ALL SCI-FI

[bulldogtrekker]

This German movie is best known for supplying footage that was edited into The Magnetic Monster. Magnetic Monster is a more fun movie. The library bought this movie at my request. Brigitte Helm is very sexy and very good in this movie, but she is in it for 10 minutes or less.



from IMDB

After his colleague and a mentor, Prof. Achenbach dies in a set-up accident while trying to produce gold from lead, Werner Holk seeks revenge. Meanwhile, a British millionaire suggests that Holk work for him on a similar project.



from IMDB-Zetes review

Science fiction from the early Nazi era. Film production had been turned over to the Nazis in 1933 and all Jews and foreigners had been barred from the industry. There isn't much propaganda in this particular film, although the villain is a Brit.

The British in general aren't depicted as terrible, except for the villain. Hans Albers stars as a scientist who, along with his partner, has nearly perfected atomic alchemy, the ability to turn lead into gold. Their experiment goes suspiciously wrong, and Albers ends up barely alive. His partner isn't as lucky. After Albers recovers, a British billionaire (Michael Bohnen) offers him the opportunity to repeat the experiment in England, and Albers immediately suspects him of involvement in the original accident.

In England, he meets and nearly falls in love with Bohnen's daughter (Metropolis' Brigitte Helm), which distracts him from his own German wife (Lien Deyers).

This is more a slow burning drama than hard sci-fi, but there are big, electrical, Frankenstein-esque machines (Frankenstein having already been made, obviously). It's a decent film with a very good lead performance, some good cinematography and a good climax. Helm is probably the main point of interest for many, and it is nice to hear her speak. She's probably in it less than ten minutes, though.

from IMDB-Lars review

This little known movie is one of the best sci-fi movies made in the 1930's. Hans Albers is well cast as the lead. The female lead also is well chosen. Brigitte Helm (METROPOLIS), here in one of her last screen-roles, plays the femme fatale.

The film tells the story of two scientist, who have discovered a way to make gold from lead. It's achieved by using radioactivity. The experiment gets sabotaged by an unscrupulous tycoon who'd like to cash in on this discovery. One of the scientists (Friedrich Kayssler) dies when the lab explodes, and the other one (Hans Albers) (after recovering from his injurie) tries to find the saboteur.

He very soon gets hired by that very same person, and he pretends to play along with the tycoon's (Michael Bohnen) plans. The tycoon's daughter (Brigitte Helm) helps the hero, and of course, there will be a happy ending.

The sets are breathtaking (for its time) and look very real — so real in fact that during WWII the Americans confiscated a copy of this movie to find out how advanced the Germans use of radioactivity really was. .....

[Bud Brewster]

[Bud Brewster]

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Here's the full movie we've heard so much about, especially in our discussions about The Magnetic Monster, which made brilliant use of it's climatic footage.

Unfortunately it's in German, and there are no English subtitles.

______________________ Gold SCI -FI 1934


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)