The enigmatic woman
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The enigmatic woman |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1915 |
| length | approx. 83 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Walter Schmidthässler |
| script | DJ Rector |
| production | Erich Zeiske, German Bioscop, Berlin |
| camera | Hermann Boettger |
| occupation | |
| |
The Enigmatic Woman is a German silent film melodrama from 1915 with Maria Carmi in the title role.
action
In Russia at the end of the Tsarist era. The young conspirator Draga Twerskin tells her confidants in a secret meeting of the Ideal Club that she will soon travel to Petrosia. This is not entirely without risk, as she does not have a passport and the documents are constantly checked on this route. On the train ride, Draga meets the American van Moolen. They become friends with each other, and Draga plays the helpless woman who has lost her passport and therefore asks him, the American, to be allowed to pretend to be his wife at the next document check. He agrees. In fact, in this way, she succeeds in safely surviving a control and is then introduced to van Moolen's relatives as his wife. A little later, Draga was introduced to the environment of the regional governor and made the acquaintance of Baron Staringer, the governor's adjutant. This makes Draga beautiful eyes, which van Moolen doesn't like at all. He reacts jealously. The governor, on the other hand, does not believe Draga's story about the American's wife and suspects that he recognizes the sought-after conspirator, Twerskin, in her. She denies her identity so persistently that she finally convinces him and he even apologizes to her.
Draga's contact with the governor and his environment is misinterpreted in her conspiratorial club and leads to her being distrusted from now on. Thereupon Draga breaks away from her conspiratorial buddies. In the meantime, van Moolen actually wants to continue traveling, but has to find out that his passport has again been blocked. He complains by phone to the governor's office. There he is informed that it is merely a formal error; in truth, van Moolen is being held on purpose because investigations into his alleged wife are still ongoing. Van Moolen is asked to stay a little longer as a guest of the government. Draga suspects that this delaying tactic applies only to her and advises van Moolen to take her to the border as soon as possible. She convinces Baron Staringer to give her his passport so he, Staringer, and she can escape together. While Draga actually manages to escape across the border by hiding under hay and straw on a ferry, van Moolen is arrested and taken to the border commandant's office. Draga, who has fallen passionately in love with the American, then wants to return to him. On secret routes, she advances to the headquarters and ensnares a leading officer, who of course immediately falls for her skin and hair. She gives herself to him to get Van Moolen's release. Draga can no longer recover from the shame of having sacrificed herself to a man she does not love. She takes poison and dies in the arms of her great love, Van Moolen.
Production notes
The enigmatic woman , shot in summer / early autumn 1915, was created in the Bioscop studio in Neubabelsberg . The five-act act with a length of 1528 meters passed the film censorship in October 1915 and was premiered soon after in Berlin's Mozart Hall.
The film structures were designed by Robert A. Dietrich . The scriptwriter “DJ Rector” (= director) is none other than the director of the production company Deutsche Bioscop, Erich Zeiske .
The Enigmatic Woman was the second film in the Maria Carmi series by Deutsche Bioscop.
criticism
“The second film in the Maria Carmi series, The Enigmatic Woman , is characterized by a very exciting plot and by an excellent drawing of the struggles between state power and conspirators in the tsarist empire. The film offers excellent illustrations of those well-known accounts which tell us about the relevant conditions in Russia and which in many cases provide novel material for modern literature. The fact that Maria Carmi in the role of the conspirator ... again achieves an achievement that is worth the greatest admiration does not need special emphasis. "