Homunculus
About Homunculus
Scientists led by Professor Ortmann create a living man in the laboratory, the Homunculus, played by Olaf Fønss. He looks human and cannot feel love. When he learns how he was made, he turns on his makers, becomes an industrialist, and spreads destruction. The six chapters run from his birth to his end.
Cast & crew
More about Homunculus
Otto Rippert directed. Robert Reinert wrote it. Some credits also name Robert Neuss. Carl Hoffmann photographed it. Hanns Lippmann produced. Fritz Lang worked as one of Rippert's assistants. A preview played at the Marmorhaus in Berlin in June 1916, with the premiere run from August 1916 into January 1917. The six parts were about an hour each. A 1920 reissue cut the serial to about three and three-quarter hours.
Themes
Background
The chapters opened in Berlin between the summer of 1916 and January 1917, while Germany was at war. It was one of the most successful German serials of those years.
Making
Bioscop released the serial in six tickets through the Marmorhaus. The 1920 cut squeezed the same story into fewer reels.
Look
Carl Hoffmann shot the laboratory creation and the later scenes of the Homunculus as an industrialist.
Preservation
The 1916 serial ran about six hours. Only part 4 and a piece of part 5 were long extant. A 2014 restoration from Moscow reels runs about 196 minutes. The George Eastman Museum holds a 76-minute Italian print.
Notes
- The chapter titles are Die Geburt des Homunculus, Das geheimnisvolle Buch, Die Liebestragödie des Homunculus, Die Rache des Homunculus, Die Vernichtung der Menschheit, and Das Ende des Homunculus.
- Friedrich Kühne plays Edgar Rodin, Theodor Loos plays Sven Friedland, and Mechthildis Thein plays Margot.
- Of the 1916 release, only part 4 and a fragment of part 5 were long known to survive.
- Stefan Drößler of the Munich Film Museum later brought back 27 reels of the original chapters from a Moscow archive. The 2014 restoration runs about 196 minutes.
- A 76-minute tinted print with Italian titles is at the George Eastman Museum.
- Decla-Bioscop handled a 1920 version.
Scenes
- Ortmann's laboratory produces the child who will be the Homunculus.
- The grown man learns he was made, not born, and cannot love.
- The last chapter is titled The End of the Homunculus.
