The Excentric Club
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The Excentric Club |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1913 |
| length | 69 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Mime Misu |
| script | Mime Misu |
| production | Paul Davidson for PAGU |
| occupation | |
| |
The Excentric Club is a German silent film drama from 1913 by and with In Nacht und Eis director Mime Misu .
action
The splendid rooms of the Excentric Club, in which the rich and beautiful, the nobility and representatives of high finance come and go, form the glamorous starting point of this story, which consists of five chapters plus a prelude and an epilogue. The comfort of well-kept upper-class conversations in the club rooms is suddenly interrupted when Admiral White reads an advertisement from the newspaper. There a poor family man and ship worker named John from Liverpool, who emphasizes his hard work, is urgently looking for work. As a result of this situation, there is a lively discussion among representatives of the upper class as to whether a person with money is per se happier than one without. Most are convinced that money makes you happy, only Lord Chester is of the opposite opinion: he claims that money makes you unhappy. Lord Chester, a very British club gentleman in the tradition of Phileas Fogg , immediately offers a bet that relates to the family man and promises the winner £ 100,000. The club friends give their betting partner one year to substantiate his thesis.
Lord Chester immediately goes to work, disguising himself as a simple worker. Club friends provide him with 20,000 pounds in coins as maneuvering mass, which he needs for the bet. In his proletarian outfit, Chester visits John to offer him a job which John will happily accept. He summons the pretty Ethel's father to a ruin, supposedly to clear up undergrowth there. In truth, the Lord hid the £ 20,000 there. After their work is done, they both go to a pint in which Lord Chester quickly pretends to be drunk. In this alleged state he shows John a gold coin and tells him sybillinically that he knows where more of it is. John senses wealth and tries to sound out the acting lord. In fact, John tracks down the coin treasure and takes it away with great difficulty, benevolently watched by his fake colleague.
Having made great fortune with this money, John quickly became a successful shipowner. In order to be able to keep a close eye on the progress of his betting experiment, Lord Chester has been hired by John as his valet. Did John get happier or miserable? Well, his daughter Ethel hasn't changed, she has finally moved in with her old friend Dick, a simple blacksmith's apprentice. And suddenly he gets to feel John's change. Suddenly Dick is no longer good enough for his daughter. John thinks his Ethel, a girl from a wealthy family, deserves better. And so John brusquely refuses his daughter's hand. The wealthy man from a simple background does everything possible to keep his daughter away from Dick. In John's eyes, the snobbish nobleman Sir Gordon Parker goes much better with the little daughter. Ethel complies with Daddy's order to become engaged to Parker, but on the day of their scheduled wedding, the girl runs away with Dick, whom she could never forget. "Valet" Lord Chester brings John Ethel's suicide note, whereupon the latter collapses. The girl's mother is also stunned.
While father John remains irreconcilable towards his daughter, Ethel's mother is softer and keeps in touch with her daughter by letter. This leads to a violent argument between the couple. After one of these arguments, John throws his wife out without further ado. His former willingness to help and generosity is also shrinking from day to day; He helps fishermen in trouble financially, but under extremely harsh conditions. Since the fishermen are unable to repay the advanced money on time, he has their catches seized from now on, bringing their families to the brink of ruin. With his wealth behind him, the once poor starving man is increasingly overcome by sheer hubris. When one day one of his passenger ships cannot sail due to rough seas and the captain in charge refuses, John quickly takes over the command on board and sets off to sea. On board: his "valet" Lord Chester. A severe storm hits the ship, which is about to fill up due to a leak. Heaters, coal tugs and sailors feverishly try to seal the leak, but it is of no use. Due to a mistake by John, there is also an explosion in the boiler below deck, in which some crew members are killed. At the moment of the greatest desperation, the shipowner wants to shoot himself, but realizes that he cannot shirk his responsibility for all these things that have gone wrong under him.
There is a life-and-death struggle on board, numerous sailors and stokers are dead, burned or seriously injured. Now John also falls below deck to lend a hand and help wherever he can. Then the forces run out of him and he collapses. Some of his people save his miserable life and bring him to his cabin. Finally he dies there, tormented by the demon Money in a feverish state and deeply unhappy. Lord Chester is one of the survivors of this ship disaster. A year has passed and the betting contractors have made an appointment at the Excentric Club. Lord Chester is not coming, but a letter. It says: “I won the bet, but I deeply regret it. I waive the sum won in favor of John's bereaved family. Lord Chester. "
Production notes
The Excentric Club was filmed in the Union studio in Berlin-Tempelhof , passed the censorship test in August 1913 and was probably premiered a little later. The film had four acts and was 1,250 meters long. On February 10, 1914, the film ran in the US under the title The Money God or Do Riches Bring Happiness? on.
After working on what is probably his most famous film, the Titanic drama In Nacht und Eis (1912), made the year before, Mime Misu was able to stage another large-scale shipwreck here. This scene was shot in front of Hamburg.
criticism
“So your latest work“ The Excentric Club ”is definitely a sight and has the merit of being the film that for the first time brings the cause and effect, the beginning and the intensification of a ship disaster onto the picture in a vividness that is only natural or can be eavesdropped on nature. This fire in the bunkers of the modern ship's giant, the water breaking into the body of the colossus, explosion after explosion, sinking and drowning, saving and wrestling, that is an overwhelming picture that alone makes the film a great achievement. (...) The whole recording was masterfully handled by an exemplary director, both in terms of acting and in terms of technology. "