Abdul the Damned (also known as Abdul Hamid) is a 1935 British drama film directed by Karl Grune and starring Fritz Kortner, Nils Asther and John Stuart.[2] It was made at the British International Pictures studios by Alliance-Capitol Productions. It is set in the Ottoman Empire in the years before the First World War, during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II and the constitutionalist Young Turks who dethroned him.

Abdul the Damned
Directed byKarl Grune
Written byRobert Neumann
Ashley Dukes
Roger Burford
Warren Chetham-Strode
Emeric Pressburger
Curt Siodmak
Produced byMax Schach
StarringFritz Kortner
Nils Asther
John Stuart
Adrienne Ames
CinematographyOtto Kanturek
Edited byA.C. Hammond
Walter Stokvis
Music byHanns Eisler
Production
company
Alliance-Capital Productions
Distributed byWardour Films (UK)
Columbia Pictures (US)
Release dates
  • 23 September 1935 (1935-09-23) (United Kingdom)
  • 10 May 1936 (1936-05-10) (United States)
Running time
111 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£50,000[1]

Plot

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Cast

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Fritz Kortner as Abdul Hamid II

Critical reception

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The New York Times wrote, "Although the film achieves a few moments of dramatic interest—chiefly through the performance of the Continental Fritz Kortner—it is in the main a tedious and uninspired biography, scarred by hypodermic injections of stale melodrama";[3] whereas Film Weekly found it "magnificently acted by Fritz Kortner. Interesting, impressive and, for the most part, gripping entertainment."[4]

References

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  1. ^ Low p.242
  2. ^ "Abdul the Damned (1935)". BFI. Archived from the original on 14 January 2009.
  3. ^ "Movie Reviews". The New York Times. 24 August 2021.
  4. ^ "Contemporary Review (Film Weekly) - Abdul the Damned (1935)".

Bibliography

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  • Low, Rachael. Filmmaking in 1930s Britain. George Allen & Unwin, 1985.
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