Zigano, the brigand from Monte Diavolo
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Zigano, the brigand from Monte Diavolo |
| Country of production | Germany , France |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1925 |
| length | approx. 120 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Harry Piel |
| script | Henrik Galeen |
| production | Harry Piel Heinrich Nebenzahl for Hape-Film Co. GmbH, Berlin, and Société des Etablissements L. Gaumont, Paris |
| camera |
Georg Muschner Gotthardt Wolf |
| occupation | |
| |
Zigano, the Brigant from Monte Diavolo is a German-French adventure silent film by and with Harry Piel from 1925.
action
Europe, at the time of Napoleon Bonaparte .
Like many of his fellow rulers, the Italian Duke Lodowico plans to answer the call of the Corsican emperor and join him with his troops. During his absence, Francesco Ganossa is said to act as his governor. Lodowico says goodbye to his lover Beatrice, a simple girl from the people. When he returns, the ruler promises, he will make her his rightful wife. In order to make his engagement an oath of loyalty at the same time, he presents his lady of the heart with a ring.
While the Duke tries to gain fame and honor on the battlefield, Ganossa begins to act as a despot and tyrant at home. His will to power, his ambition and his greed know no limits. Blackmail, murder and raids become everyday occurrences in Ganossa's domain. His soldiers plunder and kill as they please. But all of this is not enough for him; Ganossa is also after Lodowico's fiancée Beatrice and wants to marry her before the true ruler returns. In Teresa, the Duke's former lover, he finds a willing tool in the implementation of his intentions.
Young Benito is a student of science and has been brought up with moral principles. He follows a call from his uncle, who has held an important position as prelate at the ducal court. Benito is stunned to see how the manners are brutalized under Ganossa at court. The governor had the old police prefect, who was loyal to the duke, unceremoniously murdered through his lackeys, who were blindly devoted to him. Benito is appalled by the discrepancy between the world that he knows from his scientific writings and that of brutal reality. His life changes in one fell swoop when he stops at a farmer during a country trip. Suddenly he is facing the wanted brigand Zigano, a bandit leader on a grand scale.
Chased by the henchmen of Ganossa, he has blossomed into an Italian Robin Hood who sucks the rich and protects the poor. When a Ganossa bailiff tries to shoot Zigano from behind, Benito intervenes courageously and knocks the pistol out of the coward's hand. However, the soldiers are too strong and Zigano is hit by a bullet. Before you succumb to superiority, Zigano's men ride up and put the Ganossa people to flight. The dying Zigano points to Benito and tells his people that he should be the new leader of the brigands. Although one of his soldiers told him that Zigano was dead, Ganossa had to hear about one heroic act after another Ziganos. The new Zigano even has the audacity and penetrates into Beatrice's apartments to steal the ducal engagement ring from her. Ganossa then offers a reward of 1000 ounces on Zigano's head.
Nobody except Matteo knows, however, that this rogue piece was carried out by Ganossa himself, in the typical Zigano masquerade (black cloak, black face mask and black hat) in order to put Beatrice under pressure and to blame her for alleged infidelity to her ruler. On behalf of Ganossa, Matteo is even supposed to multiply the booty and raids a nunnery. When he wants to bring the looted treasures to Ganossa's castle, he is stopped by the new Zigano and has to leave his valuables to the brigands. Meanwhile, Beatrice and her loyal friend Fiametta still believe that Zigano is in possession of Beatrice's ring. Fiametta seeks Zigano and angrily demands the ring back, whereupon Zigano replies that he doesn't know anything about a ring. How can he suspect that the piece of jewelery was among the booty items that Matteo had collected and that he, Benito / Zigano, had taken from the Ganossa bailiff?
On their way home, a young man joins Fiametta. It's Benito, whom she had just met as the masked Zigano. Logically she doesn't recognize him, but his voice seems familiar to her. With her he returns to the lion's den, because some of his people have fallen into the hands of the villainous governor, and Benito wants to know how they are doing. In the meantime, his uncle, the prelate, has let go of his relationships and has given Benito the post of prefect of police that has been vacant since the murder. But it doesn't take long for Ganossa and Matteo to become suspicious. Meanwhile, Benito let Beatrice know that he wants to help her get the stolen engagement ring back. By chance, Zigano learns the truth about the ring robbery. He now knows that the ring must be in his possession against all expectations and promises Beatrice to give it back to her. But Ganossa has set a trap for Benito-Zigano. Only through a daring attempt to escape can he escape his henchmen and return to his men's headquarters. However, his camouflage has now also been blown. Benito searches for and finds said ring in the treasures looted by Matteo. But his brigand friends begin to grumble and rebel against their new leader because they finally want their share of the booty. In a subsequent mutiny, Benito is knocked down and left behind in a cave. The access to the cave is closed with a boulder.
It takes some time before Benito can burst out of the cave again. He rides back into town at breakneck speed. At the gates he meets the duke's soldiers returning from the campaigns. He mingles with them and can pass the city gate unrecognized. The throne room was cleaned up for the returning duke, and in this way Benito can also get into the castle with the ducal men. There he tries to get to Beatrice. When he enters her room, the arch villain Ganossa suddenly stands in front of him. It comes to the degenduell for life and death. When Zigano / Benito holds the blade to the neck of the nefarious villain, the duke enters the room. Beatrice can quickly explain that the alleged villain is the good and the alleged good is the villain.
The next morning the city bells ring. The Duke receives the delegates from the estates and has them pay homage. The brigands march through the city gate, exceptionally cleanly clad, led by Benito alias Zigano, with swords drawn. The rehabilitated brigand leader salutes his duke and has his men bring in a chest with treasures. Even the items once stolen from the real Zigano can now be returned to the real owners. While nothing stands in the way of Lodowico and Beatrice's wedding, Fiametta and Benito also find each other.
Production notes
Zigano, the Brigant from Monte Diavolo , was born in Italy in spring 1925 . It is the rare case of a Franco-German co-production just a few years after the end of the First World War . The premiere was on July 27, 1925 in the Mozart Hall in Berlin.
Unusually in view of his career to date, Piel and Zigano, the brigand of Monte Diavolo , orientated themselves heavily on the recent successes of the Hollywood daredevil Douglas Fairbanks in costume films . The eight-act film has numerous elements from The Sign of Zorro , The Three Musketeers and Robin Hood . With a playing time of around two hours, it is also unusually long for the time it was created. Zigano was to remain Piel's only foray into the costume film genre.
The film structures were designed by Gustav A. Knauer , Edmund Heuberger was in charge of the recording .
reception
In the edition of September 8, 1925, the Neue Freie Presse reads the following: “When Harry Piel, the director, teams up with Harry Piel, the actor, experience has shown that this always means a success. (...) Good guy, charmer, devil and cavalier, facade climber, art rider, fencer par excellence and winner of women's hearts, that's Beato, the pious, alias Zigano, alias the police chief of Canossa. Even more correct: all of this is Harry Piel with a bravura that is second to none and with a deliciously amiable nature-boy-like humor. This humor ensures that the greatness of his heroes never becomes unbearable, and the exaggeration of a situation never becomes silly. Harry Piel's latest opus is called a drama, but despite all the dangers, acts of violence and horrors that are accumulated in it, it is as cheerful and refreshing as a comedy. "
Despite its historical framework, this film has all the ingredients of a typical Harry Piel production. Oskar Kalbus wrote about the actor, director and producer's recipe for success: Harry Piel, the “European Douglas Fairbanks”, above all frees his sensations from everything convulsive and always lets them appear as the content and climax of an exciting plot. From a Piel film, the viewer demands the adventure story that has become pictorial, which could also take place in his own environment and whose external course he can control with the experience of his own brain.
In a 1925 edition of the Film-Kurier it could be read: “Virtuoso images: the battles with the unleashed swords. Flashing blows, a tangle of elastic forces, fiery and dangerous ”.
Paimann's film lists summed up: “The subject, worked in costume, is oriented towards the opera, nonetheless appealing, exciting and entertaining, the presentation is good with a few exceptions, the presentation is clean, the photos are satisfactory. In summary: a picture that is qualitatively well above average. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Swiss Gérard Bourgeois is occasionally named as co-director
- ^ "Zigano, the brigand from Monte Diavolo". In: Neue Freie Presse , September 8, 1925, p. 12 (online at ANNO ).
- ^ Oskar Kalbus: On the becoming of German film art. 1st part: The silent film. Berlin 1935. p. 90.
- ^ Zigano, the brigand from Monte Diavolo in Paimann's film lists
