotage. The opening credits acknowledge "the official co-operation of General de Gaulle and the French National Committee". It was released as "At Dawn We Die" in the US.
Genres: War Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-04-05
Popularity:
The Third Man
Overview: In postwar Vienna, Austria, Holly Martins, a writer of pulp Westerns, arrives penniless as a guest of his childhood chum Harry Lime, only to learn he has died. Martins develops a conspiracy theory after learning of a "third man" present at the time of Harry's death, running into interference from British officer Major Calloway, and falling head-over-heels for Harry's grief-stricken lover, Anna.
Genres: Thriller Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-08-31
Popularity:
Give Us This Day
Overview: Exiled from Hollywood due to the blacklist, director Edward Dmytryk briefly operated in England in the late 1940s. Though filmed in its entirety in London, Dmytryk's Give Us This Day is set in New York during the depression. Fellow blacklistee Sam Wanamaker is starred as the head of an Italian immigrant family struggling to survive the economic crisis.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-10-14
Popularity:
Rough Shoot
Overview: An American military officer and his wife move to a cottage in what they think is the peaceful English countryside, only to discover the area is a hotbed of spies and secret agents.
Genres: Crime Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-03-30
Popularity:
Secret Mission
Overview: World War II drama in which a member of the French Resistance and three British agents undertake a hazardous mission to infiltrate a German HQ in search of vital information that could lead to the overthrow of the Nazis.
Genres: Drama War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-10-05
Popularity:
The Leghorn Hat
Overview: Der Florentiner Hut (The Leghorn Hat), a 1939 German film directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1939-04-04
Popularity:
The Third Visitor
Overview: Suave supercilious Carling (Karel Stepanek) receives several callers to his isolated house, all of whom hold a grudge against him. Next morning a corpse is found, and later identified as his by one of the visitors.
Genres: Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-01-31
Popularity:
Brainwashed
Overview: Werner von Basil, a Austrian intellectual, was captured by the Nazis in 1938. They want to break him to confess smuggling. Without any mental sustenance, the only thing left to keep his mind busy is an old tactics book for chess.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1960-09-02
Popularity:
The Heroes of Telemark
Overview: Set in German-occupied Norway, resistance fighter Knut Straud enlists the reluctant physicist Rolf Pedersen in an effort to destroy the German heavy water production plant in rural Telemark.
Genres: Action Drama War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1965-11-12
Popularity:
The Unknown
Overview: The body of an unknown beautiful woman is fished out of the river and leaves the policemen wondering what drove the girl to such a grisly fate. The film then flashes back to months before, showing the torrid love affair between a young cabaret singer and a rich playboy that ultimately results in tragedy for the girl.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1936-11-12
Popularity:
Escape to Danger
Overview: During the Second World War a British schoolteacher working in Denmark is caught up when the Germans invade.
Genres: Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-10-18
Popularity:
Here's Berlin
Overview: Story of a rendezvous in Paris which is prepared through telephone calls between a Berlin telephonist and his female colleague in Paris.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 1932-03-14
Popularity:
A Song for You
Overview: During a concert tour, famous tenor Riccardo Gatti meets Lixie at an Aida rehearsal and takes her for a ballet dancer. She is in fact trying to get a position for her boyfriend, so she accepts Gatti's date for supper. When she runs away he publishes a newspaper ad offering to give a concert anywhere she chooses if she shows up. She chooses a swimming pool hoping to discourage him, but he accepts.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1933-04-14
Popularity:
War es der im 3. Stock?
Overview:
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1939-01-06
Popularity:
Hermine and the Seven Upright Men
Overview: Seven men in peaceful Switzerland swear lifelong friendship while the rest of the world is at strife. A conflict arises when the daughter of one falls in love with the son of another.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1935-01-11
Popularity:
Der Außenseiter
Overview:
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1935-11-14
Popularity:
Spione im Savoy-Hotel
Overview:
Genres: Comedy Crime Music
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1932-11-04
Popularity:
State Secret
Overview: While working in England, an American surgeon Dr. John Marlowe is invited to Vosnia (a fictitious East-European country) to receive an award and demonstrate his life-saving surgery. Unwittingly caught in the middle of a dangerous and corrupt series of political events, Marlowe then becomes the object of a shoot-to-kill, vicious pursuit. Fleeing, he seeks help from an English-speaking actress, Lisa Robinson, and the two attempt to escape across the treacherous mountains of Vosnia.
Genres: Thriller Drama Romance Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-09-11
Popularity:
Broken Journey
Overview: A plane flying over the Swiss Alps develops engine trouble and is forced to crash-land on a glacier. Unable to radio for help because of damaged batteries and with limited food supplies, the survivors must come to a decision -- whether to stay and wait for help they believe is coming or to leave the shelter of the wrecked plane and set out in bad weather to try to reach civilization.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-04-14
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The Man in the Road
Overview: A brilliant scientist who has lost his memory is hunted by Communist agents out to obtain a secret formula.
Genres: Crime Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-03-01
Popularity:
Aufstand der Gehorsamen
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1963-04-20
Popularity:
The Games
Overview: From Great Britain, the United States, France, Italy, Australia and behind the Iron Curtain. They are the most superbly conditioned animals in the world. They are also the pawns of powerful nations, the victims of dangerous drugs and the object of many men's ambitions. Once every four years they come together... for the Olympic Games.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1970-08-07
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Narren im Schnee
Overview:
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1938-08-16
Popularity:
Waltz War
Overview: The quarrel between the waltz king Joseph Lanner and his still unknown violinist Johann Strauss. It comes to a break. Strauss is engaged in London and has his first successes there. Thanks to the initially unfortunate intervention of Lanner's daughter, a reconciliation is finally achieved.
Genres: Comedy Music
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1933-10-03
Popularity:
The Heroes of Telemark: Location report from Norway
Overview: Over one hour of black-and-white location footage and interviews with the stars and director, all staged outdoors in manifestly frigid conditions. Mann talks about his filmmaking philosophy and the challenges of shooting in such rugged locations, and shares his insights on the Douglas-Harris feud.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2003-10-31
Popularity:
Our Man in Havana
Overview: Jim Wormold is an expatriate Englishman living in pre-revolutionary Havana with his teenage daughter Milly. He owns a vacuum cleaner shop but isn’t very successful so he accepts an offer from Hawthorne of the British Secret Service to recruit a network of agents in Cuba.
Genres: Comedy Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-01-27
Popularity:
Golden Arrow
Overview: On a journey from Paris to London, a Briton, a Frenchman and an American bond with each other and indulge in a romantic fantasy about a girl they see.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1949-12-31
Popularity:
No Highway in the Sky
Overview: James Stewart plays aeronautical engineer Theodore Honey, the quintessential absent-minded professor: eccentric, forgetful, but brilliant. His studies show that the aircraft being manufactured by his employer has a subtle but deadly design flaw that manifests itself only after the aircraft has flown a certain number of hours. En route to a crash site to prove his theory, Honey discovers that he is aboard a plane rapidly approaching his predicted deadline.
Genres: Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-06-28
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Hotel Sacher
Overview: Vienna is celebrating New Year’s Eve 1913/14. It is the year, which will see the outbreak of the First World War. In Hotel Sacher, the mood is excellent; and although the political atmosphere is charged, there’s an undercurrent of hate and intolerance in the air. It is with this background that Nadja, a Russian spy, meets the Austrian civil servant Stefan. He loves her, but comes under suspicion of being an agent because of this love.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: de
Release Date: 1939-03-15
Popularity:
Klatovští dragouni
Overview:
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: cs
Release Date: 1938-02-25
Popularity:
The Traitor
Overview: One time members of a resistance group come together every year to remember their dead leader, betrayed to and executed by the Nazis. When it seems that they might finally know the name of the traitor - and that he or she comes from within their own unit - their annual gathering becomes a deadly trial...
Genres: Drama Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1957-03-01
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Na růžích ustláno
Overview:
Genres: Music Comedy
Original Language: cs
Release Date: 1935-01-25
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Pozdní láska
Overview:
Genres: Drama
Original Language: cs
Release Date: 1935-06-07
Popularity:
Counterblast
Overview: An escaped World War 2 Nazi doctor impersonates a murdered English doctor so he can work on a vaccination to protect the Germans in their planned germ warfare.
Genres: Thriller Drama Action
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-05-18
Popularity:
Our Film
Overview: A British factory is inefficient because of pre-war rules and red tape. A Soviet trades union representative shows workers and management the value of unity.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-08-03
Popularity: