Doctor without a conscience
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Doctor without a conscience |
| Country of production | Federal Republic of Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1959 |
| length | 95 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Falk Harnack |
| script |
Werner P. Zibaso , Friedrich Dammann |
| production | Use Kubaschewski |
| music | Siegfried Franz |
| camera | Helmuth Ashley |
| cut | Walter Boos |
| occupation | |
| |
Doctor without a conscience (long title doctor without a conscience - private clinic Prof. Lund ) is a German horror film by Falk Harnack from 1959. Ewald Balser plays the leading roles, who embodies the doctor without a conscience, Prof. Lund, Barbara Rütting as Lund's personal assistant Dr. Marianne Cordt, Wolfgang Preiss as Dr. Westorp, who does not want to support Lund's machinations, and Cornell Borchers as the heart-sick opera singer Harriet Owen.
action
At the funeral of Professor Lund only the doctor Dr. Westorp, Lund's assistant to Dr. Marianne Cordt and the criminalists Nobis and Pastor, which crimes the mourned man had actually committed: He researched nothing less than eternal life. Westorp recapitulates the past seven days.
Westorp actually wanted to go on vacation to Mallorca with his girlfriend Sabine . Previously, he attended a lecture by Professor Lund, who theoretically explained how used organs could be replaced by fresh, more efficient organs and thus death could be defeated. Westorp, who was Lund's assistant for five years, is called to the professor shortly before his departure. He tells him that he would like to have him by his side for an operation the next day. Westorp refuses at first and Marianne also advises him against. However, when he learns that the patient is the famous opera singer Harriet Owen, who has acute heart problems, he postpones his departure for a day.
The young prostitute Birke Sawatzki is released from Lund's clinic, shortly afterwards kidnapped and drugged by Lund. Lund takes her to an estate near the border, where he sedates her permanently. Birch is supposed to serve as an organ donor for Harriet Owen, which neither Marianne nor Westorp know. Harriet has no idea that she is about to get a new heart. Westorp is also driven to Lund's castle-like property, where he is initiated into Lund's practices. The professor has preserved several hearts from the dead and keeps them beating. He tested the defense mechanisms of organ transplants on a monkey and a few weeks ago he implanted a new heart in the seriously ill Italian Paolo Terruzzi. Lund was assisted by the physician Dr. Stein: He was once involved in inhuman experiments as a concentration camp doctor and was sentenced to death in absentia. He is delighted that Lund has now developed the same views as the Nazis once did.
Paolo has needed a serum since the operation, which ensures that there is no defense reaction against the new heart. However, the young Italian longs for freedom and one day flees from the castle. He collapses in a small town nearby and dies shortly afterwards in the police station. This is how the investigators track down Lund, whom they had previously questioned in the case of the suddenly missing birch. Other missing persons cases also appear to be linked to the professor.
In the castle, Lund and Stein prepare Operation Birkes. She was paralyzed with an agent and then artificially ventilated until shortly before the operation in order to be able to transplant her heart. Marianne is shocked when she recognizes the birch she is familiar with in the dispenser. Westorp, in turn, notices that Birch is still alive. He and Marianne reanimate Birch, which Lund and Stein do not prevent. They only regret that the "inferior" birch is saved, while the "valuable" Harriet does not have long to live due to her heart problem. The police have meanwhile arrived at the castle. Stein flees and dies shortly afterwards in the nearby moor. Lund confesses his deeds and takes his life with poison.
Some time later Harriet leaves; she still hopes to get help somewhere. Westorp and Marianne want to continue Lund's research, albeit in an ethically sound field. Sabine, on the other hand, is happy to finally be able to start on vacation with Westorp.
Production, publication
The film was produced by the production company KG DIVINA-FILM GmbH & Co. in the studios of Bavaria-Filmkunst AG, Munich-Geiselgasteig. The company belonged to Ilse Kubaschewski , who was also the owner of the first distributor Gloria-Film GmbH & Co. Filmverleih KG . Ingeborg Ege-Grützner created the costumes for the doctor without a conscience , and the films were made by Hans Berthel and Robert Stratil . Cornell Borchers gave her farewell film here and then retired into private life.
The film premiered on September 4, 1959 in the Ufa-Palast in Cologne and was shown in German cinemas on the same day. He received an FSK 18 at the time. On August 5, 2011, Pidax Film Media Ltd. (AL! VE) released the film within the series "Film-Klassiker" on DVD (approved for ages 12 and up).
In Argentina the film was released on November 23, 1960 under the title Médico sin conciencia , in the USA under the title Doctor without Scruples in 1963. In Brazil it was released under the title Dr. Lund, O Médico da Morte and in Italy under the title Medico senza coscienza .
criticism
For the film service , doctor without a conscience was “scary entertainment that is wrapped in the cloak of the problem film”.
The editor Falk Schwarz wrote: "Unworthy life - this terrible Nazi word is in the background of the film from the medical milieu." "Impressively disgusting" is Wolfgang Kieling in his role as a former concentration camp doctor Stein. The “amalgamation of the darkest chapter of our history with a fable trimmed for sensation” makes “the whole film inappropriate”. Ewald Balser plays the role of the doctor without a conscience "in the manner of his Sauerbruch film - honest, serious, trustworthy". There is "no second level, nothing abysmal in the character of Professor Lund, nothing that suggests the 'Jekyll' side of a schizophrenic character, no conscience." - The subject of heart transplants remained. "The film should better be forgotten, though."
Heiko Thiele from Filmreporter.de also mentioned that the “thematization of National Socialist moral concepts” seemed “precarious” so shortly after the end of the Second World War. “Quiet tracking shots and music that contrasts the tension” are characteristic of the film, it said, and that the main roles with Ewald Balser, Wolfgang Kieling and Wolfgang Preiss are “prominently cast”.
Web links
- Doctor without conscience in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Doctor without a conscience at filmportal.de
- Doctor without a conscience see page kino.de
- Doctor without a conscience Fig. Title page Illustrierte Film-Bühne No. 4909 (in the picture: Ewald Balser, Barbara Rütting, Wolfgang Preiss, Cornell Borchers)
- Doctor Without a Conscience full movie at dailymotion.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ Doctor without a conscience - private clinic Prof. Lund Fig. Film poster (in the picture Barbara Rütting, Ewald Balser, Wolfgang Preiss, Karin Baal (stylized))
- ↑ Doctor without a conscience Fig. DVD case Pidax film classics (in the picture: Ewald Balser, Wolfgang Preiss, Cornell Borchers)
- ↑ Doctor without a conscience - private clinic Prof. Lund see tv-kult.com
- ↑ Doctor without a conscience. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Falk Schwarz: Doctor without a conscience. In: filmportal.de . Deutsches Filminstitut , accessed on July 28, 2019 .
- ↑ Doctor without a conscience. Scandal film by the renowned Falk Harnack see page filmreporter.de. Retrieved July 28, 2019.
