Professor Nissen's strange death
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Professor Nissen's strange death |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1917 |
| length | approx. 58 (1921) minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Einar Zangenberg |
| script | Edmund Edel |
| production | Flora film, Berlin |
| occupation | |
| |
Professor Nissen's Strange Death is a German silent detective film from 1917 by and with Einar Zangenberg as a detective and Valy Arnheim in the title role.
action
Professor Nissen is a well-known researcher, his nephew Paul assists him. One day Nissen gets a visit from the classy dancer Lola Fernandez, whom he met on a research trip to the pampas . In memories of the wonderful time together, she invites the professor to visit her in the “Gelber Teufel” bar soon. Nissen arrives, accompanied by Paul, and both men are fascinated by the Creole. The next day the artist invites you to tea in her apartment. Liquorice is grated and Lola gives the scientist a coral cobra. However, the invitation only served to ensure that Nissen's servant, obviously a confederate of the Latin American, used the time to search his boss's desk for certain documents. But he does not find anything.
Baron Joe Setter, a college friend of Nissen and also a detective, notices that Lola and Nissen's servants are whispering to one another. This strikes him as more than strange and he begins to keep an eye on this lady. Meanwhile, the dancer ensnares Paul using every trick in the book in order to get closer to her goal. Together they visit a company of Nissen. On this occasion, the scientist takes a mysterious stick decorated according to Indian custom out of his safe and tells Lola that it once belonged to a dying Indian. In an unobserved moment, Lola then scribbles the following words on a piece of paper - “Stick found, get into 'red cat'” - and secretly plays this memo into Nissen's servant.
The baron, who has meanwhile found out that Lola in the 'red cat' has met several times with a man named Castro known as a con man, goes incognito to that establishment and can learn during his eavesdropping that the two are for the coming Planning a “big coup” in the evening. Joe Setter follows the couple, but does not go unnoticed. A doorman whom the two pass tells Setter that said gentleman is allegedly Lola's impresario. After all, Setter begins to be amazed: the alleged impresario turns into Nissen's servant before his eyes. He in turn goes to Paul with a letter from Lola asking for money, while Lola asks Prof. Nissen into her apartment. Paul, in turn, deeply inflamed for the racy exotic, asks his uncle for the money that Lola supposedly needs. When this refuses, it comes to a loud argument. The next morning, Professor Nissen is found: he is dead in his apartment.
Paul is arrested as the prime suspect, and Joe Setter, who only learns of the events through the newspaper, is ready to take on the case. While examining the dead man's apartment, he discovers a handkerchief whose intense perfume he had already sniffed on Lola. He also finds Lola's letter to Paul and a wig. In the reading room, the caretaker discovers the distant Indian jewelry on the mysterious stick. Setter undergoes a strong masking, becomes a ruffled professor and tries to get into the environment of Lola and her assistant unrecognized. He plays a newspaper into Lola and Castro's hands, speculating about the poisoning of Nissen, and overhears their reaction from the next room. This can tell Setter that his guess is correct. The baron and hobby detective immediately notifies the police.
At the station, Joe Setter reads from Prof. Nissens' experience report, which he discovered in his apartment. In it the deceased also writes about the Creole Lola, with whom he apparently spent pleasant hours. When the scientist helped a seriously ill Indian, the latter gave him the mysterious stick as a thank you. Before Joe can finish reading, Lola makes a full confession, knowing that she has lost. This is how the real secret of the stick, which Prof. Nissen had not known until the end, is revealed. A treasure map was hidden in the stick that leads to a silver mine. When Nissen returned to Europe, Lola and Castro followed him to get their hands on this precious artifact. Castro made himself indispensable as Nissen's assistant and servant, but used his position every day to search for the whereabouts of the stick. To do this, he ransacked Nissen's house. During a last unannounced visit to Nissen's domicile, Lola, now in possession of the stick, wanted to feed the coral cobra again. Then she heard Nissen come home and fled without being able to lock away her “present” again. So it happened that the professor was bitten and died of the snake venom.
Production notes
Professor Nissen's strange death occurred at the end of 1916 and was censored in February of the following year. The world premiere was in June 1917 in the Tauentzienpalast . When it was re-censored on August 12, 1921, the film had four acts and a length of 1,334 meters.
For the actor who played the title character Valy Arnheim, this was probably his first film. Director Zangenberg in turn ended his work in Germany and moved to Vienna in the spring of 1917.
criticism
“This interesting detective film, directed by Einar Zangenberg and portrayed in the lead role, does him full credit; because his calm, concentrated play, which is completely adapted to the role, satisfies us just as much as the carefully worked out direction, which takes all modern requirements into account. The ingeniously devised plot deals with the uncovering of a crime, which gives the surprising result that the unmasked impostor couple is probably assigned to the fraud, but that the accused death of their victim was brought about by a poisonous snake. "