The Eye of the Buddha (1913)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The eye of the Buddha |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1913 |
| length | approx. 43 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | LA angle |
| production | German mutuscope and biographer, Berlin |
| camera | Willy Hameister |
| occupation | |
| |
The Eye of Buddha is a German silent film drama from 1913.
action
first act
Dr. Hans Brückner returns from an adventurous trip to India and has something very valuable with him: the eye of the Buddha. It is a precious stone that a dying Hindu gave him because Hans took good care of him. According to legend, the stone should always bring blessings and happiness to its owner, as long as he does not voluntarily part with it. Brückner's friend Paul Friedberg gives the returnees a soirée in honor. He asks him to bring the stone with him, as all his guests are already very curious about it. Meanwhile, Hans has other worries; he is in debt with over 10,000 marks, and his banker Rosenstein warns that the due bills of exchange signed by him and his sister must now be cashed. Or he just has to redeem something of equal value. Meanwhile, the actress Lillian May and her brother, who had recently been introduced to Hans by Paul Friedberg, hatched a plan to steal the precious stone from Hans. Lillian tries, quite successfully, to make Hans fall in love with herself and asks for nothing less than the eye of the Buddha as a bride gift. Brückner refuses and reminds Lillian that this stone only brings luck as long as one does not part with it voluntarily.
Second act
A fortnight later. Brückner finally got engaged to the snake Lillian May. A newspaper reports: There was a serious explosion in the scientist's house, in which Brückner was seriously injured. In addition, the diamond has since disappeared. Lillian automatically loses her interest in Hans, breaks the engagement and wants to break away. Before that, she is looking for a woman who will pretend to be Lillian for her feverish fiance, Hans. Meanwhile, the patient is getting worse and worse, and then his mother becomes seriously ill. Only late does Hans realize that he was engaged to the wrong woman and thinks again about his old love Mary, with whom he had been together before his trip to India. Brückner writes to her, pleading and seeking help, asking for forgiveness for his shameful betrayal. It seems to be softening, and so the Buddha's eye still brings some happiness into his life.
Production notes
The Eye of the Buddha was filmed at the turn of the year 1912/13 in the Continental Film Atelier at Chausseestrasse 123 in Berlin. The two-acter with an original length of 785 meters passed the censorship in February 1913 and had its world premiere on April 12, 1913.
LA Winkel was a Danish director. The same team then shot the sequel The Treasure in the Brahmin Temple . In 1922, both Indian sensational fabrics were cut together into a film and re-censored.
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. on this Gerhard Lamprechts German Silent Films 1913–1914, p. 23