The Secret of the American Docks
About The Secret of the American Docks
James Mistoll, co-owner of the firm Hatt & Mistoll, falls from a fourth-floor window and dies. His partner Robert Hatt receives an anonymous letter saying it was murder. The detective Max Landa and his assistant Barnes investigate. Mistoll had a process for making radium out of copper ore. The trail through the plant ends on Hatt, who killed him to keep the process alone.
Cast & crew
More about The Secret of the American Docks
Ewald André Dupont wrote and directed this entry in the Max Landa detective series. Charles Paulus photographed. Robert A. Dietrich designed the sets. Stern-Film produced it in Berlin. Censorship in March 1919. Premiere 14 March 1919 at the Tauentzien-Palast. Five acts, 1,648 metres, cut to 1,446 metres. Wikidata lists 69 minutes. Gustav Botz plays Mistoll. Carl Grünwald plays Robert Hatt. Reinhold Schünzel plays the adventurer Corbett. Fritz Schulz plays Barnes. Also billed are Ria Jende as Vera, Max Laurence as C. Dale, Rose Lichtenstein as Gertie Mistoll, Albert Paul as Dr. Vaneel, Karl Platen as the worker Williams, Fritz Sterler as Clarence Mistoll, Helene Voß, Max Zilzer as the accountant Sparkes, and Leonhard Haskel.
Themes
Making
Dupont wrote the case as well as directed it, with Dietrich's sets for the plant and the dock.
Look
Charles Paulus photographed the fall and the plant. Robert A. Dietrich designed the sets.
Preservation
A copy is on the Internet Archive.
Notes
- The German title is Das Geheimnis des Amerika-Docks.
- Landa plays the detective under his own name, as in the rest of that series.
- The killer is the partner, not an outsider. The letter to Hatt is what starts the case.
Scenes
- Mistoll goes out the fourth-floor window.
- The anonymous letter tells Hatt the death was murder.
- Landa shows that Hatt killed him for the radium process.
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-das-geheimnis-des-amerika-docks)
