The laughing death
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The laughing death |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1918 |
| length | 76 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | William Kahn |
| script | William Kahn |
| production | William Kahn |
| camera | Harry Hunter |
| occupation | |
and Preben J. Rist , Karl Falkenberg , Ewald Brückner , Richard Kirsch , Eva Richter , Gertrud Kanitz , Georg Strasser | |
The laughing death is a German silent detective film from 1918 by William Kahn .
action
Somewhere in the Netherlands. After a long absence, Count Pieter van Looz returns to his estate at Schloss Alkmaar and immediately experiences a nasty surprise: the first time he visits his palace, he finds a piece of paper with an unmistakable warning: He should get out of the walls as soon as possible disappear, otherwise something terrible would happen to him. Pieter doesn't take this very seriously, but a little later he comes across the second warning at dinner under his napkin. The count observes that one of the servants is putting the same note in the cigar box. The lord of the castle confronts his lackeys, whereupon he confesses that he meant well with him, Count Pieter. Because so far all previous owners of the old walls have died of the “laughing death”, as he poetically describes the suicide . He was never able to find out anything about the reasons. The following night the count appears in the servants' room and, disturbed, asks the staff whether any of them have been in his rooms. The police are turned on, but even they cannot prevent Count Pieter from falling victim to the uncanny series of deaths one night later: he is found lifeless in the castle pond.
A clear case for the sniff Rat Arnhem, who is called by the new owner, Count Henrik. But only a short time later, the council was recalled because it had to travel to Brussels on business. Henrik is reassured; he assures Arnhem that he can take care of himself. After five days, the council in Brussels had to read the message that Count Henrik had also suffered the “laughing death” and that the new lord of the castle had committed suicide. Now Arnhem rushes back to the castle immediately so that the new owner, Count Hugo, does not fall victim to the “laughing death”. In the diary files of the last owner of the castle, Henrik, the council recognizes that the aristocrat must have been infested with madness because he wrote of strange ghostly apparitions. Hugo is dismayed because he experienced exactly the same apparitions in person last night. In order to get to the bottom of things, Councilor Arnheim steps in for Count Hugo and takes over his position the following night. And indeed: He too is haunted by ghostly apparitions that make him doubt his sanity. He pulls out his revolver and shoots the creature, but the bullet ricochets off and injures Council Arnhem in the right arm.
Investigations on the following day reveal that a ring from the infamous Lucrezia Borgia has been in the possession of the Counts Alkmaar for a long time , and apparently there must be a terrible curse on it. But closer investigations show that the deaths in connection with the ring of the Borgia have much more earthly reasons: The ring contains a deadly poison, which is injected subcutaneously into every wearer of this piece of jewelry through an extremely fine needle and, after the first delusions, inevitably leads to the death of the ring bearer leads. The mystery of the strange deaths at Alkmaar Castle is now solved.
Production notes
The laughing death is a detective film from the Rat Arnheim series with Carl Auen in the lead role. It was written in the spring of 1918, passed censorship in June of the same year and was premiered on September 15, 1918 in Berlin's Marble House . The length of the five-act was 1579 meters.
Willi A. Herrmann designed the film structures .