''The Devil Worshippers'' (german: Die Teufelsanbeter) is a six-chapter 1921 silent

German film The film industry in Germany can be traced back to the late 19th century. German cinema made major technical and artistic contributions to early film, broadcasting and television technology. Babelsberg became a household synonym for the early 20 ...

written by

Marie Luise Droop Marie Luise Droop (15 January 1890 – 22 August 1959) was a German writer, director and producer. Biography Marie Martha Luise Fritsch was born on 15 January 1890 in Stettin. Her father was Karl Georg Fritsch, manager of a cement factory, her ...

, directed by Muhsin Ertuğrul and featuring

Carl de Vogt Carl de Vogt (14 September 1885 – 16 February 1970) was a German film actor who starred in four of Fritz Lang's early films. He attended the acting school in Cologne, Germany. Together with acting he was also active as a singer and recorded sev ...

in the title-role of

Kara Ben Nemsi Kara Ben Nemsi is a fictional main character from the works of Karl May, best-selling 19th century German author. An alter ego of May, the stories about Nemsi are written as first-person narratives. He travels across North Africa, Sudan, and the ...

. De Vogt's career as an actor stretched into the 1960s, where he appeared in a number of the then-popular German ''crimi'' films. Later horror-star

Béla Lugosi Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó (; October 20, 1882 – August 16, 1956), known professionally as Bela Lugosi (; ), was a Hungarian and American actor best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the 1931 horror classic ''Dracula'', Ygor in ''S ...

is also featured in one of his first supporting roles in a film, although his precise role in the film is unknown (some sources say he played a character called Pir Kamek). The film was an adaptation of two Karl May novels (''The Desert'' and ''Wild Kurdistan''). It was one of the first German films to be based on the works of Karl May, who was normally known for his novels set in the old American West). This film was the first of a trilogy of the production company "Ustad-Film" starring actor Carl de Vogt, but it was only released as the third in the cinemas. In several scenes, this black-and-white film has some coloring, e.g. blue for night scenes. The film is said to have premiered on 2 January 1921 at "Vaters Lichtspiele" at

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg is ...

, but the first showing is only documented for 14 January 1921 at Wilhelmsburg. The film is now considered to be

lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography *Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland * Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

Plot

The film is about a cult of devil worshippers called the Jesidi whose village is destroyed by an army general named Machrej under a religious pretext. When the village leader Kara ben Nemsi sees the devastation and learns that his people have been taken into captivity, he vows revenge. The ben Nemsi character, and his faithful servant Hadschi Halef Omar, appeared later in several other Karl May novels, all set in the

Near East The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...

Cast

as Kara Ben Nemsi *

Meinhart Maur Meinhart Maur ( hu, Grünbaum Menyhért, 18 August 1891 – 27 November 1964) was a Hungarian-German film actor. He appeared in more than 40 films between 1919 and 1954. He was born in Hajdúnánás, Hungary and died in London, England. Select ...

Hadschi Halef Omar Hadschi Halef Omar Ben Hadschi Abul Abbas Ibn Hadschi Dawud al Gossarah, literally ''hajji'' Halef Omar, son of ''hajji'' father-of-Abbas, son of ''hajji'' David al Gossarah, is one of Karl May's literary characters. ''Hajji'' means "one who has p ...

* Tronier Funder as Officer *

as Pir Kamek *

Fred Immler Ferdinand "Fred" Immler (10 December 1880 –20 February 1965) was a German stage and film actor. Life Born in Coburg, as a young adult he worked from 1900 to 1902 at Deutsche Bank in Berlin and from 1902 to 1904 at Dresdner Bank. 1905 he return ...

* Ilya Dubrowski * Gustav Kirchberg * Erwin Baron

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Devil Worshippers, The 1921 films 1921 lost films 1921 adventure films German adventure films German silent feature films German black-and-white films Films of the Weimar Republic Films based on the Orient Cycle Films directed by Muhsin Ertuğrul Films set in the 19th century Lost German films Lost adventure films Silent adventure films 1920s German films

Plot

Cast

See also

References

External links