Orient-Express

This is a nifty little murder mystery, set in a train rushing through an anonymous Balkan state. Even though it takes off really well - the train is speeding, a swing band is rehearsing, people embark on a train romance and so on, it gets very confusing once the action is taken from the train. The imaginary Balkan seems a bit fake and outdated, and some of the actors - like the female ingénue, Gusti Wolff, are a bit tiresome to watch, even though she spent 50 years as a leading actress at the Burgtheater in Berlin. Some are really nice, especially the ice-cold beauty Lisa Siebel, who probably was killed - as some other minor actors of this film - towards the end of the WW II, since after mere four pictures she completely disappeared from the screen and also from every database. What makes this film very interesting and a bit uncomfortable, is the fact that the opening night took place on March 8, 1945. This was one of the very last films to be released before the War ended in early May (four more were released in March and April). "Unter den Brücken" by Helmut Käutner was passed the censorship on March 23, but wasn't commercially released till after the war.

Lisa Siebel has not perished in WW2, but is alive and well and living in South Germany. I have been regularly in touch with her over the past seven years & - in the context of my own research - visited her twice. Now widowed, she married an industrialist after WW2. I am sorry not to meet the 10-line requirement. But I think this correction is important to anybody interested in this (still extremely) attractive former actress. How can you correct the numerous FACTUALLY wrong information I hit upon in the Database if you don't allow for short corrections? I have attempted corrections in my area of specialism before without success - all based on original documents and/or personal contacts with the film people concerned. - I am afraid that's the main reason why I rarely use IMDb (let alone subscribe to the professional version). At least in my area of interest (German Cinema up to 1980) it's just not reliable enough.