The dead are silent (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The dead are silent |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1912 |
| length | approx. 32 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Adolf Gärtner |
| production | Oskar Messter |
| camera | Carl Froelich |
| occupation | |
| |
The Dead Silence is a German silent film drama filmed in 1912 with Henny Porten in the lead role.
action
Landowner Silbermann hires a capable administrator named Kurt Stange. He soon falls in love with his boss's daughter, Elsa. Silbermann is quite right with this, he hopes with a marriage to tie this capable inspector to the estate and family. One day a serious fire accident happened on the farm of the neighboring farmer, Holder. Two children are already trapped in the flames on the second floor of the farmhouse and can no longer escape the fire by themselves. While the landowner is rounding up his servants, Kurt Stange hurries off to help himself. He couldn't go up the stairs to the second floor because there was too much smoke. So he has a ladder brought to him to save the children from outside. First he can save Farmer Holder's child, then Kurt climbs up again and tries to save the other child, his landlord's younger daughter, too. But his strength fades and the smoke bites his eyes. With the last of his strength, Kurt snatches the second child from death in flames. Back on earth, Kurt Stange collapses. The doctor summoned found serious injuries. Elsa is appalled by this new message. Her father is thinking of rewarding his youngest daughter's savior with a princely sum.
In the meantime, the heavily indebted Baron Echtling has learned that Silbermann is very wealthy. He is specifically looking for his acquaintance in the hope of escaping his financial misery. When one of the believers goes on the edge of Echtling and demands the repayment of his debts, Echtling shows him instead of the money he asked for a letter that he wrote to the landowner Silbermann. In this he asked for Elsa's hand. Silbermann is enthusiastic about the idea of having a real nobleman in his family. He forgets that Elsa and Kurt are in love, he forgets that he promised Kurt the hand of Elsa, and he forgets that Kurt saved his youngest daughter from certain death. He emphatically persuades Elsa to become engaged to the nasty nobleman. Almost at the same time, Elsa received a letter from the hospital in which Kurt announced that he would soon be released from the hospital as cured. Reluctantly and in tears, she follows her father's will to go to a party with her unloved fiancé. On the way there, Elsa sees Kurt hobbling along the way. He has been discharged from the hospital and is struggling to move on crutches. Elsa asks to stop the carriage, but the baron urges the driver to hurry even more. Thereupon Elsa breaks free from the baron and jumps out of the carriage, which is in full swing. She runs after Kurt, who has meanwhile arrived at the estate of his (former) boss Silbermann. He finished him off rather coolly with the words “I can neither use a cripple as an administrator nor as a son-in-law”. Kurt leaves this inhospitable place as if in shock when Elsa comes running towards him and throws herself into his arms. She tells him how she was forced to be engaged to the unloved baron; he reports how her father had just dispatched him. With no way out they both wander around aimlessly. When they come to a lake, they think they see a way out. Die together! And so they both go into the water and choose to die from drowning. Nobody will ever find out about their decision, because - the dead are silent.
Production notes
The Dead Silence was made in the Messter film studio in Berlin's Blücherstraße 32, was censored on June 19, 1912 and was premiered on August 10, 1912. In Austria-Hungary, the strip started on August 16, 1912. The film had only two acts and was 596 meters long.
Individual evidence
- ↑ in the Austrian version he is called Liebermann