The hunt for death
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The hunt for death |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1920 |
| length | 7280 meters or 268 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Karl Gerhardt |
| script |
Robert Wiene Johannes Brandt Robert Liebmann |
| production |
Erich Pommer for Decla Bioscop (Berlin) |
| camera | Paul Holzki |
| occupation | |
| |
The Hunt for Death is a four-part, German adventure film from 1920 by Karl Gerhardt with Nils Chrisander and Lil Dagover in the leading roles.
action
The American engineer McAllan is appointed site manager for a major project in Asia. He is to oversee the branch line of the railway line from Calcutta to Beijing. One day the railway company in question calls him for an interview in Calcutta: They plan to no longer implement the branch line for cost reasons. However, McAllan is on fire for this project and uses all his powers of persuasion not to simply call off the building. In fact, the construction work continues, and the engineer is even willing to take responsibility with his private fortune.
In Calcutta, McAllan meets the beautiful Indian Malatti, with whom he immediately falls in love. The engineer quickly neglects his professional obligations and follows them. After a few entanglements, the two of them finally get closer at home, even if Malatti's father Badhama is hostile to this connection. Badhama only agrees to the planned wedding at the moment when he learns how wealthy this white man must be. After a while, McAllan returns to his large construction site, where things go haywire. Numerous workers die in an explosion, and McAllan is now liable with his fortune. As a result, the engineer, impoverished overnight, suddenly becomes uninteresting for Malatti's father as a son-in-law, especially since serious competition has arisen with a solvent Japanese man who offers a lot of money for his daughter's hand.
A violent argument ensues between the old man and McAllan on the roof of a train that is in full swing, in which Malatti's father falls into the depths. McAllan assumes that his adversary was killed in the process. When a gang of villainous robbers board the train, McAllan's life doesn't seem worth a damn either. But then, almost out of nowhere, his faithful servant Lubzang appears and saves his master's life at the last moment. Malatti, also on board, falls into the clutches of the gang and is kidnapped by the sinister journeymen to Tibet , where she is to be offered as a sacrifice to the goddess Bhawani. However, a kind-hearted member of the band of robbers takes pity on them and helps the exotic beauty to escape. A little later, Malatti meets Lubzang, who in the meantime has broken away from his Mr McAllan. He takes her with him.
Malatti's father, contrary to expectations, survived the fall from the train and now vows to take cruel revenge on McAllan. In Lhasa, the old capital of Tibet, seat of the Dalai Lama and at the same time a “forbidden city” for all foreigners, there is another dramatic encounter between the engineer and Badhama. In a dark dungeon he believes he recognizes McAllan and tries to stab the man whom he holds responsible for all the misfortune. He does not recognize who he is stabbing and kills his own daughter in the process. The Dalai Lama's servants arrest Badhama and throw him in dungeon. Malatti's father is sentenced to death, but McAllan sees the light of day again and is released.
After numerous further twists and turns, civil engineer McAllan discovered the Sar-Khin gold mines. They were uncovered by a blast required to lay the railway line. The villain Rawlinson sees the chance of his life coming to great fortune overnight and captures McAllan and Lili Burnes, the head of a life insurance company, in order to extort much-needed directions to the mine. Rawlinson proves to be as drastic as he is unscrupulous in his means: he fears that his lover Cora might betray him and sets her house on fire, believing that she will burn in it. Then he fled with Lilli and McAllan as his prisoners.
Cora was saved from the flames at the last minute by a loyal admirer, Bobby Jones, and McAllan and Lilli are also able to break free from Rawlinson. They are helped by a hurricane into which the group of three unexpectedly gets caught. As luck would have it, Lilli, McAllan, Cora and Bobby meet. All four now want to settle accounts with the villain Rawlinson. A wild chase through the jungle ensues, which is approaching its final climax in the Sar-Khin gold mine. Rawlinson dies in an explosion. McAllan and Lilli become a couple, as do Cora and Bobby. All four decide to go to New York, McAllan's homeland, to celebrate their salvation, their newfound fortune and, ultimately, the engagements of the two couples.
Production notes
The film The Hunt for Death , which has been in planning since 1919, was made in 1920 in the Bioscop Ateliers in Neubabelsberg , today's Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam . Parts 1, 2 and 4 had four acts. Part 3 was the longest with seven acts and thus had a length of 87 minutes, which is still common today. The four-part vehicle had a total length of over 7280 meters. The Murnau Foundation specifies a total playing time of 268 minutes. The first part had no subtitle, part 2 ran with the second title The Forbidden City . Part 3 was led with the additional title The Man in the Dark , the last part was called The Sar-Khin Gold Mine .
Part 1 and 2 started on October 22, 1920 in the Decla-Lichtspiele Unter den Linden in Berlin. Part 3 was shown for the first time on February 18, 1921 at the same location, and part 4 was premiered there on February 25, 1921.
Director Gerhardt had already proven himself suitable for series production shortly before, when he was involved in the production of Joe May's monumental eight-part film Die Herrin der Welt (1919). The outdoor buildings created by Hermann Warm were designed on the Bioscop site in Neubabelsberg and pulled up by his right hand and permanent employee, Erich Czerwonski . Rudolf Meinert was the production manager.
reception
“ The artistic direction of an adventure film was often the beauty and authenticity of the scenes, which raised some sensational films to cultural films. I am thinking, for example, of the loyalty to nature of the country and people of the mysterious Indian and Tibetan world created in Neubabelsberg in the film 'Hunt for Death' (1920). In this film, the eerie temple of the bloodthirsty goddess Bhawan, the holy city Lhassa, the sanctuary of the Buddha were built by Hermann Warm in a uniquely realistic manner. "
Web links
- The hunt for the death, the first part in theInternet Movie Database(English)
- The Hunt for Death, Part 2: The Forbidden City in the Internet Movie Database
- The Hunt for Death, Part 3: The Man in the Dark in the Internet Movie Database
- The Hunt for Death, Part 4: The Sar-Khin Gold Mine in the Internet Movie Database
- The Hunt for Death at The German Early Cinema Database
- The hunt for death, 1st part atfilmportal.de
- The hunt for death, part 2: The Forbidden City at filmportal.de
- The hunt for death, part 3: The man in the dark at filmportal.de
- The hunt for death, part 4: The Sar-Khin gold mine at filmportal.de