The red sultan

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Movie
German title The red Sultan
Abdul Hamid
Original title Abdul the Damned
Country of production United Kingdom
original language English
Publishing year 1935
length 110 minutes
Rod
Director Karl Grune
script Warren Chetham-Strode
Roger Burford
Ashley Dukes based on a story by Robert Neumann
production Max Schach for BIP / Capitol, London
music Hanns Eisler
camera Otto Kanturek
cut AC Hammond
Walter Stokvis
occupation

The Red Sultan , also known under the title of Abdul Hamid is a British historical and adventure film from the year 1935. Under the direction of Karl Grune took Fritz Kortner the title role.

action

At the center of the action is the title hero Abdul Hamid , who ruled the Ottoman Empire as the despotic sultan from 1876 to 1909 . His regiment is as bloodthirsty as it is cruel. One day the Sultan calls the leader of the Young Turks back from exile to his old homeland in order to form a democratically legitimized government there. But from the beginning there are intrigues behind the scenes, and you deal with any opponents with knocks and stabs. Abdul Hamid has his police chief, Kadar Pasha, disguised with a white fez , which is a clear identification mark of the Young Turk movement , murder the leader of the Old Turkish Party. With this the Sultan finally has a handle against the young Turks, whose new government he then overthrows and their leaders arrested and executed.

But Kadar Pasha made a crucial mistake on his dirty job: There is a survivor. His name is Talak Pasha, serves as a captain in the army and recognizes the unscrupulous police chief as the perpetrator. Talak's salvation comes in the form of the enchanting Viennese actress Therese Alder, who agrees to enter the sultan's harem if, in return, he protects Talak's life. In fact, the young Turk is released and immediately joins the rebels who have gathered in Salonika , which was then still under Turkish occupation . A great uprising is being prepared to end the reign of terror of Abdul Hamid as soon as possible.

Production notes

The Red Sultan was Karl Grune's first directorial work in exile in England. The film was shot in Istanbul at the end of 1934 (exterior shots). The film passed the censorship in February 1935, the premiere of The Red Sultan took place in March 1935 in the London Regal Hotel as part of an interest demonstration. In Karl Grune's old homeland Austria, the film was shown for the first time in Vienna on May 15, 1935 (in the original version with German subtitles). There he ran under the title Abdul Hamid . The mass start in British cinemas, however, was only on September 23, 1935.

Lead actor Kortner was also involved in the script, but remained anonymous.

The film is considered to be one of the important contributions made by German-speaking emigrants in British exile during the Third Reich . In addition to Kortner and Grune, Max Schach (production), Hanns Eisler (film composition), Joe Strassner (costumes), Otto Kanturek (camera) and Walter Rilla , who played Hassan Bey, were also involved.

Reviews

On the one hand the film was a colorful piece of adventure, but on the other hand it was full of allusions to Hitler's Germany and recent events such as the so-called Röhm Putsch :

The book London Calling says: “The film that is most evident in its allegorical treatment of Nazism is likely to be Karl Grune's ABDUL THE DAMNED (1934/35). In ABDUL THE DAMNED the despotic, paranoid Sultan Abdul Hamid orders his police chief to infiltrate the Young Turkish rebels, discredit them and finally murder the old Turkish leader Hassan Bey. The story of the uprising of the Young Turks may also take place in 1908 - Abdul, played by Fritz Kortner, looks like an allegorical representation of Hitler, as the massacre of the Young Turks commemorates the murder of Ernst Röhm and his SA leaders by members of the SS in 1934. "

Vienna's Neue Freie Presse reported in the May 16, 1935 edition: “Correct, effective film material, fetched from contemporary history by the multi-talented Viennese author Robert Neumann with his imagination and effectively designed in collaboration with the director Karl Grune. Sometimes there is already too much of the milieu-genuinely bad and evil, because the atrocities and killings are piled up too conscientiously, so that in places a colportage impression arises, which is not even due to the somewhat banal love and harem fate of a Viennese operetta singer and the plentiful revue effort is mitigated. On the other hand, everything is seen and reproduced in a purely artistic way, and Hans Eisler's interesting and colorful music also has strong characterization and mood. The film is best and most valuable where it exposes the human nature of the inhuman Abdul Hamid. A great acting task and at the same time a double role, in which Fritz Kortner now also shows his strong talent for eerie, complicated and weak characters in English. "

On page 2 of the Österreichische Film-Zeitung you can read in the edition of May 17, 1935: “Fritz Kortner, in the double role of the sultan and his doppelganger, offers a haunting theatrical performance that Abdul Hamid II. More than the victim of the unfortunate Constellations than shows as tyrants. A brilliant achievement by the police chief Nils Asthers. (...) Karl Grune staged the film in a colorful and impressive way based on the script by Robert Neumann. "

Emile Grant (di Erich Kaiser) wrote in the Pariser Tageblatt : “This film offers the pensive one interesting comparison possibilities. The story is based on Robert Neumann's well-known book and would perhaps be even more effective if the director, for which the otherwise excellent Karl Grune is responsible, had set more speed. The course of the action seems a bit abrupt and the highlights are not fully accentuated. "

In Karl Grune's biography, Kay Less called the film "a far-fetched adventure piece".

Halliwell's Film Guide characterized The Red Sultan as follows: "Throroughgoing hokum, well produced, which pleased some people in its day".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. shooting report in the Austrian film newspaper v. December 29, 1934
  2. ^ London Calling. Germans in British film of the thirties. A CineGraph book, Munich 1993, p. 87
  3. ^ "Abdul Hamid". In:  Neue Freie Presse , May 16, 1935, p. 11 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp
  4. ^ "Abdul Hamid". In:  Österreichische Film-Zeitung , May 17, 1935, p. 2 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / fil
  5. ^ Pariser Tageblatt of August 30, 1935
  6. Kay Less : "In life, more is taken from you than given ...". Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. ACABUS Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8 , p. 220.
  7. Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 2. Translation: "Well-produced, complete nonsense that some people liked at the time."