''Dreyfus'' is a 1930 German drama film directed by

Richard Oswald Richard Oswald (5 November 1880 – 11 September 1963) was an Austrian film director, producer, screenwriter, and father of German-American film director Gerd Oswald. Early career Richard Oswald, born in Vienna as Richard W. Ornstein, began h ...

and starring Fritz Kortner,

Grete Mosheim Margarete Emma Dorothea "Grete" Mosheim (8 January 1905 – 29 December 1986) was a German film, theatre, and television actress. Early life Mosheim was born in Berlin, Germany on 8 January 1905, the daughter of a Jewish man, Markus Mosheim (18 ...

, and Heinrich George. It portrays the Dreyfus affair and is based on a novel by Bruno Weil. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...

s Franz Schroedter and Hermann Warm. It premiered at the Gloria-Palast in Berlin. In the United States the film was released under the alternative title ''The Dreyfus Case''. The film was remade the following year in Britain with Cedric Hardwicke in the title role.

Synopsis

In late nineteenth century Alfred Dreyfus, a French army officer of Jewish heritage, is falsely accused of espionage. Found guilty of treason he is drummed out of the army and sent to prison on

Devil's Island The penal colony of Cayenne ( French: ''Bagne de Cayenne''), commonly known as Devil's Island (''Île du Diable''), was a French penal colony that operated for 100 years, from 1852 to 1952, and officially closed in 1953 in the Salvation Islands ...

. His family take up the case of the wronged officer, as does the writer Emile Zola who believes the original investigation was marred by

anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

. Eventually the true culprit

Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy Charles Marie Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy (16 December 1847 – 21 May 1923) was an officer in the French Army from 1870 to 1898. He gained notoriety as a spy for the German Empire and the actual perpetrator of the act of treason of which C ...

is exposed.

Cast

References

Bibliography

External links

* 1930 films 1930s biographical drama films 1930s historical drama films German biographical drama films German historical drama films Films of the Weimar Republic Films about the Dreyfus affair Films directed by Richard Oswald German multilingual films Films set in Paris German black-and-white films Films with screenplays by Fritz Wendhausen Cultural depictions of Georges Clemenceau 1930 multilingual films 1930 drama films 1930s German films {{1930s-Germany-film-stub