The sex of the rogues, 1st part
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The sex of the rogues, 1st part |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1917 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Alfred Halm |
| script | Alfred Halm based on the novel by Fedor von Zobeltitz |
| production | Friedrich Zelnik for Berliner Film-Manufaktur |
| occupation | |
| |
The Sex of Schelme is a two-part, German silent film drama from 1917 directed by Alfred Halm with Friedrich Zelnik in a double role.
action
The attractive Mary Runkel has two suitors. She promises to listen to those who find the thief of her valuable jewelry and arrest them. Count Eberhard Gheyn knows who the thief is. He buys the jewelry from the man whom he had once introduced to the girl as “Captain Jansen”, smuggles the precious items into Mary's dressing room and pretends to be surprised, as if he had just found the pearls there. He reminds the beauty of her promise, and so Mary becomes Countess Gheyn. William Windroth, a once rejected admirer of the young lady, remains extremely suspicious of this “chance find”. And so Mary's cousin William, the diplomat, begins researching Count Gheyn's past life. During a party at Gheyn's he made an interesting observation: a hypnotist tickled the host's name Freddy, allegedly a former friend of Gheyn's, whereupon the count became visibly nervous.
William contacts Mary's former nanny and through her comes into possession of a copy of a letter that the hypnotist had given Gheyn. This letter speaks of a junk dealer named Woodspecker. In his name, William Count Eberhard orders the junk shop. He is noticeably shocked when William appears in the disguise of a crook and confronts him with the fact that he is sure that Count Gheyn is really called Freddy Petzold. Gheyn, however, is not unsettled; he thinks that none of this is proof. And so William has to do further research. Meanwhile, Gheyn travels with his wife to her uncle's estate. William follows the two. There he informs Gheyn about further results of his research:
Ensign Petzold had once passed his officer's license with flying colors, but was not accepted into the officer corps because he was of illegitimate origin. Thereupon Petzold went to New York, bitterly disappointed, and joined a gang of thieves whose head was Mr. Woodspecker. With the help of his gang buddy Marble, whom Gheyn aka Freddy later introduced to his wife as Captain Jansen, Freddy fled to Africa, where he joined a colonial command of the real Count Gheyn. William claims that Freddy Petzold thus also stole the noble name. But this time the rival is wrong, because Freddy explains to William that Gheyn adopted him shortly before his death. William doesn't believe him and won't let up. Despite all the frauds and half-truths, Mary explains to William that she loves her husband and will not leave him. Thereupon William gives up his fight against Count Gheyn, because he realizes that sincere love has spoken here.
Production notes
The sex of the rogue emerged in mid-1917 and passed censorship in August of the same year. The premiere was in September 1917 in the UT Kurfürstendamm. The film had five acts and was 1,788 meters long in the first version; when it was re-censored in 1922, it was only 1,692 meters.
For Lya Mara this was the first German film since moving from Warsaw to Berlin. In this film she met her future husband Zelnik. Ernst Stahl-Nachbaur presumably made his film debut here.
In 1918, a second part of The Sex of the Rogues was created .