American films beckoned as well and Sagebrecht was often cast in roles tailored to her unique abilities. Paul Mazursky reworked the part of a Teutonic masseuse for her in "Moon Over Parador" (1988) while Danny De Vito tailored the part of the German housekeeper for a divorcing couple in "The War of the Roses" (1989). Returning to Germany, she shone as the timid maid in the 1930s who marries her Jewish employer for convenience then falls in love in "Martha and I" (1990; released in the USA in 1995). Sagebrecht headlined the black comedy as an unhappy wife whose straying husband plots her death in "Mona Must Die" (1994) and had small supporting parts in "The Ogre" (1996) and "Lost Luggage" (1998).