Sodom und Gomorrha (1922)

When the old multimillionaire Jackson Harber wants to marry the young model Mary, she hesitates, but her mother convinces her that this is her chance to lead a life in luxury and leisure. ... See full summary »

Director:

Michael Curtiz (as Mihály Kertész)

Writers:

Michael Curtiz, Ladislaus Vajda

Stars:

Georg Reimers, Victor Varconi, Lucy Doraine

Cast

Cast overview:
Georg Reimers	...	Mr. Jackson Harber
Victor Varconi	...	Priester des Lyzeums - Engel des Herrn (as Michael Varkonyi)
Lucy Doraine	...	Mary Conway / Das Weib des Lot / Lia, Königin von Syrien
Erika Wagner	...	Mrs. Agathe Conway - Marys Mutter
Walter Slezak	...	Eduard Harber - Student am Cambridge-Lyzeum / Ein Goldschmied von Galiläa
Kurt Ehrle	...	Harry Lighton - Bildhauer / Lot
Paul Askonas
Richard Berczeller	...	Lot
Gyula Szöreghy	...	(as Julius von Szöreghy)
Franz Herterich
Béla Balázs	...	Extra
Willi Forst	...	Extra
Leo Slezak
Hans Thimig

Storyline

When the old multimillionaire Jackson Harber wants to marry the young model Mary, she hesitates, but her mother convinces her that this is her chance to lead a life in luxury and leisure. The engagement is celebrated with an extravagant party at his estate, which is a gigantic palace and park in oriental style. His son Eduard arrives from Cambridge, accompanied by a priest, who is his tutor. The priest is disgusted by the bacchanalian reveling and womanizing going on everywhere. Mary's adorer, the sculptor Harry Lighton, tries to convince her to break the engagement. When she refuses, he shoots himself and is seriously injured. Mary falls asleep and is transported in her dream to the Biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah. In the dream she sees herself as the wife of Lot, leaving her husband to play a central role in the excessive rites of the goddess Astarte. An angel arrives and leads Lot and his wife out of Sodom, just when the city starts to collapse. Lot's wife cannot resist ...

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Plot Keywords:

sodom | sodom and gomorrah | gomorrah | biblical | city in title | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Germany Austria

Release Date:

26 March 1923 (USA)

Also Known As:

Legende von Sünde und Strafe

Filming Locations:

Vienna, Austria

Company Credits

Production Co:

Sascha-Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min (reconstructed)

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Walter Slezak's first film.

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Connections

Featured in Magyar filmek nyomában (1998)

User Reviews

The wages of sin is tedium

I saw this at the London Film Festival in 1995 or 1996. The print had been lovingly restored from sections scattered around the world, including some from archives in Moscow. Somebody near me said "I'm really looking forward to this", which was understandable, since the director, as Michael Curtiz, later made some jolly swashbucklers and Casablanca, and the LFF had previously come up with several almost unknown silent masterpieces, including Jacques Feyder's Visage d'enfants.

Well, the pianist was superb and the voice-over translator (no time to translate the German titles) produced some splendid characterization. But about ten minutes in, people realised that the film was incredibly bad, and they didn't even know when it would be over as it hadn't been projected complete before. Watching it felt like existentialist hell. Which was fair enough as it's meant to be a study of sin and remorse. A young man is tempted by sex, drugs and stuff, but he falls asleep and dreams of the biblical story of the destruction of the cities of the plain, which are a bit like Vienna and populated by his low-life pals. When he wakes up, he repents. I think the sin stuff is meant to be alluring and you're meant to think that the director has been clever framing it in a moral tale. Instead, you get the idea that sin is a lot less interesting than, maybe, a novel by Jane Austen.

It's really a very substandard knockoff of Intolerance, possibly of interest to design specialists.