Die Todeskarawane (The Caravan of Death)
Subtitled, “A film of the southern sun in six chapters”, the film featured Bela Lugosi playing an Arab Sheik pitted against European travellers in an adventure story set in the Sahara. It was the second of three films released by Ustad based on desert adventure novels by Karl May. Although Karl May’s widow praised the film, critics were unimpressed and it was a commercial failure. It is now considered lost.
Cast members Carl de Vogt and Meibhart Maur had previously appeared together in Fritz Lang’s Spiders in 1919. Carl de Vogt also appeared with Conrad Veidt in Der Weg des Todes (The Road of Death) in 1917.
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Dora Gerson
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Actress and cabaret singer Dora Gerson left Germany for the Netherlands in 1936 to escape Nazi persecution of the Jewish population. Following the German occupation of the Netherlands, she and her family tried to flee to neutral Switzerland in 1942, but were captured in the attempt. On St. Valentines Day, 1943, Dora, her husband, Max Sluizer, and their two children, 5-year-old Miriam and 2-year-old Abel, were murdered in Auschwitz.
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Production company: Ustad
Producer: Marie Luise Droop
Director: Josef Stein
Cinematographer: Gustave Preiss and Otto Stein
Screenplay: Erwin Báron and Marie Luise Droop (uncredited). Based on the 1892 novel Von Bagdad nach Stambul by Karl May
The film received its official premiere on November 18, 1920 in Dresden, but had already been shown two days previously in Hamburg.
Cast:
Carl de Vogt: Kara Ben Nemsi
Meinhart Maur: Hadschi Halef Omar/Saduk
Erwin Baron: Omram
Gustav Kirchberg: Hassan Ardschir Mirza
Dora Gerson: Dschana Ardschir Mirza
Cläre Lotto: Benda Ardschir Mirza
Gustav Kirchberg: Hassan Ardschir Mirza
Dora Gerson: Dschana Ardschir Mirza
Cläre Lotto: Benda Ardschir Mirza
Maximilian Werrak: Tschaschefsky
Karl Kuszar: Kepek
Erna Felsneck: Amina
Anna von Palen: Marah Durimeh
Beate Herwigh: Hafsa
Béla Lugosi: Scheik
Arthur Kraußneck: Tschaschefsky
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