The Ghoul (1933)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The ghoul |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1933 |
| length | 77 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | T. Hayes Hunter |
| script |
Rupert Downing , Leonard Hines , Roland Pertwee , John Hastings Turner |
| production | Michael Balcon |
| music |
Louis Levy , Leighton Lucas |
| camera | Günther Krampf |
| cut |
Ian Dalrymple , Ralph Kemplen |
| occupation | |
| |
The Ghoul is a 1933 British horror film with genre star Boris Karloff in the lead role. The story was based on the novel of the same name by Frank King, published in 1928.
action
The English Egyptologist Henry Morlant bought a jewel called "The Eternal Light". He believes that the god of the dead Anubis would enable the return to earthly existence in the face of the stone. So he wants to be buried with the diamond. However, he does not know that it was stolen from an ancient Egyptian grave . An Arab patriot named Aga Ben Dragore wants to bring the jewel back to his country. He tracks down the thief England, who confesses to him that he sold the diamond to Professor Morlant for a lot of money.
Professor Morlant dies of an illness that previously disfigured him terribly. He has ordered his servant not to have his body buried without the jewel in his hand, otherwise he would take revenge on him from the grave. Morlant is buried according to his wishes in a tomb, which was modeled on the ancient Egyptian style. Before the sarcophagus closes, the servant steals the jewel from Morlant's hand. But even without a diamond in hand, the hideous-looking professor rises from his tomb like a kind of ghoul to take revenge on the grave robber and to get the gem back. The servant first hid the diamond in a coffee tin, then in a suitcase belonging to the traveling heiress, and so the stone moves from hand to hand.
Morlant later returns to his crypt with the diamond, prays to the deity Anubis and puts the stone in the statue's hand. Legend has it that he will be given eternal life when the statue closes its hand. When this actually occurs, Morlant dies with the cry on his lips: "Free!". However, it wasn't the statue that got the diamond in her hand, but Nigel Hartley, a villain posing as vicar. The professor's two heirs followed him to the tomb, where they fight the robber, in the course of which the crypt is accidentally set on fire. But they manage to escape. Meanwhile, Dragore has taken the diamond, but runs into the arms of the police. With the police is now also the former doctor of Professor Morlant, who establishes that the Egyptologist had not died, but had suffered a cataleptic seizure that temporarily left him in a death-like paralysis.
Production notes
The Ghoul was created in the spring of 1933 at Lime Grove Studios, Shepherd's Bush (London) and premiered in August 1933. There has never been a German performance in the cinema or on television.
Alfred Junge designed the film structures . The German Heinrich Heitfeld (1892–1942), who had previously worked in German film and had to flee the Nazis in 1933, was responsible for the masks and makeup . This was Heitfeld's first work in exile.
Ralph Richardson , later one of the pillars of British theater, made his film debut here in a veritable villain role as a false vicar.
Leading actor Boris Karloff had already shot a horror film with an “Egyptian” background in Hollywood the year before with The Mummy .
useful information
The film was considered lost for decades, an incomplete copy was rediscovered in a Czechoslovak film archive in 1969. In 2003 The Ghoul was released on DVD, digitally restored based on the original later found at the British Film Institute.
The film was in 1961 as a comedy corpse on vacation (What a Carve Up!) Neuverfilmt.
Reviews
The Movie & Video Guide said: "Slowly get going until Karloff's resurrection, but then things really take off".
Halliwell's Film Guide found: “Fascinating little horror piece that reminds you of The Old Dark House , with plenty of effective moments and a mature cast”.
"Has a lack of interest for the broad US audience due to the weak storyline, mostly poor representation and colorless camera work."
Individual evidence
- ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 488
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 399
Web links
- The Ghoul in the Internet Movie Database (English)