Francis Lederer

A doctor performs operations on Panther to turn him into a man-creature.

A doctor performs operations on Panther to turn him into a man-creature.

After killing an artist in Transylvania, Count Dracula (Francis Lederer) assumes the man's identity and heads to America, where he moves in with the Mayberry clan and continues his nocturnal bloodsucking. Soon, his odd habits arouse young Rachel Mayberry's (Norma Eberhardt) suspicions. And when her best friend mysteriously dies, Rachel turns to a foreign police officer who understands the undead in this classic horror flick.

Aching to escape her dull duties as daughter of the U.S ambassador to France, Joan Fisk (Olivia de Havilland) sets out to demonstrate a point to her father and his small-minded friends in this genial comedy. Deeming all American servicemen wolves, a U.S. senator (Adolphe Menjou) wants to put Paris off limits to them. To prove him wrong, Joan begins a harmless fling with a young American soldier (John Forsythe) -- but ends up falling in love.

When an American businessman gets murdered while hailing his taxi, Viennese cab driver Toni (Donald Buka) steals the dead man's passport and identity in the hopes of escaping Austria and getting to the United States. But soon, Toni finds himself ensnared in a web of deceit and betrayal involving a concert pianist, the killer's wife and a cunning frame-up. Joan Camden and Francis Lederer co-star in this thriller from director Gunther von Fritsch.

Webb Carey (Alan Ladd), a former U.S. agent, returns to Italy after World War II to find out who betrayed his team on its last mission and to avenge the death of the resistance worker he loved (Wanda Hendrix). To his amazement, Carey discovers that she's alive and married -- and that the villagers he thought he was saving from the Nazis now hold America responsible for their postwar poverty. The film won an Oscar for the song "Mona Lisa."

Paulette Goddard stars in director Jean Renoir's tale of Célestine, a chambermaid who decides to use her charms to snare a rich patron. But her attempts to seduce her new employer -- henpecked Monsieur Lanlaire (Reginald Owen) -- go awry. Celestine then aims for Lanlaire's son, Georges (Hurd Hatfield), but unstable valet Joseph (Francis Lederer) and eccentric neighbor Mauger (Burgess Meredith) also compete for her affections.

When yet another one of moody French painter James Harlan Corbin's (Francis Lederer) beautiful models turns up dead, the girl's sister poses as a model herself in the hopes of proving that the suspicious artist is a killer. But soon she has a change of heart and falls for the man. Is Corbin toying with her, or could he be innocent after all? Gail Patrick also stars in this noir-ish 1946 mystery from director Wilhelm Thiele.

Confessions of a Nazi Spy is a brisk connect-the-dots tale that ties German-American Bund operatives to Berlin. Chief among those connecting the dots: FBI Agent Edward Renard (Robinson). Confessions of a Nazi Spy struck a nerve in its era. It remains a milestone of filmmaking commitment today.

Heading to a darkened theater for a romantic rendezvous with a married woman, actor Philippe Martin (Francis Lederer) mistakenly sits in the wrong seat and kisses the wrong woman, Monique Pelerin (Ida Lupino), the daughter of a powerful publisher.

Heading to a darkened theater for a romantic rendezvous with a married woman, actor Philippe Martin (Francis Lederer) mistakenly sits in the wrong seat and kisses the wrong woman, Monique Pelerin (Ida Lupino), the daughter of a powerful publisher.

French actor Phillipe Martin (Lederer) enters a darkened movie theater to rendezvous with his married lover, Yvonne. However, Phillipe ends up mistakenly kissing a complete stranger, young and innocent Monique Pelerin (Lupino). The incident causes a furious media scandal, landing Phillipe in a zany screwball court trial, fighting against the Purity League as "The Kissing Monster." To protect Yvonne, Phillipe lies and states that he was overcome with Monique's beauty and could not resist kissing her, due to his romantic French nature. The charges are dropped, and Phillipe becomes an overnight celebrity and and the play he stars in a success. His testimony in court intrigues Monique, and leads to a burgeoning romance between Monique and Phillipe.