The Strange Case of Captain Ramper

Last updated

The Strange Case of Captain Ramper
The Strange Case of Captain Ramper.jpg
Directed by Max Reichmann
Screenplay by
Based onRamper
by Max Mohr
Starring
Cinematography
Music by Walter Ulfig [2]
Production
company
Deutsche Film-Union AG [2]
Release date
  • 31 October 1927 (1927-10-31)(Berlin)
CountryGermany [2]
LanguageSilent

The Strange Case of Captain Ramper (German : Ramper, der Tiermensch) is a 1927 German silent film directed by Max Reichmann and starring Paul Wegener and Mary Johnson.

Contents

Plot

In a flight over the Arctic the plane of Captain Ramper and Ipling crashes. The badly injured Ipling commits suicide, leaving Ramper to survive the next 15 years, where he is altered into a wild creature without memory. He is captured by a whaling vessel who believe he is the abominable snowman. He is sold to a circus where Tony the animal trainer tries to humanize him. There Ramper falls in love with her, while Professor Barbarzin experiments on Ramper to try to get him to return to his former physical and mental self. The experimentation on him makes Ramper only aware of the corrupt nature of modern society, leading him to return to the North. [3]

Cast

Cast adapted from Michael Pitt's book Thrills Untapped and Filmportal.de. [2]

Production

The Strange Case of Captain Ramper was based on the play Ramper play by Max Mohr. [1] The film's sets were designed by the art director Leopold Blonder. [2]

Release

The Strange Case of Captain Ramper was released in Berlin on October 31, 1927. [2]

It was released in the United States by First National in 1928. On the film's American release, it was re-edited, adding brief spoken prologues about a dirigible castrophe as the lead in to the film's plot. [1]

The film is believed to be lost, with only some visual material showcasing it. [1]

Reception

From contemporary reviews, a reviewer in Variety found the film "somewhat better than the Contemporary German pictures seen on this side during the last season or two" but that it was also "draggy" concluding that the film was "fair to middling screen fare" and suggested it needed more editing. [4] Photoplay described it simply as a "German picture with original plot. Just a bit heavy." [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Schreck</span> German actor

Friedrich Gustav Maximilian Schreck, known professionally as Max Schreck, was a German actor, best known for his lead role as the vampire Count Orlok in the film Nosferatu (1922).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Wegener</span> German actor, writer, and film director

Paul Wegener was a German actor, writer, and film director known for his pioneering role in German expressionist cinema.

<i>The Last Performance</i> 1929 film

The Last Performance is a 1929 American sound part-talkie film directed by Paul Fejos and starring Conrad Veidt and Mary Philbin. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score and sound effects along with English intertitles. The soundtrack was recorded using the Western Electric sound-on-film system. The talking sequences were featured on the last reel.

<i>F.P.1</i> 1932 film

F.P.1 Antwortet Nicht is a 1932 German film directed by Karl Hartl. The film was based on the 1931 novel of the same name by Kurt Siodmak. The plot concerned a permanent air station in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The film was developed as a multilingual version, with one film each in German, French, and English filmed separately and with different casts. The film was shot in 1932 and premiered in Berlin late that year with English and French-language versions premiering the next year.

<i>Unheimliche Geschichten</i> (1932 film) 1932 film

Unheimliche Geschichten, titled The Living Dead in English, is a 1932 German horror/comedy film directed by the film director Richard Oswald, starring Paul Wegener, and produced by Gabriel Pascal. It is a remake of Oswald's 1919 film of the same name.

<i>The Ace of Scotland Yard</i> 1929 film by Ray Taylor

The Ace of Scotland Yard is a 1929 Universal movie serial. It was the first partial sound serial released by Universal Pictures. The film was released in September 1929. It was a part-talkie serial using music and sound effects.

<i>The Unholy Night</i> 1929 American mystery film

The Unholy Night is a 1929 American pre-Code mystery film directed by Lionel Barrymore and starring Ernest Torrence.

<i>The Sea Bat</i> 1930 film

The Sea Bat is a 1930 American pre-Code melodrama film directed by Wesley Ruggles, starring Raquel Torres, Charles Bickford. Part of the film was filmed on location in Mazatlán, Mexico. The film was originally intended as a vehicle for Lon Chaney, who died on August 26, 1930.

<i>Gold</i> (1934 film) 1934 film

Gold is a 1934 German science fiction film directed by Karl Hartl. The film involves a British scientist who is attempting to create a device that turns base materials into gold. He later forces the German scientist's assistant Werner Holk, who was working on a similar experiment, to come to his underwater nuclear reactor to help him. Gold was made in both German-language and French-language versions with Brigitte Helm reprising her role in both.

<i>The Case of the Black Cat</i> 1936 film by William C. McGann

The Case of the Black Cat is a 1936 American mystery film directed by William C. McGann and an uncredited Alan Crosland, based on the 1935 Perry Mason novel The Case of the Caretaker's Cat by Erle Stanley Gardner. The film stars Ricardo Cortez as Perry Mason and co-stars June Travis and Jane Bryan in her film debut. The film is the fifth Perry Mason adaptation distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures in the 1930s and the first in the series not to feature Warren William as Mason.

<i>Seven Footprints to Satan</i> 1929 American mystery film

Seven Footprints to Satan is a sound part-talkie 1929 American mystery film directed by Danish filmmaker Benjamin Christensen. Based on the 1928 story of the same name by Abraham Merritt, it stars Thelma Todd, Creighton Hale, William V. Mong and Sheldon Lewis. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score and sound effects along with English intertitles. The film survives at the Cineteca Italiana in an alternate sound version known as an International Sound Version. The sound disks for this foreign sound version are apparently not extant.

<i>My Life for Ireland</i> Nazi propaganda film set in Ireland

My Life for Ireland is a 1941 German drama film, one of the many anti-British Nazi propaganda movies created during World War II. Directed by Max W. Kimmich, it tells a story of an Irish nationalist family and their involvement in the Irish struggle of independence over two generations. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Wilhelm Depenau and Otto Erdmann.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hermann Vallentin</span> German actor

Hermann Vallentin was a German actor.

Max Reichmann (1884-1958) was a German film director active during the silent and early sound eras. Before making his own films, Reichmann worked as an assistant director on several E.A. Dupont productions. After graduating to directing, he directed the tenor Richard Tauber in several films following the introduction of sound in the late 1920s.

<i>Cagliostro</i> (1929 film) 1929 film

Cagliostro is a 1929 silent drama film directed by Richard Oswald and starring Hans Stüwe, Renée Héribel and Alfred Abel. It depicts the life of the eighteenth century Italian occultist Alessandro Cagliostro, portraying him more sympathetically than in most other works. It was based on a novel by Johannes von Guenther.

<i>Secret of the Chateau</i> 1934 film by Richard Thorpe

Secret of the Chateau is a 1934 American mystery film directed by Richard Thorpe. The film stars Claire Dodd, Alice White, Osgood Perkins, Jack La Rue, George E. Stone and Clark Williams. On its release, reviews from Variety, The Film Daily and The Motion Picture Herald all commented that the film was a typical mystery film. On retrospective reviews, the book Universal Horrors stated the film had little to distinguish itself from others mystery films of the 1930s and 1940s and has justly been forgotten.

<i>Chinatown Squad</i> 1935 film

Chinatown Squad is a 1935 American mystery film directed by Murray Roth, written by Dore Schary and Ben Ryan starring Lyle Talbot, Valerie Hobson, Hugh O'Connell, and Andy Devine, and featuring Leslie Fenton and Bradley Page. The film was released on May 31, 1935, by Universal Pictures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Johnson (actress)</span> Swedish actress

Macy Johnson was a Swedish film actress of the silent era.

<i>The Monk with the Whip</i> 1967 film

The Monk with the Whip is a 1967 West German mystery thriller film directed by Alfred Vohrer and starring Joachim Fuchsberger, Uschi Glas and Grit Boettcher. It is inspired by the 1926 novel The Black Abbot and subsequent 1927 play The Terror by Edgar Wallace which also served as the basis for the 1965 film The Sinister Monk. It was made as part of a long-running series of film adaptations of his work produced by Rialto Film.

J.G. Bachmann (1891–1952) was a Russian-born American film producer. Amongst the studios he was involved with were Preferred Pictures, Paramount and RKO. His son Lawrence Bachmann also became a film producer.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Pitts 2018, p. 258.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Ramper, der Tiermensch" (in German). Filmportal.de . Retrieved 22 April 2023.
  3. Pitts 2018, p. 258-259.
  4. 1 2 Pitts 2018, p. 259.

Sources