The strangler

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Movie
Original title The Wrecker /
The Strangler
Country of production Great Britain , Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1929
length 74 minutes
Rod
Director Géza from Bolváry
script Angus MacPhail
Benno Vigny
production Michael Balcon
Hermann Fellner
Arnold Pressburger
Josef Somló
camera Otto Kanturek
cut Arthur Tavares
occupation

Der Würger is a German-British crime film (English title: The Wrecker ), which is based on the play The Wrecker by Arnold Ridley and Bernard Merivale and on motifs from a subject by Edgar Wallace . The silent film , directed by Géza von Bolváry , was released in 1929 by London- based Gainsborough Pictures Ltd. and the Berlin based FPS Film GmbH.

The film premiered in London on July 17, 1929. The premiere of the German, synchronized sound film version took place on August 27, 1929 in the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Berlin. This film is the third Edgar Wallace film with German participation.

action

A series of attacks on the railway, which has already claimed numerous lives, has kept England in suspense. Sir Gerald Bartlett, president of the railway company, gives his nephew Roger Doyle the task of clearing up the background to the brutal crimes. Doyle and his assistant Mary Shelton come to an astonishing result with the help of a list of all accidents. All the attacks took place on routes that are in direct competition with a certain Ambrose Barney's bus route.

When the actually guilty Barney finds out that he is being followed, he runs away. Followed by Doyle and Mary, he jumps on a moving train. Doyle manages to overpower Barney and prevent the train from hitting a truck.

background

The English-German joint production was filmed in the Gainsborough studios in London. The film was only cast with English actors. The premiere of the German version in Berlin ended as a great fiasco. The film was therefore only shown for a short time in Germany.

“With whistles and ironic cries in the first performance, with scornful laughter and scandal in the second performance, the English sound film Der Würger in Universum was rejected yesterday. On the other hand, wild scenes occurred at the end of the last performance. You want your money back, and the artistic management of the theater, which is absolutely unsuccessful in artistic terms, is forced to call in the raid squad to calm the audience down. It would have been better if it had been decided briefly to arrest the entire management for their sins against the audience. "

- The evening , late edition, August 28, 1929

The Ufa took the film on the day after the premiere of the program. On August 29, 1929 an abridged new version started, which also proved to be a failure. The recordings of the train accident were also used in the films The Ghost Train (1931) and Seven Sinners (1936). The British silent version of The Wrecker was released on DVD on November 16, 2009 in Great Britain by NetworkDVD. A new setting by the silent film composer Neil Brand was recorded especially for the DVD.

criticism

“If you say that the train accidents and the atmosphere of the track in this film are better than anything that has been seen before, then you've already said everything. It's the only plus that the film can boast for itself. Other ingredients of the story are weak and often slide into the ridiculous. If you had reached the level of tension that is expressed in the railroad scenes, it would have been a great film. "

- Cinematograph Weekly , 1929

literature

  • Joachim Kramp , Jürgen Wehnert: The Edgar Wallace Lexicon. Life, work, films. It is impossible not to be captivated by Edgar Wallace! Verlag Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89602-508-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Karlheinz Wendtland: Beloved Kintopp. All German feature films from 1929–1945 with numerous artist biographies born in 1929 and 1930, Medium Film Verlag Karlheinz Wendtland, Berlin, first edition 1988, second revised edition 1990, p. 9, film N3 / 1929. ISBN 3-926945-10-9
The German Edgar Wallace films
Pre-war period

The Great Unknown (1927) • The Red Circle (1929) • The Strangler (1929) • The Zinker (1931) • The Witcher (1932) • The Double (1934)

post war period

The Frog with the Mask (1959) • The Red Circle (1960) • The Avenger (1960) • The Gang of Terror (1960) • The Green Archer (1961) • The Dead Eyes of London (1961) • The Secret of the Yellow Daffodils (1961) • The Forger of London (1961) • The Strange Countess (1961) • The Riddle of the Red Orchid (1962) • The Door with the Seven Locks (1962) • The Inn on the Thames (1962) • The Curse the yellow snake (1963) • The zinc man (1963) • The black abbot (1963) • The Indian cloth (1963) • The drums of death on the great river (1963) • Room 13 (1964) • The crypt with the riddle lock (1964) • The Witcher (1964) • The Gates of Traitors (1964) • Sanders and the Ship of Death (1965) • News from the Witcher (1965) • The Scary Monk (1965) • The Mystery of the Silver Triangle (1966) • The Hunchback of Soho ( 1966) • The White Nun's Secret (1966) • The Blue Hand (1967) • The Monk with the Whip (1967) • The Dog of Blackwood Castle (1968) • Under the Spell of the Eerie (1968) • The Gorilla of Soho (1968) • The Man with the Glass Eye (1969) • The Face in the Dark (1969) • The Devil Came from Akasava (1971) • The Dead from the Thames (1971) • The Secret of the Green Pin ( 1972) • The Mystery of the Silver Crescent (1972)