Who is the culprit?
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Who is the culprit? |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1913 |
| length | approx. 66 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Franz Hofer |
| script | Franz Hofer |
| production | Max Maschke for Luna-Film, Berlin |
| camera | Gotthardt Wolf |
| occupation | |
| |
Who is the culprit? is a German silent detective film from 1913 by Franz Hofer .
action
Ruth Rubin, the daughter of an old pawnbroker, has an affair with Octave, the grandfather's son. Ruth's father is not at all happy with this, and so he writes an armored letter to the influential father of his daughter's lover. The pawnbroker doesn't know that Ruth and her Chérie are in the next room right now. Then a shot is fired from a rifle. The pawnbroker, sitting alone in his room and at his desk, falls over dead. Who is the culprit? Is it Octave or even Ruth? But maybe also the rival Octaves, who was sneaking around the open window at this point in time, or is it the customer who was in the pawn shop with her few belongings at that time? She had heard the shot but saw no one in the murdered man's room and immediately got out of the staff so as not to be drawn into this matter.
In the second act, Octave is arrested and charged with murder. The nasty rival ensures that Octave's culprit is more and more likely by gathering all sorts of suspected evidence. Is he trying to get the rival for Ruth's favor out of the way in this way? Ruth herself is caught in the crossfire of murder charges and is accused of aiding and abetting. In the third act, the prefect, whom the dead pawnbroker wrote to, can solve the case. There was no murder, it was merely a highly tragic accident: the pawnbroker had put an old rifle on the windowsill. The fatal shot was unfortunately released as a result of the action of the sun's rays, which developed a tremendous amount of heat through a magnifying glass hanging from the window shutter. At this point the gun barrel was aimed precisely at the head of the pawnbroker sitting at the desk.
Production notes
Who is the culprit? was made in the spring of 1913 in the Luna Film Atelier in Berlin's Friedrichstrasse 224, censored in June of the same year and had its world premiere on August 15, 1913. The three-act play was 1210 meters long.
Franz Hofer, who had been working as a screenwriter until then, presumably made his directorial debut here. For Gotthardt Wolf , too , this film was at least one of his first as chief cameraman.
criticism
"A well-done mysterious drama is' Who is the culprit?" Three acts cleverly divide the plot. The first two close with big question marks for even the most attentive viewer. (...) The extraordinarily skilful handling of the topic, not least a masterful, psychologically pure representation and the tasteful presentation arouse great and lasting interest. "