Serial Number: 19761
Title: Hell on Earth (1931)
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Country of Origin: GERMANY
Genre: Private Gallery - The 30's
Subject:
Size: 9x12 LC
Condition: EX
Card Number: N/A
Price: $NOT FOR SALE
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| Actors/Actresses: Vladimir Sokoloff, Georges Peclet, Ernst Busch |
| Notes: Director: Victor Trivas; This early film which extols the virtues of Universality and The Brotherhood of Men is indeed a rarity and an oddity, given that it is a German film from 1931! The story takes place in WWI, and is about five soldiers that fate brings together in a bombed out building in No Man’s Land or Niemansland, it’s title in German. The five soldiers are an Englishman, a Frenchman, a German, a Jew from an undisclosed country, and a Black cabaret performer of African origin. The first three, each speaks only his own native language. The Jew suffers from shell shock, and is thus unable to speak. Interestingly, it is the Black man who can speak all three languages by virtue of his work as an entertainer. While they start out as being on opposing sides, they soon discover that they’re really quite similar, and realize that their enemy is WAR! These are really lofty sentiments in Germany of 1931, and indeed, two years later, all copies of this film were ordered to be destroyed by propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. At few of the actors have fled Germany when the Nazis came to power. The movie was thought to be a lost film for many years. Vladimir Sokoloff sits in front the makeshift stove. |
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