''The Murderer Dimitri Karamazov'' () is a 1931 German

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

Erich Engels Erich Engels (23 May 1889 – 25 April 1971) was a German screenwriter, producer and film director. He should not be confused with another contemporary German director Erich Engel.Bock & Bergfelder p.112 Selected filmography * ''Dear Homeland'' ...

and

Fedor Ozep Fedor Ozep or Fyodor Otsep (russian: Фёдор Алекса́ндрович О́цеп, ''Fyodor Aleksandrovich Otsep''; February 9, 1895 – June 20, 1949) was a Russian-American film director and screenwriter, born in Moscow. An important earl ...

, starring

Fritz Kortner Fritz Kortner (born Fritz Nathan Kohn; 12 May 1892 – 22 July 1970) was an Austrian stage and film actor and theatre director. Life and career Kortner was born in Vienna as Fritz Nathan Kohn into a Jewish family. He studied at the Vienna A ...

and Anna Sten. It tells the story of a lieutenant who is suspected of having murdered his father. The film is based on motifs from

Fyodor Dostoyevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...

's novel ''

The Brothers Karamazov ''The Brothers Karamazov'' (russian: Братья Карамазовы, ''Brat'ya Karamazovy'', ), also translated as ''The Karamazov Brothers'', is the last novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky spent nearly two years writing '' ...

''. A separate French version ''

'' was produced.

Cast

as Dimitri Karamasoff * Anna Sten as Gruschenka *

Fritz Rasp Fritz Heinrich Rasp (13 May 1891 – 30 November 1976) was a German film actor who appeared in more than 100 films between 1916 and 1976. His obituary in ''Der Spiegel'' described Rasp as "the German film villain in service, for over 60 years." ...

as Smerdjakoff *

Bernhard Minetti Bernhard Theodor Henry Minetti (26 January 1905 – 12 October 1998) was a German actor. He appeared in 50 films between 1931 and 1996 but is mostly known for his distinguished stage career. Selected filmography *''The Murderer Dimitri Kara ...

as Iwan Karamasoff * Max Pohl as Fedor Karamasoff * Hanna Waag as Katja *

Fritz Alberti Fritz Alberti (born Friedrich Wilhelm Alberti; 22 October 1877 – 15 September 1954) was a German actor. Selected filmography * ''People in Ecstasy'' (1921) * '' The Other Woman'' (1924) * ''The Blackguard'' (1925) * '' Ship in Distress'' (1925 ...

as Gerichtspräsident *

Werner Hollmann Werner may refer to: People * Werner (name), origin of the name and people with this name as surname and given name Fictional characters * Werner (comics), a German comic book character * Werner Von Croy, a fictional character in the ''Tomb Rai ...

as Der Pole * Elisabeth Neumann-Viertel as Fenja

Production

The film was produced by

Terra Film Terra Film was a Berlin-based film production company. Founded in 1919, it became one of Germany's largest film production companies in the 1930s under the Nazi regime. Corporate history The company was founded at end of 1919, initially as a li ...

. Filming took place from 22 October to 24 November 1930. The film's sets were designed by the art directors

Heinrich Richter Heinrich Richter (1884–1981) was a German painter and art director.Soister p.122 He designed the sets for more than a hundred films during his career. Selected filmography * ''The Confessions of the Green Mask'' (1916) * ''The Sensational Tr ...

and

Victor Trivas Victor Trivas (July 9, 1896 – April 12, 1970) was a Russian-JewishSiegbert Salomon Prawer, ''Between Two Worlds: The Jewish Presence in German and Austrian Film, 1910-1933'', Berghahn Books (2007), p. 211 screenwriter and film director. He was nom ...

Reception

The British film critic

Raymond Durgnat Raymond Durgnat (1 September 1932 – 19 May 2002) was a British film critic, who was born in London to Swiss parents. During his life he wrote for virtually every major English language film publication. In 1965 he published the first maj ...

wrote in a 1993 article about Ozep for ''Film Dope'': "The Karamazov film is a ''tour de force'' of stylistic eclecticism:

expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

acting (Kortner), dynamic angles, Russian editing, marathon tracking shots. It's a real showpiece of formalism geared to psycho-lyrical ends, exactly as Eisenstein intended, except that Dostoievskian soul-torments replace

Leninist Leninism is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary vanguard party as the political prelude to the establishm ...

collectivism to which the 'official' montage-masters tuned their lyres."

References

External links

* 1931 drama films 1931 films Films based on The Brothers Karamazov Films directed by Fedor Ozep Films directed by Erich Engels Films of the Weimar Republic German drama films 1930s German-language films German multilingual films Terra Film films German black-and-white films 1930s German films {{1930s-Germany-film-stub