The Lord of the Beasts

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
Original title The Lord of the Beasts
Country of production German Empire
original language German
Publishing year 1921
length approx. 86 minutes
Rod
Director Ernst Wendt
script Ernst Wendt
Arthur Kohnke
production John Hagenbeck
camera Carl Hoffmann
Gotthardt Wolf
occupation

The Lord of the Beasts is a German adventure silent film from 1921. Directed by Ernst Wendt play Carl de Vogt and Claire Lotto the leading roles.

action

The story begins in England. In just a few years, Bob Johnson worked his way up from a simple office servant to the private secretary of the oil baron James Barker and, thanks to his hard work, gained his trust. During this time he met Barker's daughter Violet, who shows some interest in the ambitious young man. The boss would not mind if his assistant asked him for Violet's hand. Barker's oil company is in strong competition with Bending & Co., which is not exactly squeamish when it comes to choosing its means. Their boss, Bending, learns on the stock exchange that a new oil field has recently been offered for sale to its worst competitor. The man would love to know what the price is, and in order to be able to see the relevant papers, he bribes the old clerk Barkers with £ 3,000 so that he can get the papers for him. In a moment of general inattention, the clerk steals the documents from the cash register, which normally only Barker and Johnson have access to, smuggles them out of the company and hands them over to Bending.

Sir Ernest Wood is in debt to over the placket. He knows that only a marriage to a very wealthy society lady can save him. Violet Barker comes to mind. It is all the more fitting that his strongest competitor for Violet's favor, Bob Johnson, is soon suspected of being a thief and a traitor to the interests of the Barkers company. Wood fueled this suspicion with a few specific remarks. Barker then withdraws his trust in Johnson, and there is a violent exchange between Johnson and Wood, in which the young man beats the nobleman to the ground with a punch. When Wood doesn't get up, Johnson assumes he killed him and flees the scene.

Johnson hides on a sailing ship and meets the captain's daughter Maud on board. The ship sets sail and soon gets caught in a heavy storm. The boat is no more than too seaworthy and promptly breaks apart in the raging sea. Maud, who has fallen in love with him in the short time on board with Johnson, is rescued along with Johnson and two sailors. All four can re-enter land on a rugged coastline. With some belongings rescued from the wreck, the castaways can build a makeshift hut as accommodation. The jungle around them is very dangerous and seems very dangerous to the four Europeans. A barely audible cry for help startles Bob when he sees how a boa constrictor has wrapped around Maud's neck and she begins to choke. The three men can barely free Maud from this stranglehold. The next wild beast turn out to be some lions, who sneak around the poorly fortified and hardly secured hut to get human flesh on the menu. The big cats are driven to flight with fire.

At the moment when Bob and Maud are exploring the area, several natives raid the hut, murder the two sailors and set the hut on fire. From a distance, Bob and Maud see the flames blazing. This means that your last possessions will also be destroyed by flames. Soon the natives discovered them too and followed Maud and Bob through the jungle. Behind them the blacks and in front of them a couple of lions, the two Europeans see themselves on a small bridge that crosses a torrent, in an almost hopeless position. The young lovers let themselves down from the bridge on a thin rope. The two of them continue into the depths of the impenetrable bush, where they soon encounter Mbuma, the daughter of a native chief. Bob saves the girl's life when she is bitten by a poisonous snake. Now Bob and Maud have in her an advocate for the tribe to which Mbuma leads them. The two Englishmen are taken in by the tribe and go on lion hunts with them. On one of these excursions, Bob brings some lion cubs into the village, which he begins to train out of sheer boredom and arrogance.

One day a European caravan arrives at the native village. When it leaves, Bob and Maud join these people. Mbuma really wants to accompany her lifesaver to Europe and goes with Bob. At home in England, the theft of Barker's business papers has long been resolved and Bob has been rehabilitated. But he has long since achieved circus fame as the “Lord of the Beasts”, because he now appears as a lion tamer in all major European cities. Maud has also trained and earned her living as a trapeze artist. During an aerial act, she falls and dies. Barker has found Bob in the meantime and asks for forgiveness, as he did not believe him when he suspected theft. Violet never forgot her Bob and the love for him lasted the time of absence. Both make a fresh start.

Production notes

The Lord of the Beasts passed film censorship on August 6, 1921 and was premiered on August 19, 1921 in Berlin's Terra Theater on Hardenbergstrasse (Motivhaus). The five-act film was 1965 meters long, and a youth ban was issued.

Franz Schroedter designed the film structures.

Reviews

“The presentation, the staging, the direction and the photography are the most beautiful things you have ever seen and the technical execution is quite generous. The presentation is at the height of the German film production, which describes it as a first-class hit film due to the excellent animal scenes. "

- New cinema review from September 10, 1921. p. 10

Web links