The great stranger (1927)

Movie
Original title	The great stranger
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Publishing year	1927
length	101 minutes
Rod
Director	Manfred Noa
script	Herbert Juttke ; Georg C. Klaren
production	Manfred Noa
music	Hans May
camera	Franz Planner
occupation
	Jack Trevor : Major Paul Roy Amery; Andrée Lafayette : Else Marlowe; Ernst Reicher : Police Commissioner Bickerson; Kurt Gerron : Banker Tupperwill; Nien Sön Ling : Feng Ho; Arthur Kraussneck : Maurice Tarn; John Loder : Dr. Ralf Hallam; Eugen Neufeld : Inspector Wille from Scotland Yard; Evi Eva : Jessie Damm; Hugo Werner-Kahle : Mr. Damm; Siegfried Arno : Mauropolus; Ruth Weyher; Ellen Richter; Harry Hardt;

The great unknown (film title in Austria : The Unheimliche ) is a German crime film based on the novel The Unheimliche (original title: The Sinister Man ) by Edgar Wallace . The silent film was produced in 1927 by Berlin- based Noafilm GmbH and premiered on November 17, 1927 in the Alhambra Cinema on Kurfürstendamm . This film is the first German Edgar Wallace film . The film was presumably re-released as a sound film in 1931 in a dubbed version and is now considered lost .

action

Ernst Reicher played Police Commissioner Bickerson, photography (before 1930)

The British major Amery, who is always surrounded by something mysterious, returns to London from India to take over his deceased uncle's export business. The strange managing director Maurice Tarn and the accountants Jessie Damm and Else Marlowe also work in the company. The police leads, meanwhile, a fight against two rival drug gangs . Maurice Tarn made a fortune as the head of one of the gangs. Soyoka, the head of the other gang and a secret society with extensive branches in India, is an unknown criminal whose identity no one knows. Police Commissioner Bickerson is looking for the dark men.

Maurice Tarn suspects that Soyoka and his boss Amery are one and the same person. Before Tarn, who fears the unscrupulous methods of his rival, can flee with his money, he is stabbed to death. The accountant Else becomes an eyewitness to the gruesome crime and believes she can identify the Chinese Feng-Ho, a confidante of Tarn, as the perpetrator. Inspector Bickerson, who has already seen through the dark business of Tarn, succeeds in arresting Feng-Ho the next day. This can prove an alibi for the time of the crime.

Dr. Hallam, Tarn's young partner, had no idea of his boss's crimes. Together with Else he opens the will of the murdered man. It shows that Else will receive $ 800,000. When the two Tarns open the safe, they find it empty. Hallam, who asks the fat banker Tupperwill about the money, learns that Amery deposited $ 800,000 the day before. Else and Hallam suspect Amery of stealing the money from the safe. Meanwhile, the apparently undisturbed accountant Jessie spends an evening with her father, Mr. Damm, in a luxury London establishment. Damm is with Dr. Hallam and the banker Tupperwill be friends. Jessie signs several checks for the Stillman name.

Inspector Bickerson arranges a house search at Amery, but finds nothing suspicious there after Else removes cocaine from Amery's closet. Else is now convinced that Amery is the Soyoka she is looking for. An arrested drug dealer reveals that Tarn kept his fortune in secret compartments in his suitcase. Amery's bank deposit is actually an envelope with bits of paper. Amery seizes the suitcase that is with the unsuspecting Else and tries to escape with it. Feng-Ho holds the also present Dr. Hallam in check. Shortly thereafter, Amery is arrested, Tarn's murderer is convicted and Soyaka's identity is clarified.

background

The original edition of the novel The Unheimliche appeared in 1924 under the title The Sinister Man . The first German translation was published by Wilhelm Goldmann Verlag in 1928 . The film inspectorate issued a youth ban on the film. The films of the same name made in 1918 and 1919 are not adaptations of the same content.

Reviews

“The total impossibility of anticipating developments and the difficulty of unmasking the guilty party captures attention from the start. Of course you can't take the story seriously, but the expressive presentation will ensure entertainment in many houses. "

- The Bioscope , 1928

Another film adaptation

The Sinister Man (UK 1961) - Director: Clive Donner (with John Bentley , Patrick Allen )

literature

Edgar Wallace: The Creepy . German translation. Goldmann Verlag, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-442-00055-6 .
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

The great unknown in the Internet Movie Database (English)
The great stranger at filmportal.de


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)