I saw this circus drama in October 2007 at the silent-film festival in Pordenone, Italy; they screened a print from the Bundesarchiv in Berlin. 'Der Herr des Todes' would translate as 'The Master of the Toads' ... oops, I mean 'The Master of the Deaths'.
IMDb's cast list for this film has two serious omissions: actor Alfred Solm (who plays the main role) and Hungarian character actor Szöke Szakall, who plays the circus impresario Bordoni. Actually, Bordoni is a comparatively minor character in this film, but the actor who plays him is better known to American film-fans than anyone else in this movie: as a war refugee, he came to Hollywood and worked as S.Z. Szakall, appearing in 'Casablanca', 'Yankee Doodle Dandy' and other American movies.
Peter von Hersdorff (Solm) is an aristocratic cavalry lieutenant who is in love with Heid von Düren (Simone Vaudry), the attractive daughter of a powerful privy councillor (Heinrich Peer). However, the influential Baron von Bassenheim (Ferdinand von Alten) has designs on Heid himself; he deliberately provokes Peter into attacking him. This has the intended effect of creating a scandal: Peter is forced to resign his commission and give up his military career. This is doubly disgraceful for his family, since Peter's father (Eduard von Winterstein) is himself a colonel in the regiment. Peter's father and mother (Jenny Marba) decide that Peter has disgraced the family so deeply that he must not only leave the country but also leave the entire continent.
Next thing we know, Peter has boarded the German ocean liner Columbus (of which more later) and travelled to New York City. There are a few brief exterior shots of New York, apparently made especially for this film, but there's also a protracted sequence -- ostensibly set in Central Park -- which frankly looks more like the Schwarzwald. While in Manhattan, penniless and jobless, Peter meets Maja (Hertha von Walther), a circus performer who's apparently now retired yet still crying herself by her circus name. Since Peter is penniless, Maja decides to get him a job in the circus ... thereby ensuring he'll be penniless for the rest of his life. Next thing we know (there are quite a few next-things-we-know in this movie), Peter is a trapeze star. And he even gets a chance to regain the love of the fair Heid. But then somebody sabotages Peter's trapeze rig...
I found this entire movie utterly implausible, yet no more so than quite a few Hollywood films. The film's very portentous title turns out not to work in its favour: 'The Master of the Deaths' refers to Peter's act as a trapeze daredevil, yet nothing in this turgid plot is epic enough to justify that title.
We do have here, though, an early example of product placement: the name of the passenger liner Columbus is featured just a bit too prominently and too frequently during the transatlantic sequences of this movie. According to the programme notes at Pordenone, these 'plugs' were put into the movie intentionally in exchange for free transport of the film's cast and crew to New York City and back again for the Manhattan sequences. I say that the ocean liner's owners got rooked; the Manhattan shots in this movie aren't extensive enough nor significant enough to justify the effort, and it's clear that quite a few of the sequences set in Manhattan (notably in Central Park) were actually filmed in Germany. There are quite a few merits to this film, but nothing really superlative. My rating: a mere 5 out of 10.
IMDb's cast list for this film has two serious omissions: actor Alfred Solm (who plays the main role) and Hungarian character actor Szöke Szakall, who plays the circus impresario Bordoni. Actually, Bordoni is a comparatively minor character in this film, but the actor who plays him is better known to American film-fans than anyone else in this movie: as a war refugee, he came to Hollywood and worked as S.Z. Szakall, appearing in 'Casablanca', 'Yankee Doodle Dandy' and other American movies.
Peter von Hersdorff (Solm) is an aristocratic cavalry lieutenant who is in love with Heid von Düren (Simone Vaudry), the attractive daughter of a powerful privy councillor (Heinrich Peer). However, the influential Baron von Bassenheim (Ferdinand von Alten) has designs on Heid himself; he deliberately provokes Peter into attacking him. This has the intended effect of creating a scandal: Peter is forced to resign his commission and give up his military career. This is doubly disgraceful for his family, since Peter's father (Eduard von Winterstein) is himself a colonel in the regiment. Peter's father and mother (Jenny Marba) decide that Peter has disgraced the family so deeply that he must not only leave the country but also leave the entire continent.
Next thing we know, Peter has boarded the German ocean liner Columbus (of which more later) and travelled to New York City. There are a few brief exterior shots of New York, apparently made especially for this film, but there's also a protracted sequence -- ostensibly set in Central Park -- which frankly looks more like the Schwarzwald. While in Manhattan, penniless and jobless, Peter meets Maja (Hertha von Walther), a circus performer who's apparently now retired yet still crying herself by her circus name. Since Peter is penniless, Maja decides to get him a job in the circus ... thereby ensuring he'll be penniless for the rest of his life. Next thing we know (there are quite a few next-things-we-know in this movie), Peter is a trapeze star. And he even gets a chance to regain the love of the fair Heid. But then somebody sabotages Peter's trapeze rig...
I found this entire movie utterly implausible, yet no more so than quite a few Hollywood films. The film's very portentous title turns out not to work in its favour: 'The Master of the Deaths' refers to Peter's act as a trapeze daredevil, yet nothing in this turgid plot is epic enough to justify that title.
We do have here, though, an early example of product placement: the name of the passenger liner Columbus is featured just a bit too prominently and too frequently during the transatlantic sequences of this movie. According to the programme notes at Pordenone, these 'plugs' were put into the movie intentionally in exchange for free transport of the film's cast and crew to New York City and back again for the Manhattan sequences. I say that the ocean liner's owners got rooked; the Manhattan shots in this movie aren't extensive enough nor significant enough to justify the effort, and it's clear that quite a few of the sequences set in Manhattan (notably in Central Park) were actually filmed in Germany. There are quite a few merits to this film, but nothing really superlative. My rating: a mere 5 out of 10.
