The invisible witness
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The invisible witness |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1914 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Franz Hofer |
| script | Franz Hofer |
| production | Max Maschke for Luna-Film, Berlin |
| occupation | |
The Invisible Witness is a German silent detective film from 1914 by Franz Hofer .
action
The young chemist Gaston Néville, son of the well-known medicine professor Henry Néville, has just completed his doctorate. At home, people are eagerly awaiting his return to marry him to the enchanting Fleurette, an extensive relative. Nobody knows that Gaston had a long-running affair with a vaudeville artist while he was a student. At their last meeting, Gaston implored her to make it clear that this liaison should never come to light for social reasons. The diva is ready if he should help her to set up a certain variety trick for which she needs his help as a scientist.
A little later the newspapers open up with a sensation. Said vaudeville artist had developed a trick with which she could conjure up crystals out of nowhere that, if “steeled” in the fire, would exceed diamonds in hardness. This sensation arouses the jealousy of the variety dancer Elvira, who immediately rushes to the director of the establishment to complain about it; after all, this trick would now overshadow all of her dancing skills. It doesn't matter at all, because an audience hit is an audience hit, regardless of who created it. Elvira then threatens the competitor in her cloakroom, in which Gaston is also present at the time. He then throws the dancer out without further ado. Gaston and his lover now think they are unobserved, and so the young chemist shows the artist how to do the trick for her number that is not yet fully developed. Elvira's manager feverishly thinks about how he can discover the secret of the trick and develops a photographic apparatus that works by means of a light trick, which he installs in the cloakroom wall of the competitor Elviras.
The new variety show has been announced with great fuss, and so even high-ranking scientists, including Prof. Henry Néville, will attend the premiere. When Gaston, still busy with the fine-tuning of the trick, learns of his father's presence, he immediately wants to flee. He and his lover are in their cloakroom when the locked door is shaking from outside. Gaston hears his father's voice and that of the other scientists. In a panic, he wants to flee through the window, his lover in turn to hold him back. You can hear a shot go off from outside. The door is broken open and the artist is found lying on the floor - dead. In her clenched hand is a watch chain with a medallion that clearly belongs to Gaston.
He has now returned home and is completely depressed. Meanwhile, Father Henry approaches with the police in tow, and Gaston begins to be interrogated. Through an unfortunate chain of circumstances, Gaston, trying to destroy a treacherous letter once received from his lover, passed out in his laboratory due to a narcotic drug. In this state he is found by father Henry, who now again assumes that the son who has just begged him to believe in his innocence has attempted suicide as an admission of guilt. Since Gaston was only unconscious, he is finally arrested and locked up by the police - much to Elvira's delight, who now sees her hatred and thirst for revenge quenched. But there is still the photographic device built into the wall of the cloakroom by her manager, with a remote detonator, in order to better control the processes in the cloakroom of his client's rival. Elvira takes the photo plates out of the apparatus in the wall and smashes them except for one: the one in which Gaston aims at the rival with a drawn revolver in the hope of being able to construct a guilt against Gaston. After all, it was he who, with his knowledge of chemistry, set up this trick that put Elvira and her dancing skills in the second row. Elvira sends this remaining photo plate anonymously to the criminal police.
Police investigations reveal that the recordings on the record could only have been taken from Elvira's wardrobe. Even the variety director frankly admits that Elvira could be the greatest beneficiary of this development. Elvira's cloakroom is then searched in detail, but only the smashed photo plate remains can be found. On one of these fragments, however, Gaston's likeness can be seen. Then everything is collected and put together again in painstaking detail by the specialists of the criminal police. The mosaic puzzle reveals that an unfortunate chain of circumstances, in which two acid bottles and said revolver play the leading roles, ended the diva's life and Gaston is entirely innocent of her demise. Freed again, Gaston goes to the variety show to confront Elvira with the failure of her insidious plan. Blind with hatred, she pulls out a knife to stab him. At the last moment, the police intervene, tie up the villain and lead her away.
Production notes
The Invisible Witness was created in the spring of 1914, censored in April of the same year and had its first performance on May 8, 1914. The performance of the three-act act was banned for young people.
Reviews
“... an excellent drama, which is exciting and interesting for the chemical and criminal photography science. You get to know the production of artificial diamonds in a vivid way and see the criminal police in the darkroom of their studio develop all the threads of a mysterious murder affair in which the son of a scholar is involved. (…) In particular, the drama is a kind of artist drama that works in great sensations. The presentation, from which the already extremely popular Doritt Weixler stands out, is very excellent, while the staging works in details that can rarely be seen so perfectly. "