Abdul the Damned - Misplaced Pages

1935 British film directed by Karl Grune

Abdul the Damned

Directed by	Karl Grune
Written by	Robert Neumann Ashley Dukes Roger Burford Warren Chetham-Strode Emeric Pressburger Curt Siodmak
Produced by	Max Schach
Starring	Fritz Kortner Nils Asther John Stuart Adrienne Ames
Cinematography	Otto Kanturek
Edited by	A.C. Hammond Walter Stokvis
Music by	Hanns Eisler
Production company	Alliance-Capital Productions
Distributed by	Wardour Films (UK) Columbia Pictures (US)
Release dates	23 September 1935 (1935-09-23) (United Kingdom) 10 May 1936 (1936-05-10) (United States)
Running time	111 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	£50,000

Abdul the Damned (also known as Abdul Hamid) is a 1935 British drama film directed by Karl Grune and starring Fritz Kortner, Nils Asther and John Stuart. It was made at the British International Pictures studios by Alliance-Capitol Productions. It is set in the Ottoman Empire in the years before the First World War, during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II and the constitutionalist Young Turks who dethroned him.

Plot

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Cast

Fritz Kortner as Sultan Abdul Hamid II / Kelar
Nils Asther as Chief of Police Kadar-Pasha
John Stuart as Captain Talak-Bey
Adrienne Ames as Therese Alder
Esme Percy as Ali - Chief Eunuch
Walter Rilla as Hassan-Bey
Charles Carson as General Hilmi-Pasha
Patric Knowles as Omar - Hilmi's Attache
Eric Portman as Conspirator
Clifford Heatherley as Court Doctor
Henry B. Longhurst as General of the Bodyguards
Annie Esmond as Therese's Train Companion
Harold Saxon-Snell as Chief Interrogator
George Zucco as Officer of the Firing Squad
Robert Naylor as Opera Singer
Warren Jenkins as Young Turk Singer
Henry Peterson as Spy
Arthur Hardy as Ambassador

Critical reception

The New York Times wrote, "Although the film achieves a few moments of dramatic interest—chiefly through the performance of the Continental Fritz Kortner—it is in the main a tedious and uninspired biography, scarred by hypodermic injections of stale melodrama"; whereas Film Weekly found it "magnificently acted by Fritz Kortner. Interesting, impressive and, for the most part, gripping entertainment."

References

Low p.242
"Abdul the Damned (1935)". BFI. Archived from the original on 14 January 2009.
"Movie Reviews". The New York Times. 24 August 2021.
"Contemporary Review (Film Weekly) - Abdul the Damned (1935)".

Bibliography

Low, Rachael. Filmmaking in 1930s Britain. George Allen & Unwin, 1985.

External links

Abdul the Damned at IMDb

v t e The films of Karl Grune
Man Overboard (1921) The Hunt for the Truth (1921) Night and No Morning (1921) The Count of Charolais (1922) The Night of the Medici (1922) The Strongest Instinct (1922) Women's Sacrifice (1922) Explosion (1923) The Street (1923) Arabella (1924) Jealousy (1925) Comedians (1925) The Brothers Schellenberg (1926) At the Edge of the World (1927) Queen Louise (1927) Spy of Madame Pompadour (1928) Katharina Knie (1929) Waterloo (1929) The Yellow House of Rio (1931) Abdul the Damned (1935) Pagliacci (1936) The Prisoner of Corbal (1936)

The films of Karl Grune

Man Overboard (1921)
The Hunt for the Truth (1921)
Night and No Morning (1921)
The Count of Charolais (1922)
The Night of the Medici (1922)
The Strongest Instinct (1922)
Women's Sacrifice (1922)
Explosion (1923)
The Street (1923)
Arabella (1924)
Jealousy (1925)
Comedians (1925)
The Brothers Schellenberg (1926)
At the Edge of the World (1927)
Queen Louise (1927)
Spy of Madame Pompadour (1928)
Katharina Knie (1929)
Waterloo (1929)
The Yellow House of Rio (1931)
Abdul the Damned (1935)
Pagliacci (1936)
The Prisoner of Corbal (1936)

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