Plots(1)
Despotic Sultan Abdul Hamid commands his chief of police to undermine the Young Turks' rebels, ensuring their discredit and eventually the assassination of the Turks leader Hassan Bey.
Kortner co-authored the script (uncredited) and wrote a rewarding double role for himself: both as the Sultan and a third-class actor, who is supposed to act as the Sultan's double but fails miserably. The rumour spread among émigrés that Hitler had a doppelganger might have been the origin of the story – as it was for THE STRANGE DEATH OF ADOLF HITLER later on; but despite a few elements of conventional cliché, ABDUL THE DAMNED unveils the falseness and cynicism of all power politics.
(Viennale)
Cast
Fritz Kortner
Austria-Hungary
Best movies:
The Hands of Orlac (1924)
Somewhere in the Night (1946)
Warning Shadows (1923)
Nils Asther
Denmark
Best movies:
Samson and Delilah (1949)
The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929)
Night Monster (1942)
John Stuart
UK
Best movies:
The Magic Box (1951)
Superman (1978)
Sink the Bismarck! (1960)
Adrienne Ames
USA
Best movies:
The Death Kiss (1932)
Merrily We Go to Hell (1932)
Walter Rilla
German Empire
Best movies:
The Sins of Love (1929)
State Secret (1950)
Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull (1957)
Patric Knowles
UK
Best movies:
Band of Angels (1957)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936)
Eric Portman
UK
Best movies:
Freud (1962)
The Bedford Incident (1965)
The Magic Box (1951)
George Zucco
UK
Best movies:
The Barkleys of Broadway (1949)
After the Thin Man (1936)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
Henry B. Longhurst
UK
Best movies:
Murder Ahoy (1964)
The Belles of St. Trinian's (1954)
Young Cassidy (1965)
Esme Percy
UK
Best movies:
Pygmalion (1938)
Murder! (1930)
Dead of Night (1945)
Charles Carson
UK
Best movies:
Moulin Rouge (1952)
The Dam Busters (1955)
Reach for the Sky (1956)