Dir.: Percy Adlon; Script: Percy Adlon; Phot.: Judy Irola; Ed.: Ila von Hasperg; Mus.: Salon Orchestra Berlin, Tailed Comedians, Madelaine Lienhard; Cast: Felix Adlon, Eva Mattes; Prod.: Eleonore Adlon, Pelemele Film / Leora Films, 11718 Barrington Ct., Suite 367, Los Angeles CA 90049 (États-Unis), tél.: (310) 459-6060, fax: (310) 454-2510; Sales: Futura Film / Weltvertrieb in Filmverlag der Autoren, Rambergstrasse 5, 80799 Munich (Allemagne), tél.: (089) 38 17 00 30, fax: (089) 38 17 00 20 .

In May 1945, newspaper tycoon William R. Hearst drafts a young German-American, Louis Adlon Jr., to serve as a war correspondent in Berlin. But the war is over and Berlin is in ruins. Adlon's real mission is to supply Hearst's tabloid writers with gossip about prominent Nazis and about the devastation in Germany. Louis' "headquarters" in the German capital will be none other than the famous Hotel Adlon, which was once the property of his family and has miraculously survived the war. Louis, who had been living an indolent life in Hollywood as friend of the stars, is curious to see what has become of his childhood haunts in Berlin. But just days after his return to Germany, the Hotel Adlon is burned down, set afire by occupying Russian troops. Louis is in shock. He settles into a section of the hotel that is still standing and slowly, painfully, with two fingers on a portable typewriter, he begins to remember and to write. The paradise of his youth is destroyed but Louis' remembrances become increasingly vivid. He sees himself back in the old days when the Hotel Adlon was the haunt of such celebrities as Richard Tauber, Josephine Baker, Thomas Mann, Charlie Chaplin and Marlene Dietrich. Hearst is delighted with Louis' articles. He requests more. Louis plunges into the past...