''The Hunchback and the Dancer'' () is a 1920
silent German
horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...
directed by
F. W. Murnau and photographed by
Karl Freund.
[Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 223..] This is now considered to be a
lost film
A lost film is a feature film, feature or short film in which the original negative or copies are not known to exist in any studio archive, private collection, or public archive. Films can be wholly or partially lost for a number of reasons. ...
. The film was written by
Carl Mayer, who also wrote ''
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'' (1920).
[Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). "Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era". Midnight Marquee Press. p. 224..] Karl Freund later emigrated to Hollywood where he directed such classic horror films as
''The Mummy'' (1932) and
''Mad Love'' (1935).
It premiered at the
Marmorhaus in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
.
Plot
A repulsive
hunchback named James Wilton changes his relationship with women when he discovers a diamond mine in
Java
Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...
. A young woman named Gina, on the rebound from an earlier relationship, begins dating him. Later when she decides to break up with him and go back to her former lover, the hunchback manages to taint her with a poisonous substance that will kill anyone who kisses her. After two of her paramours die before her eyes, she finally catches on that he had contaminated her, and she decides to get revenge by luring the hunchback into kissing her himself.
Cast
*
Sascha Gura as Gina
*
John Gottowt as James Wilton
*
Paul Biensfeldt
Paul Biensfeldt (4 March 1869 – 2 April 1933) was a German-JewishSiegbert Salomon Prawer, ''Between Two Worlds: The Jewish Presence in German and Austrian Film, 1910-1933'', Berghahn Books (2007), p. 213 stage actor, stage and film actor.
Sele ...
as Smith
* Henri Peters-Arnolds as Percy
* Bella Polini as Tänzerin
*
Werner Krauss (unconfirmed)
*
Lyda Salmonova (unconfirmed)
*
Anna von Palen as Smith's mother
See also
*
List of lost films
References
External links
*
1920 films
1920 horror films
1920 lost films
German silent feature films
German black-and-white films
Films of the Weimar Republic
Films directed by F. W. Murnau
Lost horror films
Films with screenplays by Carl Mayer
Lost German films
Silent German horror films
1920s German films
1920s German-language films
German-language horror films
Lost silent films
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