Confusing Region Free issue- makes ZERO sense

[dentists]

I own a Sony BDP-S1700 (A,B,C Region Free) player.
“La Playa” BluRay (Dicaprio’s The Beach) Spanish “A,B,C Region Free” has worked on my player.
However, I just bought “Zwei Supertypen in Miami” bluray from Amazon Germany because the back on the set lists “A,B,C Region”.

Here’s my problem:
1. The BluRay starts, I get the typical licensing/distributing company logo and sometimes (not all the time) the menu to select chapters/subtitles/extras pops up but the background screen is black/blank
2. When I go to select a chapter/subtitles/extra the screen goes blank and if I hit play on remote it says “not allowed”

My questions:

1. Is this a defect in the discs?
2. Region Free issue? Meaning are these not truly A, B, C Region free?
3. Would I need a BluRay player from Germany/Region B due to frame rates? 25/50p? If so what player would you recommend?


So odd that it even plays the disc whatsoever… if it’s a region issue- the disc technically plays, it just doesn’t allow you to access the actual content on the disc!