The Transformation of Dr. Bessel
1927 film
- 8 December 1927 (1927-12-08)
Running time
German intertitles
The Transformation of Dr. Bessel (German: Dr. Bessels Verwandlung ) is a 1927 German silent film directed by Richard Oswald and starring Jakob Tiedtke, Sophie Pagay and Hans Stüwe.[1] The film was based on a novel by Ludwig Wolff [de]. It premiered at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo. It has thematic similarities with Ernst Lubitsch's 1932 film The Man I Killed. Whereas that film featured a French soldier partially assuming the identity of a dead German, in Oswald's film a German is able to survive by pretending to be French.[2]
The film's sets were designed by the art director Franz Seemann and Bruno Lutz.
Synopsis
During the First World War, a German soldier escapes capture on the battlefield by taking the uniform of a French soldier. He then marries and settles down in Marseilles, abandoning any sense of national identity. Due to his language skills he is able to become a major success in international commerce.
Cast
- Jakob Tiedtke as Fabrikant Julius Bessel
- Sophie Pagay as Frau Bessel
- Hans Stüwe as Alexander, ihr Sohn
- Agnes Esterhazy as Helene Bissel, Alexanders Frau
- Gertrud Eysoldt as Frau Pelagie Trouille
- Agnes Petersen-Mozzuchinowa as Germaine, ihre Nichte
- Kurt Gerron as der Grieche Georgakopoulos
- Angelo Ferrari as der Spanier Pedro de Ferrante
- Betty Astor as Karin Lundbye, ein Modell
- Sig Arno as Chevallier, ein französischer Soldat
- Rosa Valetti as Die Wirtin des Hotel garni
- Hella Kürty as Paulette, Hotelstubenmädchen
- Hermann Picha as Ein französischer Buchhändler
- Max Neufeld as Ein französischer Major
- Otto Wallburg as Ein französischer Sergeant
- Curt Bois as Simche Regierer
- Ilka Grüning as Frau Regierer
- Ferdinand Bonn as Oberst Jovan Simonitsch
- Lydia Potechina as Frau Simonitsch
- Hertha von Walther as Eine Miß
- Georg Burghardt as Ein französischer Offizier
- Eva Speyer
- Jaro Fürth
- Hugo Döblin
- Friedrich Kühne
- Harry Nestor
References
Bibliography
- Hales, Barbara, Petrescu, Mihaela & Weinstein, Valerie. Continuity and Crisis in German Cinema, 1928-1936. Camden House, 2016.
- Rogowski, Christian. The Many Faces of Weimar Cinema: Rediscovering Germany's Filmic Legacy. Camden House, 2010.
External links
- The Transformation of Dr. Bessel at IMDb
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The films of Richard Oswald
- The Iron Cross (1914)
- Ivan Koschula (1914)
- The Silent Mill (1914)
- Laugh Bajazzo (1915)
- The Vice (1915)
- Tales of Hoffmann (1916)
- A Night of Horror (1916)
- The Uncanny House (1916)
- The Sea Battle (1917)
- The Lord of Hohenstein (1917)
- Let There Be Light (1917)
- The Picture of Dorian Gray (1917)
- The Story of Dida Ibsen (1918)
- Jettchen Gebert's Story (1918)
- Diary of a Lost Woman (1918)
- Henriette Jacoby (1918)
- The House of Three Girls (1918)
- Die Arche (1919)
- Different from the Others (1919)
- Prostitution (1919)
- Peer Gynt (1919)
- Around the World in Eighty Days (1919)
- Unheimliche Geschichten (1919)
- Figures of the Night (1920)
- Kurfürstendamm (1920)
- The Merry-Go-Round (1920)
- Manolescu's Memoirs (1920)
- Lady Hamilton (1921)
- The Golden Plague (1921)
- The House in Dragon Street (1921)
- The Love Affairs of Hector Dalmore (1921)
- Lucrezia Borgia (1922)
- Carlos and Elisabeth (1924)
- Semi-Silk (1925)
- The Wife of Forty Years (1925)
- Rags and Silk (1925)
- Should We Be Silent? (1926)
- When I Came Back (1926)
- We Belong to the Imperial-Royal Infantry Regiment (1926)
- The White Horse Inn (1926)
- Assassination (1927)
- Radio Magic (1927)
- Agitated Women (1927)
- The Transformation of Dr. Bessel (1927)
- Lützow's Wild Hunt (1927)
- A Crazy Night (1927)
- The Green Alley (1928)
- Villa Falconieri (1928)
- Spring Awakening (1929)
- The Mistress and her Servant (1929)
- Marriage in Trouble (1929)
- Cagliostro (1929)
- The Hound of the Baskervilles (1929)
- Dreyfus (1930)
- Vienna, City of Song (1930)
- Alraune (1930)
- The Tender Relatives (1930)
- 1914 (1931)
- Schubert's Dream of Spring (1931)
- Poor as a Church Mouse (1931)
- Victoria and Her Hussar (1931)
- The Captain from Köpenick (1931)
- Countess Mariza (1932)
- Unheimliche Geschichten (1932)
- The Flower of Hawaii (1933)
- A Song Goes Round the World (1933)
- Adventures on the Lido (1933)
- My Song Goes Round the World (1934)
- When You're Young, the World Belongs to You (1934)
- Bleeke Bet (1934)
- Storm over Asia (1938)
- Isle of Missing Men (1942)
- The Lovable Cheat (1949)
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