The dark castle

Movie
Original title	The dark castle
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Publishing year	1915
length	42 (censorship 1915) approx. 50 (version available today) minutes
Rod
Director	Willy Zeyn senior
production	Paul Davidson for PAGU, Berlin
occupation
	Eugen Burg : Detective Braun; Friedrich Kühne : Stapleton, the servant; Hanni Weisse : Else Schmidt; Friedrich Zelnik;

The Dark Castle is a German silent crime film from 1915.

action

One day the owner, a certain Colonel Warringer, is found murdered in the eponymous, dark castle. When the police arrive, they find the lock dog tied up in front of the room. Next to the dead man lies a hair arrow, obviously from the property of the murderer - a woman, it is supposed - from. When the well-known master detective Braun hurries to the scene of the crime, he discovers, to his great horror, the portrait of his bride, Else Schmidt, on the murdered man's desk.

According to the servant, she is said to have been the last to visit the colonel and thus to see him alive. The police quickly suspected Else. But Braun distrusts the butler's statements and investigates. Indeed, it turns out that the man gave false evidence. He wanted to shift the suspicion on the young woman, because in reality, of course, the butler is the murderer again.

Production notes and background

The dark castle was originally planned as the third part of the film series The Hound of Baskerville . However, legal disputes with producer Jules Greenbaum meant that the producing PAGU was not allowed to lead the film under this title. Greenbaum's company had produced a film of its own, The Hound of Baskerville, Part 3, subtitled The Unheimliche Zimmer , directed by Richard Oswald, and immediately completed it.

Thereupon the legally inferior PAGU Paul Davidsons made a detective Braun out of their Sherlock Holmes and Laura Lyons, played by Hanni Weisse , into Else Schmidt. Only the Baskerville villain Stapleton was renamed.

The three-act film, made in spring 1915, was 1150 meters long and was censored in June 1915. It premiered in August 1915, and the issue of August 21, 1915 , The Dark Castle was discussed in the magazine "Österreichischer Komet" .

criticism

The Lichtbild-Bühne called Das dunkle Schloß "a good detective film skilfully staged by Willy Zeyn."

Individual evidence

^ Photo stage . No. 48, dated November 27, 1915.

Web links

The dark castle in the Internet Movie Database (English)
The dark castle at filmportal.de
The dark castle at The German Early Cinema Database

[1] Photo stage . No. 48, dated November 27, 1915.