The Enchanted Circle
About The Enchanted Circle
In the spring of 1917, U-35 leaves the Austro-Hungarian base at Pola under Kapitänleutnant Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière and works the Mediterranean. The camera, on deck, shows the boat stopping neutral and enemy merchant ships. Neutrals are searched and sent on. Enemy crews are put in the boats, and the ships are then sunk with charges, torpedoes, or the deck gun. The British steamer Parkgate and the schooner Miss Morris are among the sinkings. There are no scenes inside the hull.
Cast & crew
More about The Enchanted Circle
The Bild- und Filmamt (BUFA) shot the propaganda film aboard U-35 in the spring of 1917. Hans Brennert is the credited director. The material was cut in the summer of 1917. The German censor passed it in August 1917. The German title is Der magische Gürtel. English-language copies have circulated as The Log of the U-35.
Themes
Background
U-35 sailed from Pola in the spring of 1917, the year Germany had resumed unrestricted submarine warfare. The film was in theaters by late summer as a BUFA release.
Making
BUFA put a camera on a combat patrol rather than restaging the sinkings in a studio. The emphasis in the titles is that crews were in the boats before the charges went off.
Look
The camera stays on deck for the whole patrol. Sinkings of Parkgate and Miss Morris are filmed from U-35 after the crews have been taken off.
Preservation
The Imperial War Museum in London holds a screening copy. A tinted print that came into British hands after the war was the basis of a later restoration. IDFA showed a 45-minute version in 2013.
Notes
- Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière, the boat's commander, is the person on screen.
- All the photography is from the deck. The cameras of 1917 would not work in the boat's interior.
- In 1980 Walther Hubatsch and his staff matched the shots to U-35's war diary. Some cuts do not follow the log, and some scenes were arranged.
- The film did not match the business of Graf Dohna und seine Möwe, the BUFA picture shot earlier on the raider Möwe.
- A tinted print that reached British hands was later used for a restoration. British shows turned the same footage to anti-German use.
- IDFA lists 45 minutes. A shorter copy indexed as The Log of the U-35 runs 27 minutes.
Scenes
- U-35 stops a merchant ship and sends a boarding party across.
- The crew of an enemy ship pulls away in the boats before the sinking charge.
- Parkgate and the schooner Miss Morris go down on camera.
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-the-log-of-the-u-35)
- Imperial War Museum, London