''Fugitive Road'' is a 1934 American

comedy drama film Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

directed by

Frank R. Strayer Frank Raymond Strayer (September 21, 1891 – February 3, 1964) was an actor, film writer, director and producer. He was active from the mid-1920s until the early 1950s. He directed a series of 14 '' Blondie!'' (1938) movies as well. Biography ...

and starring

Erich von Stroheim Erich Oswald Hans Carl Maria von Stroheim (born Erich Oswald Stroheim; September 22, 1885 – May 12, 1957) was an Austrian-American director, actor and producer, most noted as a film star and avant-garde, visionary director of the silent era. H ...

Wera Engels Wera Engels (12 May 1905 – 16 November 1988) was a German actress. After successful leading roles in productions of the well-established German UFA-studios in Babelsberg as well as in France, she was invited to Hollywood. Producers saw her as ...

and

Leslie Fenton Leslie Fenton (12 March 1902 – 25 March 1978) was an English actor and film director. He appeared in more than 60 films between 1923 and 1945. Early life Fenton was born on 12 March 1902 in Liverpool, Lancashire, England. He emigrated to ...

. It is set a border post in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

following

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

."Stroheim Returns in Film at Rex" (''Spokane Daily Chronicle'', April 3, 1936, page ten)
/ref> A variety of different people trying to cross the border end up stranded there, including an American gangster and a naïve young Russian woman hoping to sail to New York to join her brother. It was shot at the

Universal Studios Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

with sets designed by the

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...

Edward C. Jewell.

Plot summary

Cast

as Hauptmann Oswald Von Traunsee *

as Sonya Valinoff *

as Frank Riker *

George Humbert George Humbert (born Umberto Gianni; July 29, 1880 – May 8, 1963) was an Italian-born American actor who appeared in more than 100 films between 1918 and the 1950s. He emigrated to the United States as a steerage passenger on board the Italian ...

as Papa Vinocchio *

Hank Mann Hank Mann (born David William Lieberman, May 28, 1887 – November 25, 1971) was a Russian Empire-born and American comedian and silent screen star who was a member of the Keystone Cops. According to fellow actor and original member of th ...

as Johann, Traunsee's orderly *

Harry Holman Harry James Holman (March 15, 1862 – May 3, 1947) was an American character actor. He appeared in approximately 130 films between 1923 and 1947. Biography Born in Conway, Missouri, Holman dropped out of school in the ninth grade and ...

as Burgomaster *

Ferdinand Schumann-Heink Ferdinand Schumann-Heink (born 9 August 1893 – 15 September 1958) was a prolific character actor with over 65 films to his credit. Though most of his films were uncredited roles, he wrote the screenplay for the 1930 film '' Mamba''. During ...

as Doctor *

Michael Visaroff Michael Simeon Visaroff (December 18, 1889 – February 27, 1951) was a Russian American film character actor. Biography Visaroff was born Mikhail Semenonovich Vizarov (Russian: Михаил Семёнович Визаров) in Moscow, R ...

as Police capt. with moustache *

Wilhelm von Brincken Wilhelm von Brincken (May 27, 1881 – January 18, 1946), also known as Wilhelm L. von Brincken, William Vaughn, William von Brinken, and William Vaughan, was a German diplomat and spy during World War I, who went on to become an American charac ...

as Lieutenant Berne * Harry Allen as Herbert Smythe, ambulance driver *

Anna Demetrio Anna Demetrio (1890–1959) was an Italian-born American film actress.McLaughlin p.170 Speaking English with a heavy accent, she often played stock foreign characters in a series of supporting roles. In 1950 she starred in the sitcom '' Mama Rosa' ...

as Mama Vinocchio *

Leonid Kinskey Leonid Kinskey (1893/1894 – September 8, 1998) was a Russian-born American film and television actor, best known for his role as "Sascha" in the film ''Casablanca'' (1942). His last name was sometimes spelled Kinsky. Life and career Kinskey ...

as Nicholas Petrovich, tall smuggler * Florence Enright as Burgomaster's Wife * Harry Schultz as Sergeant * Edith Kingdon as Tourist * Vangie Beilby as Tourist * Hans Fuerberg as Second Lieutenant

References

Bibliography

* Michael R. Pitts. ''Poverty Row Studios, 1929–1940: An Illustrated History of 55 Independent Film Companies, with a Filmography for Each''. McFarland & Company, 2005.

External links

* * * *
''Fugitive Road''
at ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

'' (a slightly different version of this 1987 write-up was originally published in ''The Motion Picture Guide'') 1934 films 1934 comedy-drama films American comedy-drama films American black-and-white films Films directed by Frank R. Strayer Chesterfield Pictures films Films set in Austria Films set in the 1910s 1930s English-language films 1930s American films {{1930s-drama-film-stub