Bela Lugosi in "The Deerslayer and Chingachgook" (1920) скачать в хорошем качестве

Bela Lugosi in "The Deerslayer and Chingachgook" (1920)

A 1920s Boy Scout troop leader and his campers are gathered around a campfire. Repeated shots of them are intercut throughout the film. There's no explanation to the Scouts' presence, and they're not given any dialogue at all. Presumably, they are reading reading James Fenimore Cooper’s "The Deerslayer." Hawkeye, The Deerslayer (Emil Mamelok), is raised by his tribe after being orphaned. Chingachgook (Bela Lugosi) is the son of the chief of the Delaware Indian tribe and the trusted faithful friend of Deerslayer. The untamed wilderness of colonial America hides dark mysteries and dangerous secrets. Valiant woodsman Deerslayer and his fiercely loyal bare-chested friend, Chingachgook, struggle frantically to keep an uneasy peace between white settlers and the native tribes. The heroic scouts, and those close to them, are caught between the settlers' guns and the Indians' deadly arrows. Chingachgook's true love, Wahtawah (Margot Sokolowska), the daughter of the Delawarean chief, was promised to Chingachgook, who has been accepted into the tribe. Before the nuptials take place, however, renegade Huron Indians raid the Delawarean camp, a brave kidnap Wahtawahs, and runs off with her. Together with his friend Deerslayer, Chingachgook embark on a perilous quest to rescue Wahtawah and free the lovely maiden from her captors. "The Deerslayer" (Der Wildtöter und Chingachgook) is the black & white feature-length first part of the two-part 1920 German silent Western film "Lederstrumpf" (Leatherstocking), produced & directed by Arthur Wellin, screenplay by Robert Heymann, based on James Fenimore Cooper's classic 1841 novel "The Deerslayer," photographed by Ernest Plhak, and production designed by Erhard Brauchbar. Starring Emil Mamelok (Deerslayer), Herta Heden (Judith Hutter), Bela Lugosi (Chingachgook), Gottfried Kraus (Tom Hutter, )Edward Eyseneck (Worley), Margot Sokolowska (Wah-ta-Wah), Frau Rehberger (Judith Hutter), Willy Schroeder (Hartherz), Heddy Sven (Cora Munro), Herr Söhnlein (Col. Munro), Frau Wenkhaus (Alice Munro). Competently made and occasionally pretty, this sluggish film offers no real suspense, but has some interesting camera shots about the North American frontier. No special effects, per se, but nearly all of it is shot out in actual nature, seldom relying on studio stages, and gives the impression of covering great distances, all while filming in natural light. This was originally released in two parts. "Wildtöter und Chingachgook" (The Deerslayer and Chingachgook), the second part followed, "Der Letzte der Mohikaner" (The Last of the Mohicans), but it's lost. For its 1923 American release, Luna Film edited the film down from twelve reels to five and retitled "The Deerslayer." Brutal abridgement means this little-seen film often flirts with incoherence. This is the second silent film version of James Fenimore Cooper's "The Deerslayer," the first was filmed in the U.S. in 1913. This German version, released in 1920, features Bela Lugosi eleven years before he became a legend in his career-defining performance as the title character in Universal's "Dracula" (1931). There is a charm, an elegance, and a warmth to Lugosi, even beneath the often creepy/menacing exterior he exudes in his horror films. He only gets a short time on the screen, but he owns it. Chingachgook comes off as proud, strong, dignified, and yet surprisingly human all at once. Lugosi is unusually restrained in this role, so stoic as to never chance over-acting a given moment. While not his screen debut, this film features Bela Lugosi in his earliest surviving role, and he shines when onscreen. Most of his films from 1917-1931 are considered lost (not being able to see him in Murnau's "The Head of Janus" (1920) is a significant loss). He was also a very active stage actor during this time, performing in critically acclaimed plays, and gaving the undead king of undead kings, Dracula, his first rush of blood in the U.S. in a 1927 stage play of the same name. Lugosi seems to have appeared in surprisingly few radio dramas, despite having a distinctive voice ideally suited to the medium. This same year Boris Karloff also played a Native American in the American made "Last of the Mohicans," which starred Wallace Beery. European westerns became popular in the 1960s, this film (shot in Hungary by a German crew) shows that they were a staple of European cinema long before then. Wellin's turgid and unimaginative inundation of overly wordy title slides to explain his confused telling of James Fenimore Cooper feels like a dull novel, and is painfully outdated compared to the visually-heavy narratives of his contemporaries. The dialogue, in parts, reflects racial intolerance. This fascinating snippet of cinema history that shows how artfully produced some were those other 1920s classics. Essential for Lugosi completists, a must have for silent movie collectors, not without interest for students of early German film, otherwise pass.