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''The Island'' (german: Die Insel) is a 1934 German
thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...
directed by
Hans Steinhoff Hans Steinhoff (10 March 1882 – 20 April 1945) was a German film director, best known for the propaganda films he made in the Nazi era. Life and career Steinhoff started his career as a stage actor in the 1900s and later worked as a stag ...
and starring
Brigitte Helm Brigitte Helm (born Brigitte Gisela Eva Schittenhelm, 17 March 1906 – 11 June 1996) was a German actress, best remembered for her dual role as Maria and her double named Futura, in Fritz Lang's 1927 silent film, '' Metropolis''. Early life ...
,
Willy Fritsch Willy Fritsch (27 January 1901 – 13 July 1973) was a German theater and film actor, a popular leading man and character actor from the silent-film era to the early 1960s. Biography Early life He was born Wilhelm Egon Fritz Fritsch, the only s ...
and
Hubert von Meyerinck Hubert "Hubsi" von Meyerinck (23 August 1896 – 13 May 1971) was a German film actor. He appeared in more than 280 films between 1921 and 1970. Biography Meyerinck was born in Potsdam, Brandenburg, the son of Friedrich von Meyerinck (1858� ...
.Bock & Bergfelder p. 460 The film's sets were designed by the art directors
Artur Günther Artur Günther (1893–1972) was a German art director.Giesen p.202 He designed the sets for more than a hundred films during a lengthy career. Selected filmography * '' When the Dead Speak'' (1917) * '' Ikarus, the Flying Man'' (1918) * ''Alrau ...
and
Benno von Arent Benno von Arent (19 July 1898 – 14 October 1956) was a German film director, artist, architect, designer and a member of the Nazi Party and SS. Early life Arent was born Benno Georg Eduard Wilhelm Joachim von Arent in Görlitz on 19 July 1 ...
.
Location shooting Location shooting is the shooting of a film or television production in a real-world setting rather than a sound stage or backlot. The location may be interior or exterior. The filming location may be the same in which the story is set (for ex ...
took place on the coast of Dalmatia. It premiered at the
Ufa-Palast am Zoo The Ufa-Palast am Zoo, located near Berlin Zoological Garden in the New West area of Charlottenburg, was a major Berlin cinema owned by Universum Film AG, or Ufa. Opened in 1919 and enlarged in 1925, it was the largest cinema in Germany until 192 ...
in
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
in August 1934. A separate French version '' Vers l'abîme'' was also released.


Plot

An embassy is isolated like an island in a posh residential area. Among the guests at a reception organized by the embassy is a blackmailer who offers military attaché Captain Rist to buy back secret war plans he had previously stolen from him. Since Rist doesn't know exactly what the plans are, he agrees to meet the blackmailer in the Silvia Bar. It quickly becomes clear to him that the documents on offer are the plans he himself once designed for practice purposes and are completely worthless. Rist quickly realizes that should these documents get into the hands of the press, they could cause considerable damage and seriously jeopardize the good relations of the countries concerned. So he only sees the possibility of agreeing to the blackmailer's offer to buy. Since Captain Rist does not have the required purchase price of $6,000, he agrees to declare the amount as a gambling debt, which must be paid within 24 hours. Quite surprisingly, however, the police appear in the bar and arrest the blackmailer, who still manages to slip the filled-in promissory note to the bar owner, Silvia. She senses the chance of getting a nice sum of money and goes to the embassy the following day to claim the outstanding amount. Rist asks for an extension of the payment deadline, but the barmaid wants the money immediately. Only now does Rist realize that Silvia has made a mistake, as she believes she is dealing with commercial attaché Raak, whose checkbook is also on the desk. Seeing no other way out, Rist takes the checkbook and writes a check for the amount requested. He forges Raak's signature and gives the check to Silvia, who then leaves the premises. Since the debit of the large sum means that Raak's account is no longer covered, he becomes aware of the fraud. When the ambassador found out about the incident, he demanded that Raak accept the requested amount on the check so that the embassy and its staff would not be put in a bad light. Raak then asks, his honor violated, to be dismissed from the civil service. The ambassador, now fully examining the situation and realizing that there must be a criminal in his own ranks, calls all the officers together and explains to the assembled crew that he expects the criminal in question to judge himself. Captain Rist, guilty only to the extent that he carelessly recorded war plans for practice purposes and did not keep them carefully enough, takes all the blame and sees only one way out: he takes his own life by driving his car around a long curve deliberately left the roadway and fell into the sea, where he drowned. He also clears the way for Raak, who is planning a future with the ambassador's daughter.


Cast


References


Bibliography

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Island 1934 films Films of Nazi Germany German thriller films 1930s thriller films 1930s German-language films Films directed by Hans Steinhoff UFA GmbH films German multilingual films German black-and-white films 1934 multilingual films 1930s German films