Identify
id: Das Rätsel von Bangalor
director: Alexander von Antalffy, Paul Leni
year: 1918
country: Germany
alternative titles: Ausschnitte aus Stummfilmen
A metropolitan bar, modern and spacious. Palm trees and big art nouveau table lamps. An elegant couple at a small bar table [frame scan 1, 2]. An Indian wearing a turban stares in a sinister way. The Indian sits down at the couple's table (or the neighbouring one) [frame scan 3]. The waiter takes the orders.
Jeanpaul Goergen, Deutsche Kinemathek, 03.10.2008
Length: 12.4m
Format: 35mm, 1.33:1
Picture/Sound: coloured, silent
Notes: Yellow/orange tint; No edgecode.
Commentary
Users should please note the following:
"Das Rätsel von Bangalor" is widely considered a lost film (see, for example, the extremely detailed article about the film on Olaf Brill's website, filmhistoriker.de) so comparison of these frames with another copy of the film is impossible at present.
Unfortunately surviving non-film documents containing the necessary pictorial information are extremely difficult to come by.
A vintage poster from the Deutsche Kinemathek's collection is reproduced in the book "Paul Leni: Grafik, Theater, Film" (edited by Hans-Michael Bock and published by the Deutsches Filmmuseum, Frankfurt am Main, in 1986) but its highly expressionistic design provides little help.
No stills or other documents can be found in the collections of the Deutsche Kinemathek.
Inquiries with other leading archives over the last five months have thus far proved equally disappointing.
However, based on the presence of Harry Liedtke, the Pax-Film inscription in the scenery and the strong resemblance of the woman in the frame scans to leading actress Gilda Langer, who as far as we can tell made only this one film with Liedtke (again see Olaf Brill's filmhistoriker.de website for more info about Gilda Langer), we are tentatively marking this film as identified.
Nonetheless, we would be grateful to still hear from anyone who can concretely confirm - or refute - the identity of this film as "Das Rätsel von Bangalor".
Please leave a comment if you can provide any further information.
Oliver Hanley, Deutsche Kinemathek, 28.09.2009
Olaf Brill, whose research on the film and actress Gilda Langer (published on his website filmhistoriker.de) played such a vital role in confirming Teresa Antolin's suggestion that this fragment was part of the film DAS RÄTSEL VON BANGALOR, today published this German language article about the fragment on his new gildalanger.de website.
Oliver Hanley, Deutsche Kinemathek, 19.03.2010
Can be "Das Ratsel von Bangalor", 1917, Pax-Film Berlin (see the trademark in the centre of the images), mt 1350
The man in the still 5 is Harry Liedtke.
Teresa Antolin, 24.04.2009
Login or register to make a comment.
The views expressed here belong to the author of the comment and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Deutsche Kinemathek.
Contribute
Do you have media, images or documents related to this film? Lost Films welcomes contributions of materials in digital format.

Login or register to upload your supplementary materials about his film.
Related materials
previous next