Benedict Scheps

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Benedikt Scheps was a detective character in the German silent film of the late 1910s, who was played by the actor Rudi Oehler . Detective Benedikt Scheps (also spelled Benedikt Schöps) determined - based on current knowledge - in four cases.

Filmography

  • 1919: The spouse murderer , "Benedikt Scheps, 1st adventure"
  • 1919: 3000 Mark reward , "Benedikt Scheps, 2nd adventure"
  • 1919: The secret of the manufacturer Henderson , "Benedikt Scheps, 3rd adventure"
  • 1919: The Meier case

background

Karl Neisser always directed . Only in the first film in the series, Der Gattenmörder , which was shot based on a literary model by Harry Waghalter , was Octav von Klodnicki director, who had previously directed When Graves Open (1918) and the screenplay for Die geborgte Villa (1918) had written. The four films were produced by the Berlin company Macht-Film of the actor, screenwriter and producer Conrad Tietze .

The naming of the hero, "Benedikt Scheps" - Scheps sounds similar to the name of the popular detective Stuart Webbs - was probably not a coincidence, but because he was a role model and an example worth emulating for many detective characters at the time due to his success. In itself, Scheps or Schöps meant “castrated sheep's lamb”, also known as “mutton”, and, since clumsy or simple-minded people are commonly referred to as “Schöps”, it would not actually be something positive that one would wish for a detective.

An advertisement of the Macht-Film from March 1919 in the magazine Kinema , which boldly addresses "To the film distributors around the world!"

“We have the honor to draw your attention to the World Championship detective Benedikt Scheps. He embodies the sensational type of comic detective that we have created. Since Scheps is portrayed by the popular comedian Rudi Oehler, the subjects come from first-class writers and we ensure splendid furnishings and brilliant staging in order to conquer the world market, the hits of this name that are published are in the best sense of the word all honor do. All cinemas will always achieve full houses and full box offices with the Schepsschlager, and as a result you will acquire grateful customers through the Schepsschlager. "

So Oehler was a “popular comedian” and the name actually suggested a funny detective character. The advertisement is accompanied by two drawings for the film 3000 Mark reward , signed with the advertising lines “'3000 Mark reward' - a big box office hit!” And “Benedikt Scheps fills the box office” and show a clown-like detective figure.

According to the Macht-Film advertisement, ten episodes of the series were planned. Benedikt Scheps' first adventure was "successful everywhere", his second adventure 3000 Mark reward already "ready for demonstration" and his third adventure The Secret of the Factory Owner Henderson already "in progress".

Rudi Oehler also played other roles in the Macht-Film-Produktion. In Lost Daughters (1918) he was the variety agent Müller, in When Graves Open (1918) he was Professor Dr. Bender. Oehler also wrote the screenplay for the crime film Der Fall Meier .

The concept of a clown as a detective or a detective as a clown seeks to combine two cinematic genera, the comic and the detective film. However, it does not seem to have been as well received by the audience as the advertisement of the Macht-Film wanted to suggest.

There were comical detectives in silent films again in 1927 in the detective story " The Beggar from Cologne Cathedral ", and here two: in the form of the detective couple Napoleon Bonaparte Schmitz and Carolus Caesar Müller, who were played by Carl Geppert and Hermann Blaß .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ GECD # 22960: Director: Octav von Klodnicki, here dated 1918.
  2. ↑ GECD # 20597, here, as an alternative to Neisser, Hans Werckmeister is also named as a possible director.
  3. ↑ GECD # 23212
  4. ↑ GECD # 21752
  5. ↑ cf. filmportal.de
  6. ↑ wiktionary
  7. ↑ also sheep's head, cf. woerterbuchnetz.de
  8. ↑ contained in: Zeitschrift Kinema, Volume 9 (1919), Issue 25. PDF created on: June 15, 2018. Source: ETH Zurich, Rämistrasse 101, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
  9. ↑ cf. Filmography at filmportal.de
  10. ↑ cf. Filmography at GECD unikoeln.de