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.[2] 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
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";[3] whereas Film Weekly found it "magnificently acted by Fritz Kortner. Interesting, impressive and, for the most part, gripping entertainment."[4]
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
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