Hunted by the devil
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Hunted by the devil |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1950 |
| length | 100 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Viktor Tourjansky |
| script | Viktor Tourjansky Emil Burri |
| production |
Georg Witt for Witt-Film |
| music | Franz Grothe |
| camera |
Josef Illig Franz Koch |
| cut |
Elisabeth Neumann (as Lisbeth Neumann) |
| occupation | |
| |
Chased by the devil is a German thriller by Viktor Tourjansky from 1950 . It is based on an idea by Viktor de Fast .
action
Dr. Heinrich Blank is head of the Blank Clinic, which specializes in nervous diseases. He introduces his former colleague Dr. Herbert Fingal a new one. In his previous clinic, he had taken responsibility for a colleague's mistake and was therefore rejected by all other colleagues. Heinrich also suffered a setback: his latest development, the K27 serum, was rejected at the Medical Congress. Heinrich developed it to cure the mentally ill, but so far it has only been successfully tested on monkeys due to its highly toxic substances. Injection in humans is considered too dangerous. Without further ado, Heinrich decides to inject the agent himself in order to prove its effectiveness. In the presence of a nurse, he injects eight cubic centimeters of K27. His body's reactions range from pain to hot flashes. In the end, he loses sight and collapses. Herbert takes care of him medically. After a while, Heinrich wakes up, but is in a state in which he fulfills every instruction like a robot. After another deep fainting, Heinrich comes to again. He cannot remember the last hours since his collapse. However, he is pleased that he is physically fine. The effectiveness and tolerability of the drug has thus been proven.
On Herbert's recommendation, Heinrich hires a new doctor: Dr. Cora Berndsen used to be an employee of Herbert, who has been out of work since Herbert's dismissal. Heinrich falls in love with Cora, who is impressed by the charismatic man. However, Heinrich spends most of the time with the patients: the rich woman Dakar is actually healthy, but Heinrich likes to have her examined again and again. Hausner is the main cashier of a company and is always afraid that the money could disappear. Martin Karper, on the other hand, was a burglar, repeat offender and is considered to be particularly seriously ill. He has seizures regularly, so that Heinrich finally injects him with K27. Martin falls into a permanent lethargy in which he carries out instructions without will and if necessary with force. Heinrich in turn forgets one day to take his dose of K27 and lapses in phases in which he seems emotionless and brutal and loses his fine motor skills. Cora experiences him in one of these phases, but does not yet know him well enough to be able to properly assess the situation. When she asks Herbert for advice, he seeks out Heinrich, who has become normal again.
Klinik Blank has financial worries. The K27 serum is expensive but cannot be sold. Patients who have received it once must keep taking it to keep the effects from wearing off. In his schizophrenic phase, Heinrich manages to administer Hausner K27 to the cashier and get the mindless man to steal the company money. Heinrich stows the bills in a hidden wall safe in the clinic. Hausner, on the other hand, faces the police, who are astonished because Hausner has put all the numbers on the notes in the safe instead of them. Heinrich realizes that he cannot spend the stolen bills without making himself suspicious. When Ms. Dakar forgets a valuable bracelet in the clinic after a treatment, Heinrich has a new idea in his schizophrenic phase. He lets Martin Karper run as apparently cured, but gets him to get a rifle hidden from his sister. He learns from Ms. Dakar that she will be flying to Paris with her husband to a party, and Martin raids the Dakar's car. He escapes with Mrs. Dakar's jewelry case, hands the case to Heinrich and then drives his car into a bridge railing. The car crashes and Martin dies. Heinrich succeeds in smuggling the jewelry to Paris and monetizing it there. He returns to the clinic with a suitcase full of medicines. In addition, he has so much money with him that all debts can be paid off. He takes the medicine and a little later knows nothing about his trip to Paris and the crimes he has committed.
Meanwhile, Maria Hendrix is looking for her brother Martin, since she had noticed that he was in the house and had taken something. She learns about the attack on the Dakar family from the newspaper and recognizes the rifle. She threatens Herbert to go to the police because her brother was not healthy, as Heinrich claims. The police in turn identified the dead person from the car, which has since been recovered, as Martin. Because Maria is married to a well-known fence, the investigators suspect the missing pieces of jewelry in Maria's house. Heinrich wants to silence Maria and tells Herbert too. He secretly follows Heinrich when he goes into Maria's house. There it comes to a duel between Heinrich and Maria, as a result of which the young woman dies. Heinrich flees and Herbert follows him. A little later Heinrich can think clearly again and returns to the clinic confused. Meanwhile, the police find the dead Maria. Her husband Paul had spoken briefly with Herbert and is now referring the investigators to the Blank Clinic. Herbert is considered a suspect. In the meantime, Heinrich confesses to Herbert in the clinic that the serum has done something to him. He cannot explain the long memory gaps. He discovers the stolen banknotes and jewelry in his safe and suspects that he must have something to do with the crime. Herbert tells him that he saw him in Maria's house. The police appear and they both learn that Maria is dead. Heinrich realizes that he must be the murderer. He withdraws while Herbert explains all the circumstances of the crime to the investigators on his instructions. When he has finished, the search for Heinrich begins, whom the investigators finally find dead in his study: he has poisoned himself. Cora is desperate, but Herbert thinks it was the best solution given the severity of his schizophrenia .
production
Hunted by the devil was shot in 1950 in the Bavaria film studios and in Munich. The production design is by Franz Bi and Botho Höfer , the costumes were created by Ursula Maes . The film premiered on October 24, 1950 in Cologne's Hahnentor . The film has been released on both VHS and DVD.
criticism
“… Blonde Hans says with the usual verve, 'Oops, now I'm coming!' now boarded the character subject ”, wrote Der Spiegel on the occasion of the film premiere.
The film-dienst called the film "tensionless colportage with a pseudo-scientific touch."
Web links
- Chased by the devil in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Chased by the devil at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Der Spiegel , No. 44, 1950, p. 38.
- ↑ Hunted by the devil. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .