The mysterious X

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Movie
German title The mysterious X
Original title Det hemmelighedsfulde X
Country of production Denmark
original language Danish
Publishing year 1914
length 108 (Denmark)
85 (German Empire) minutes
Rod
Director Benjamin Christensen
script Benjamin Christensen
Laurids Skands
production Benjamin Christensen
camera Emil Dinesen
cut Benjamin Christensen
occupation

The mysterious X is a Danish espionage - silent film drama from 1914 directed by and starring Benjamin Christensen .

action

Marine Lieutenant van Hauen is supposed to move out to a new command and therefore draws up his will in the presence of his wife and older son - you never know. In the next scene you can see how a certain Count Spinelli has obviously been courting van Hauen's wife for some time - advances that she rejects with reference to the husband and child she loves. Shortly afterwards van Hauen received a written official order from his father, Rear Admiral van Hauen, and he had to say goodbye to the home, children and wife and move on to his new command. There is an old mill nearby, to which two men ride. You enter the mill with a cage full of racing pigeons. In the meantime it has got dark. Spinelli is sitting at his desk in his study and pulls out a telegram that says: "Look out for the X at midnight". Then he gets up and goes to the window from which he can see the mill. He takes his desk lamp and makes mysterious light signals in the direction of the two men waving from the mill. Finally Spinelli goes to the mill himself, where the two men are already waiting for him.

Count Spinelli is an enemy spy. One of the two men hands him a letter that says, “Your latest secret information was very valuable. Take 10,000 crowns for this. Send all information with the pigeons from X ”. Spinelli then hands one of the men an envelope with new information. These are immediately sent on their way with a carrier pigeon. Finally the count goes back to his house. In the meantime, Mrs. van Hauen has received another letter from the Count, who obviously does not give up in his efforts for her. Obviously the officer's wife feels flattered nonetheless. Meanwhile, the count accepts an invitation on one of the warships. In the afternoon Spinelli invites the officers with a female company to a lively get-together on a trip to the mill. There he tries again, a little clumsily, to court Mrs. van Hauen. Meanwhile van Hauen's father, the rear admiral, holds military consultations. A servant enters the room with a slip of paper and hands it over to him. It says: “War has broken out”. The high military appear enthusiastic.

Meanwhile, Mrs. van Hauen puts Count Spinelli in his place for the last time. He has to realize that he obviously doesn't get any further with his flattery, although she could certainly get him important information from her husband. He has just received a sealed order from his father, the rear admiral, in the presence of other officers. In the meantime, Spinelli sneaks into Hauen's villa and surprises the naval lieutenant's wife, who is banging in front of her in the armchair. Once again she emphatically rejects the count. Suddenly the older son and her husband come back unexpectedly. Spinelli is hiding. During a brief moment of inattentiveness, in which van Hauen places the sealed order on the mantelpiece, Spinelli grabs the document, breaks the seal and reads the message: “Order to II. Division: Attack at sunrise south-southwest”. At the same moment, van Hauen, who is putting the two children to bed with his wife, discovers a letter from Spinelli that was addressed to van Hauen's wife and has now been cut into a paper elephant for the children. Van Hauens suspects that his wife is having an affair with the bearded count, which she vehemently rejects. Then van Hauen discovers him behind a hiding place, but does not dare to settle accounts with Spinelli, as an adjutant appears at that moment, who urges the lieutenant to hurry, since they are expected back on board the warship.

While Mrs. van Hauen is inconsolable about her husband's false assumptions, Spinelli rushes to the mill to deliver the latest findings to his employer, the enemy, as quickly as possible by carrier pigeon. When he then goes into the basement of the mill for a short moment, a gust of wind blows the door to the mill open, causing the basement flap to close. Since the door is now above the closed and thus no longer openable basement flap, Spinelli has imprisoned himself. Meanwhile, a soldier from the Danish troops shoots pigeons in the air out of boredom, and one of them falls down - it is the pigeon with the attack message. With this knowledge a courier was sent to Rear Admiral van Hauen, who was shocked to discover: "My son - a traitor!" Meanwhile, van Hauen junior receives a visit from a senior officer and has to show the sealed document entrusted to him. To van Hauen's horror, the seal was broken. Van Hauen has to surrender his sword and is placed under arrest. Meanwhile, two Danish officers search Mrs. van Hauen's house. The son also feels the effects at school when it is said that his own father is a traitor. Naval Lieutenant van Hauen is meanwhile being brought to a fortress to be tried.

Van Hauen, who still believes that his wife had an affair with Spinelli and is therefore silent about this compromising constellation in court, is deprived of all honor, the epaulets and insignia torn off, his sword broken in the middle. His wife storms into the courtroom to restore his honor. She says Spinelli visited her that evening and forgot his coat when he stormed out of the house. Van Hauen claims, in order not to compromise his wife, that it is his coat. The judge seized the coat and found the letter to Spinelli in it, in which the traitor's wages of 10,000 crowns for his espionage services were promised and the mysterious X was mentioned. Now the case seems clear. Marine Lieutenant van Hauen is sentenced to death for espionage for the enemy. Meanwhile, Spinelli's self-imprisonment in the basement threatens to become more and more of his own grave. Rats running through the mill come down to Spinelli through a small hole in the locked cellar hatch. Van Hauen's eldest son's attempt to see his father again fails the first time. Two guards in front of the fortress won't even let him enter. A second, more tricky attempt, however, is crowned with success. In fact, the boy manages to get right up to his father's cell.

Meanwhile, while she is asleep, Mrs. van Hauen appears the mysterious X in a dream vision; she had already seen it in one of Count Spinelli's letters. The X must be the crossed windmill blades! Immediately Mrs. van Hauen hurries to the old mill. She ends up in the middle of the battle lines of the two hostile armies shooting wildly at one another. Between battles and billows of smoke, she finally reaches the mill, which has also become part of the front. There is a fire everywhere, and yet an officer helps her to look for evidence of Lieutenant van Hauen's innocence in the smoking mill. She pushes the door away from the closed basement hatch and opens it. Below she sees the desperate and neglected Count sitting - with him a full confession that he had written in his basement hole in the event of his death. Mrs. van Hauen accepts the confession. The officer rescues the officer's wife from the heavily shelled mill and brings her outside, while Spinelli remains behind. Meanwhile, van Hauen is led from his prison cell to the execution site. His son, who is hiding nearby, runs into his arms to prevent his shooting. At the very last second a courier approaches and shows a letter stating that van Hauen has been exonerated of all accusations. Eventually the whole family is reunited and Lieutenant van Hauen's impeccable reputation is restored.

Production notes

The shooting of Det hemmelighedsfulde X , the original title, began in August 1913 and lasted - unusually long for a film at the time - around three months. According to Danish information, the production costs are said to have been very high. The first performance took place on March 23, 1914 in Copenhagen's Metropolteatret.

After the film was approved for showing in Germany after “negotiations with the Prussian Ministry of War and some clever cuts”, it was also shown in German cinemas in 1914. However, the required cuts shortened the film, from the original length of 1977 meters to 1550 meters, which in the German version were divided into six acts. A version of this length (around 85 minutes) is still preserved today. In Germany in 1914 a youth ban was issued.

The later film director AW Sandberg was responsible for the still photos.

criticism

“What was really remarkable about DET HEMMELIGHEDSFULDE X, however, was not the somewhat grotesque story, but the extraordinary command of the film language. Quality and confidence in editing and camera work can rival the best contemporary films. The dramatic light-shadow effects achieved by a fixed light source are particularly striking; some shots are backlit and result in sharply contoured silhouettes; in other scenes sidelight falls into dark rooms, creating a complex interplay of light and shadow. In some scenes the light sources are switched on and off; complex lighting changes arise. The acting performances are consistently excellent; Christensen plays the main role very confidently, but in emotional scenes he uses a theatrical style that is due to the stage conventions of the 19th century; for today's taste that seems simple-minded and exaggerated. "

- Casper Tybjerg: shadow from the master. Benjamin Christensen in Germany : in: Black dream and white slave. German-Danish film relations 1910-1930. A CineGraph book, Munich 1994, pp. 106-108

“The spy film Det hemmelighedsfulde X (1914) became one of the most successful and, thanks to the innovative direction, camera and editing, also one of the best films of its time. The film was particularly noticeable for its extraordinary handling of light and shadow, half a decade before Expressionism took root in Germany. Christensen primarily used only one light source and elegantly incorporated the resulting strong shadows into the overall picture. His attempts with backlighting, which created sharply outlined silhouettes, and scenes in dark rooms, which are broken through by individual rays of light, are also famous. Benjamin Christensen's directorial debut was a great success both artistically and commercially. "

“For his first film, Benjamin Christensen played all roles: screenwriter, producer, set designer, director, distributor and leading actor. His film is a mixture of different genres, it is reminiscent of the films by Feuillade and heralds Fritz Lang's Mabuse. As is often the case with him, he combines cruelty and humor, light and shadow. "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Black dream and white slave. German-Danish film relations 1910-1930. A CineGraph book, Munich 1994, p. 106
  2. ↑ ibid.
  3. ↑ The Mysterious X on edition-filmmuseum.com
  4. ↑ The mysterious X on musee-orsay.fr

Web links