Stuart Webbs was a fictional

detective A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads t ...

who appeared in a series of German

films A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...

and serials during the

silent era A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) ...

. Webbs was one of a number of detectives with English-sounding names to appear in German cinema of the era. Like his contemporaries such as

Joe Deebs Joe Deebs was a fictional detective who appeared in a series of German films and serials during the silent era. Along with Stuart Webbs and a number of other fictional cinema detective characters with Anglo-Saxon names, he was modeled on Arthur Con ...

he was modeled on Sherlock Holmes. Webbs was the most popular of the group. His original film series ran from 1914 to 1926Abel p.426 and he continued to appear in other later films such as ''

The Green Monocle ''The Green Monocle'' (German: ''Das grüne Monokel'') is a 1929 German silent crime film directed by Rudolf Meinert and starring Ralph Clancy, Betty Bird and Suzy Vernon. The film was based on a novel by Guido Kreutzer. It features the fiction ...

'' (1929). Webbs was played by Ernst Reicher until 1926. A number of figures directed entries in the series including

Joe May Joe May (born Joseph Otto Mandl; 7 November 1880 – 29 April 1954) was an Austrian film director and film producer and one of the pioneers of German cinema. Biography After studying in Berlin and a variety of odd jobs, he began his career as ...

Johannes Guter Johannes Guter (born Jānis Gūters; 25 April 1882 – 18 March 1962) was a Latvian-born German filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer. Although most of his work is now lost, he is considered a pioneer of German silent cinema and e ...

and

Robert Wiene Robert Wiene (; 27 April 1873 – 17 July 1938) was a film director of the silent era of German cinema. He is particularly known for directing the German silent film ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'' and a succession of other expressionist films. ...

. The series was originally made by Continental-Kunstfilm, but following a dispute May and Reicher left to form their own production company.

References

Bibliography

* * Webbs, Stuart Webbs, Stuart German film series Webbs, Stuart {{film-char-stub