Abdul The Damned
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.
“Though the story of the young Turks’ rebellion took place in 1908, Fritz Kortner’s Abdul looks like an allegorical representation of Hitler, while the massacre of the young Turks reminds us of the murder of Ernst Röhm and his SA leaders by members of the SS in 1934.” (Richard Falcon)
- Fritz Kortner - Abdul Hamid/Kislar
- Nils Asther - Chief of Police
- Adrienne Ames - Therese Alder
- John Stuart - Captain Talak Pasha
- Walter Rilla - Hassan Bey
- Ashley Dukes
- Roger Burford
- Warren Chetham Strode and Curt Siodmak
- Emeric Pressburger (uncredited) Fritz Kortner (uncredited)
- Otto Kanturek
- A.C. Hammond
- Walter Stokvis
- Hanns Eisler; Idris Lewis (Dirigent)
- Clarence Elder; John Mead
- Robert Neumann
