Die Grosse Wette / Der Elektromensch 1916

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Die Grosse Wette, A Wager That We Lost........

Introduction by Victor Mabuse

Film still from Die Grosse Wette [The Big Bet], Bayern Films, Munich, 1916.

Victor Mabuse: While randomly perusing the internet one evening I came across an image that caught my attention. It was a black and white still from an unknown film (illustrated above). The image featured a lovely dressed woman holding a gun pointing at what appeared to be a mechanized intruder. The intruder looked like a prototype Cyberman from the early years of Doctor Who. I learned that the still was from a film directed by Harry Piel (1892-1963) in 1916, titled Die Grosse Wette, or translated, The Big Bet. I had to find out more about this film, but sadly, there is very little material to be found. An image search yields little, but what it does divulge is enough to leave you wanting more. What scarce imagery there is fuels my imagination. Being that the film was made a decade prior to Metropolis, and peers into the future about a quarter of a century before the future Metropolis, I can’t help but wonder - were Fritz Lang and other members of his creative team influenced by Die Grosse Wette? Did Lang and his crew take the foundation laid by director Piel in his New York of 2000, and build upon it the grand vision they had for 2026? Sadly, it seems that we shall never know.

I did some further researching of actor / director Harry Piel, the “Elektro-Mensch” [Electro-Man]. He was a fan of science fiction. With Die Grosse Wette, you could argue that he made the first science fiction film, or at least the first robot film. He went on to release in 1933 a comedic movie Ein Unsichtbarer Geht Durch die Stadt [An Invisible Man goes through the City] about an invisible man, just a few months prior to Universal’s classic. He also made a movie the following year about a mad scientist who is destroyed by his own robot in Derr Herr Der Welt [The Master of the World]. During WWII, Piel’s home was damaged in a bomb blast that destroyed the negatives of his silent films. With that in mind, it is likely the film is lost, forever. Our only hope is that a print is waiting to be rediscovered in a private archive or collection somewhere. 

Lichtbild Buhne, June 1916, 6(23) 78. Source: Lantern.

Researching the female lead of the film - Mizzi Wirth - she seems to have only made four films in her career. She was a popular soprano, who sang in operettas. I found three recordings of her work. I must say, it was captivating hearing a recording of her voice from 110 years ago [1910]. Hearing a recorded voice can sometimes have a heavier impact than a static image. Suffice it to say, I have been quite absorbed with this lost film and have endeavored to find any images, stories, and notices of the film. I have contacted several friends who share similar interests, and what they found has simply fueled my hunger more, but I fear it is a hunger that will not be satiated. I will simply have to let my imagination ponder what was. With my love of Metropolis, I can’t help but think that Die Grosse Wette influenced that epic. As we all know, Metropolis is a true science fiction classic that still influences filmmakers and fuels imagination to this present day. If my supposition is accurate, the ripples of Die Grosse Wette are also being felt, but we just don’t know it. We may never know. Harry Piel’s Die Grosse Wette is a wager that we lost.

Victor Mabuse 29 April 2020

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Die Grosse Wette, stone lithograph poster, 1916.

Die Grosse Wette / Der Elektromensch [The Electric Man] is a German silent film in four acts, originally running approximately 68 minutes and produced during 1915. It was released in 1916 and comprised a science-fiction fantasy narrative set in the year 2000. It was written and directed by Harry Piel, being the first of his film's in which he also acted (Bock 2009). Whilst it apparently no longer exists, likely due to the fact that 72 of Piel's film negatives were destroyed during a World War II bomb blast, records of its production and presentation nevertheless survive. A flurry of information about Die Grosse Wette appeared during 2020 on the Facebook Lost Films Forum, at the instigation of longtime fan of early German cinema, Victor Mabuse. His introductory comments on the film are included above. Victor was ably supported in this initial flurry of research by the like-minded Aitam Bar-Sagi, a long-time fan of Metropolis and expert researcher. This blog attempts to bring together some of that material in order to further the discussion about this intriguing film, which is on of the earliest to present what is commonly known today as a robot. A small collection of material is included herein, comprising posters, photographs, advertising material and contemporary reviews, along with recent discussions around the film itself and the themes presented therein. 

In the history of mechanical humans / robots / androids in film, 1916's Die Grosse Wette has a place, being one of the earliest. In 1920 Karel Čapek wrote what was to become his most famous work, the play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), a meditation on the themes of humanity and subjugation that introduced the word 'robot' to the world. Prior to that, and going back as far as the time of the ancient Greeks, artificial animals and humans appeared in storytelling and scientific discussion. Leonardo da Vinci was one such proponent. However from the late eighteenth century fiction and fantasy writing in the West flourished, providing new opportunities for the popular expression of such ideas. H.G. Wells, Jules Verne and many others helped invent the science fiction genre and from the latter half of the nineteenth century fantastical ideas of seemingly realistic mechanical contraptions powered by wind, steam and or electricity were more common. The modern day genre of steam punk retroactively celebrates this era. Harry Piel’s film of 1915 derives much of its inspiration and ideas from that heightened, contemporary interest in the possibilities offered by science and technological developments in relation to human replication and artificial intelligence. Amidst excitement over the possibilities on offer, was also skepticism and fear in regards to things that could go wrong. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein,  published in 1817 was the classic cautionary tale in Gothic horror regarding the quest through science, and alchemy, for artificial sentience. And whilst Dr. Frankenstein's creation was not mechanical, unlike Piel’s, its spark of life was electrical, and its ultimate fate likewise destructive.

Die Grosse Wette is especially noteworthy for the fact that it appears to be the first German film to portray a robot, or mechanical person, and is likewise a precursor to the futuristic Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang for UFA during 1925-6 and released in January 1927. It followed on the famous 1915 film Der Gollum which featured an animated clay figure of a man. Piel’s mechanical variant is a natural progression at a time when mechanisation was featuring in the war being fought by Germany against other European nations.

Photo montage of images from Der Golem 1915 and Die Grosse Wette 1916. Complied by Aitam Bar-Sagi, 2020.

The Electro Man who features in Die Grosse Wette is different from Der Golem in Paul Wegener's film. The Jewish Golem figure was a being made out of inanimate material such as clay and which becomes animated with a living spirit, though the means of animation is never made clear. On the other hand, the Electro Man in Die Grosse Wette was a mechanical construction, powered by electricity and more in keeping with the modern understanding of the word robot - a term that did not come into general use until the 1930s. With Fritz Lang's Metropolis of 1927, and the corresponding 1926 novel by his wife Thea von Harbou, the word robot is not used, but rather Machinenmencsh, i.e., machine human, or mechanical human. 

Victor Janson, as Physiker [scientist] Arden, working on the Electro Man mannequin.

The actual Electro Man of Die Grosse Wette was apparently presented in the film as both a partial mannequin with electro-mechanical elements, and also the director in costume, as seen in the photograph at the head of this blog. The Electro Man was distinguished by a metal helmet and what appears to be metallic hands and feet. As in Der Golem, its precise origin is not made clear, at least based on the information which has survived concerning Die Grosse Wette. What we can conclude is that it was the brainchild of a Physiker, or scientist, by the name of Arden. We can see him working on the robot's mechanical system in the photograph above. In that instance, we can see that the Electro Man is a mannequin, though it wears a similar headpiece to that worn by Piel when in costume.

Film stills from an original German poster, 1916.

In the eight film stills (reproduced above) which featured on an original Dutch poster from 1916, we can see the following: (1) the flying taxi, (2) a group of people appearing to be gathered around a gaming table, (3) four people seated at a table, including the Lee Kennedy character and one of the male leads, (4) a man kneeling before an electrical machine in a laboratory, (5) the meeting between the Electromensch and Lee Kennedy, (6) Lee Kennedy and a male lead in an intimate embrace, (7) an encounter between a man an a servant, and (8) three servants and a man standing near a piano.

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Paimann's Filmlisten, Austria, 20 March 1916. Source: Internet Archive.

Translation: The Electric Man - a bet in the year 2000. Sensational play starring Mitzi Wirth and Ludwig Trautmann. Two rich Americans, the sportsman Georg Hogg and the physicist Ardan, who both love the wealthy American princess Lee Kenedy, bet 100 million dollars in their club that Hogg cannot live three days and nights with the person Ardan is to deliver within 14 days. Ardan creates an Electroman, which he directs from his laboratory using a remote camera obscura and sends Hogg into the house. The Electroman follows him at every step, into the club and to his bride Lee, until on the third day, as a result of the excessive voltage applied by Ardan (which blew up his conductor and house), he collapses on himself. The story is very good, as is the cinematography, the game (bet) and especially the scenery and equipment, which are terrific.

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Lichtbild Bühne, January 1916, 6(3) 20-21. Source: Lantern.

Lichtbild Bühne, February 1916, 6(9) 45. Source: Lantern.


Lichtbild Bühne, February 1916, 6(9) 4-5. Source: Lantern.

Lichtbild Bühne, May 1916, 6(20) 42. Source: Lantern.

Film details

Genre: Drama.

Production: Filmed during Autumn 1915 by Bayerische Filmgesellschaft, Isidor Fett and Karl Wiesel, No.51. This company produced 34 films between 1916-1920.

Duration: 4 Acts, 1,500 metres long, duration: 68 minutes. Also cited as running 'almost 70 minutes', or 61 minutes in the censored US version. If projected at the then normal silent film production speed of 16 frames per second, it would have run for 76 minutes. If run at 18 fps it would take 67 minutes.

Film Censor: Polizei, Berlin, December 1915. No. 15.53; Reichsfilmzensur, Munchen, No. 142, 16 December 1920.

Premiere: Berlin - Die Grosse Wette, 11 January 1916, or 4 February 1916, 1,500 metres; Austria-Hungary - Der Elektromensch, 8 September 1916, 1,400 metres.

Director & Writer - Harry Piel
Ludwig Trautman - George Fogg, an American millionaire
Mizzi Wirth - Lee Kenedy (Kennedy), courted by both Trautman and Janson
Victor Janson - Physiker Arden who creates the Elektromensch
Adolf Sichanek
Harry Piel - Der Elektromensch
Rudolf Hilbery
Music - Conductor Siegbert Goldschmidt

Scenario: In the distant future, in 2000, athlete George Fogg and physicist Ardan are two rich Americans who like to stay in their club. Both share their love for the pretty millionaire daughter Lee Kennedy. One day they make a bizarre bet: Ardan is called upon to construct a mechanical man - the Electrical Man - over the following two weeks. In turn, Arden claims Fogg will not be able to last three days and nights with this being. Ardan goes on to create the Electrical Man and directs it into Fogg's house through the use of a camera obscura remote control. The Electric Man now follows Fogg at every turn, even with a meeting with Lee. Fogg cannot get any peace. When the third day dawns, the robot problem solves itself, because due to the tension set too high in it by Ardan, the internal wiring begins to burn and the Electric Man explodes, causing Ardan's house to crash in on him. (Wikipedia 2020).

Harry Piel was known as the 'Dynamite Director' for his use of explosions in spectacular adventure films and detective stories. His often starred in his own films, which combined stunts, wild animals, exotic vistas and turbulent plots. In 1920 he went so far as to jump out of a dirigible (zeppelin) on a horse from 1000 feet up, release his parachute, and both he and the horse landed safely in Berlin. 

Die Grosse Wette was Piel's first science fiction film. Perhaps his most famous work is the 1934 release Der Herr Der Welt (Master of the World) which dealt with the ever popular issue of the role of robots in replacing human labor and as war machines - an issue which was to surface during the Cold War era, following World War II. Piel continued to make films through to the 1950s.

Release and Reviews

Die Grosse Wette premiered in Berlin at the Marmorhaus theatre on 11 January 1916, though a review appeared in the December 1915 issue of Der Kinematograph, Dusseldorf. It briefly stated the following:

The Big Bet is an art film that doesn't follow well-trodden paths, but follows its own path, which has been precisely mapped out beforehand, and will therefore also reach its goal, which in this case means complete success with certainty.

Film researcher Aitam Bar-Sagi discovered reference to a screening under the title "Radio-Mensch" [Radio Man] in Linz, Austria, in a notice of 24 June 1928. 

An early review of the film was published in the American magazine Moving Picture World on 1 April 1916. It read as follows:

Moving Picture World, 1 April 1916.

An extraordinary film which is at present causing much comment is Harry Piel's newest work, "Die Grosse Wette" (The Great Bet), which is having its premier at the Marmorhaus. The action of this film is supposed to take place in the year 2,000 and Mr. Piel has endeavored to give a representation of the world as it will be at that period. Needless to say, astonishing and intricate technical tricks, including an airline cab-service, an exceedingly cleverly constructed millionaire's palace with all twenty-first century conveniences, a library whose books step out of place by merely pressing upon a button, were used as means toward showing life in the next century. An interesting plot revolving about an American millionaire who bets his fortune upon his ability to live three days with a tricky automatic figure forms the substance of the story, throughout which many amazing things happen. Criticisms over the film are divided, but in general the work has been favorably received, inasmuch as it is a change from the ordinary love drama and also points the way toward a new school in films. The leading parts lie in the hands of Mizzi Wirth and Ludwig Trautmann, who executed their respective roles with great understanding. Especially commendable are the settings which Mr. Piel has arranged in this film.

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Another brief review from an advertisement in the May 1916 edition of the Lichtbild Bühne states somewhat enthusiastically:

This film amazes the whole world. It is not a single scene or several that are sensations, but the whole film, the subject, the environment, the acting and the direction - everything in this latest work by Harry Piel is a sensation.

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References to the film apart from the aforementioned early reviews and promotional pieces are few and far between. Phil Hardy's 1984 Science Fiction: The Complete Film Sourcebook, includes the following entry, with reference to the movie as a comedy:

Die Grosse Wette aka The Great Bet

(Bayerische Film / Fett und Wiesel; G) b/w 61 min

A comedy set in the year 2000 in the USA. The film offers a satirical look at what life among the millionaires might be in decadent 21st century America. The plot, such as it is, revolves around a wealthy businessman who gets his fortune on his ability to live with a robot for three days. The story involves a surfeit of comic domestic gadgetry in a palace filled with all the 21st century conveniences - an airline cab service, an automated, push-button library, etc. Piel, who devised the film, went on to make more Science Fiction comedies in the early thirties (Ein Unsichtbarer Geht Durch die Stadt, 1933 and Die Welt Ohne Maske, 1934) after pursuing a successful career in serials and adventure, both in Germany and France.

d/s Harry Piel lp Ludwig Trautmann, Mizzi Wirth, Harry Piel

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A blog on Die Grosse Wette was produced in 2016 by the Heinz Nixdorf Museum, Paderborn, Germany - the world's largest computer museum. An English translation of the content of that blog reads as follows:

A hundred years ago, on 8 February 1916, “Die Große Wette”, the first German film in which a robot played the leading role, was shown in a Berlin cinema. It was directed by Harry Piel, who also wrote the screenplay. The film has not survived, but photos, advertisements and historical reports give us a good picture of it. 

"Situation unchanged everywhere." - That was the headline in the Berliner Tageblatt on Tuesday, February 8, 1916. What was meant was the military situation, in this case on the front in Eastern Europe, on which German and Austro-Hungarian troops opposed to the army of the Russian tsars stood. We were in the middle of the First World War, but then as well as later in the Second, the theaters and cinemas were open and often offered an amazingly peaceful program. That day, “The Big Bet - a fantastic experience from the year 2000” started in the marble house on Berlin's Kurfürstendamm. This lasted almost 70 minutes and was produced by the Bayerische Film-Vertriebs-GmbH Munich. Director and screenwriter Harry Piel was only 23 years old, but had already made 30 films, mostly detective and adventure films. He came from Benrath, which is now part of Düsseldorf, and had been a sea cadet, apprentice and aerobatic pilot before entering the cinema business in Berlin in 1912. 

"The Big Bet" is one of the earliest German science fiction films and certainly the first with a robot. Abroad they had appeared on the screen several times. In 1897, the Frenchman Georges Méliès showed “Gugusse et l'Automate”, in which a clown meets a machine operator. The film was lost like many silent films from the pioneering days, but one which survived is The Automatic Motorist in which the Englishman Walter Booth sent into space in 1911. The tinny lumberjack from the film The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which was made in America in 1910, has also been preserved.

“The Big Bet” takes place in the New York of the future. The hero is the young and sporty George Fogg. It is played by Ludwig Trautmann, the most popular screen star of the imperial era. Victor Janson embodies his rival, the physicist Ardan. Mizzi Wirth is the heroine of the film, the sombre widow Lee Kennedy. We see her in the entrance picture on the left in front of the robot. Who is behind her is not exactly known, but it could be Harry Piel [Electroman]. The plot of the film is quickly revealed. George and Lee are meant for each other, but Ardan also desires Lee and wants to prevent their wedding. So he has a bet with Fogg, for $100,000, that he won't be able to spend three days in the house with someone Ardan sends him. Fogg strikes the deal, and receives a robot that constantly follows him. In the spectacular finale, Ardan's laboratory - from which he directed the robot and transmitted energy - burns down, the machine operator [Arden] dies, and George and Lee can marry.

Piel peppered his year 2000 drama with many futuristic elements. The protagonists do not take the car, but come in an "air torpedo". Whoever wants to read a book presses a button, and it jumps off the shelf. Piel probably found the idea of ​​wirelessly transmitted electricity in the writings of the Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla, to whom we owe our alternating current. In general, electricity in 1916 was considered the energy of the future. Piel's film was released in Austria and Switzerland under the title “The Electrician”. The cinema advertisements in the Berliner Tageblatt show that the screening of the film was extended by four days on Friday, 11 February 1916. "The Big Bet" had a very similar success in Switzerland. It was also seen by the Berlin correspondent of the New York Moving Picture World magazine, because on 1 April 1916 that paper published a positive criticism in its German Trade Notes ("An extraordinary film"). The scenes received special praise. Finally, the rental company should be quoted: "Very good material, photos, game and especially the scenery and equipment great."

Developments at the war front were completely different. On 21 February 1916 the fighting in Verdun began in France. It ended shortly before Christmas. The battles on the Somme raged from 1 July to 18 November of the year. After serious mistakes in German politics, the United States declared war on the Empire on 6 April 1917, which ultimately led to the armistice on 11 November 1918. The “German Trade Notes” had not been around for a long time. Harry Piel was undeterred by politics and continued to produce his action films that impressed young and old. When he died in Munich in 1963, there were a total of 107. He still showed robots in 1923 in "Rivals" and in 1934 on a large scale in the soundtrack "The Lord of the World". It has been online since the end of 2012, but we cannot guarantee the quality of the source. Finally, we would like to thank the picture archive of the German Film Institute Wiesbaden for sending us the still photo.

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The following description of the film was given in Rolf Giesen's 2019 book The Nosferatu Story:

Die Grosse Wette (The Great Bet, aka The Electro Man: A Fantastic Adventure of the Year 2000)

Production Company: Bayerische Film Vertriebs G.m.b.H. Fett & Wiesel.

Producers: Isidor Fett, Karl Wiesel.>

Director and Screenplay: Harry Piel.

Musical Director (Premiere): Siegbert Goldschmidt.

Cast: Ludwig Trautmann (George Fogg), Victor [Viktor] Janson (Ardan, his friend), Mizzi Wirth (Lee Kennedy), Harry Piel (The Electro Man), Adolf Suchanek, Rudolf Hilberg.>

Running time: 61 minutes

Board of Censors: December 1915

>Premiere: January 11, 1916, or February 12, 1916, Berlin, Marmorhaus

The first robot of the German film was created by Harry Piel, a director and stunt actor, Germany's proverbial "man without nerves". Piel was quite interested in animal and action films as well as pulp stories and futuristic novels. He knew the works of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells (one of his early sound films, 1933's Ein Unsichtbarer geht durch die Stadt, was inspired by Wells's The Invisible Man). And of course he knew the German writers working in this field, foremost Robert Kraft (who died in 1916) and Hans Dominik (1872-1945).

Giesen also puts the film in context with the following comment:

The Golem was forgotten but the Robot, its legitimate successor, was more in demand then ever when Lang filmed Metropolis. Harry Piel, Germany's action film idol, had already been an Electric Man as early as 1915 when he produced, directed and starred as a walking automaton in the lost Die Grosse Wette (The Big Bet) that can be termed Germany's first genuine science fiction movie, long before the term was brought up by Hugo Gernsbeck.

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The Italian MyMovies.it website contains the following scenario for Die Grosse Wette (translated):

For a bizarre bet, an extravagant American billionaire agrees to spend three days locked in his house, having only the company of a domestic robot. The adventure is studded with tragicomic episodes that put a strain on both man's patience and the efficient impassiveness of the robot. Brilliant science fiction comedy is unusual in the German cinema scene of the 1910s. The story takes place in a hypothetical American metropolis of the year 2000, dominated by a very advanced technology which, conceived to improve the living conditions of citizens, has actually generated an inhuman and alienating world. Futuristic planes and buses ply the skies and travel the streets canceling times and distances, and in the wonderful homes electronic devices ensure pleasant hours and all sorts of comfort: but man, as the experience of the protagonist seems to suggest, is not yet ready - nor does it want to be - to confront itself as an equal with the thinking machine which tends to resemble it more and more.

Die Grosse Wette, with its use of an electric robot, flying cars (taxis), palaces for the rich, and automated library is a significant production from the early, WWI era of German film making (Dirks 2020). It is possibly the earliest depiction of a robot powered by electricity, rather than the common automatons or mechanical men which were clockwork driven or sentient versions of Frankenstein's monster. It is also an obvious precursor to Metropolis, with both addressing issues of future class boundaries and the role of robots, or android artificial intelligence. It is unfortunate that the film is now lost, and that a more fulsome account of the screenplay is not available.

Posters and promotional material

Die Grosse Wette, 1916, poster, 96 x 142 cm. Source: EYE Filmmuseum, The Netherlands. Possibly an original release German poster.

Die Grosse Wette, poster, 70 x 100 cm. Artist: Fritz G. Kirchbach. Source: EYE Filmmuseum, The Netherlands. The image includes reproduction of a set of 8 black and white still photographs. This is possibly an original release German poster.

Kinematographische Rundschau, Nr. 454, Seite 16-17. Magazine advertisement.

Die Grosse Wette [newspaper advertisement], Berliner Tageblatt, 8 February 1916. Promoting the showing of the film at the Marmorhaus, Berlin.

Precursers

During 1885 American writer Luis P. Senarasins published one his his series of Frank Reade Jr. adventure stories, featuring the round-the-world travels of his Electric Man, following on the successful Steam Man series. The accompanying illustration is similar to Harry Piel’s 1915 creation, though the creation appear to be wearing a suit of armour. Whether Piel based his film on Reade's work, or some other early science fiction texts, is of course unknown.

The Electric Man, or Frank Reade Jr., in Australia, 1886.

References

Bär, Gerald, Das Motiv des Doppelgängers als Spaltungsphantasie in der Literatur und im deutschen Stummfilm, Rodopi, Amsterdam, 2005.

Bock, ans-Michael, The Concise Cinegraph: Encyclopedia of German Cinema, Berghahn Books, 2009.

Die Grosse Wette, German Trade Notes, The Moving Picture World, New York, 1 April 1916, 71. Available URL: https://archive.org/stream/movpicwor281movi#page/70/mode/2up.

-----, Filmportal.de [website], 2020. Available URL: https://www.filmportal.de/film/die-grosse-wette_7ede396c620240b593584d0810dc747f

-----, Internet Movie Database [website], 2020. Available URL: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0461239/.

-----, The German Early Cinema Database [website], entry #24196, 2020. Available URL: http://earlycinema.dch.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/films/view/24196.

Dirks, Tim, Robots in Film: A Complete Illustrated History of Robots in the Movies - Early History to 1939 [webpage], AMC Filmsite, 2020. Available URL: https://www.filmsite.org/robotsinfilm1.html.

Giesen, Rolf, The Nosferatu Story: The Seminal Horror Film, Its Predecessors and Its Enduring Legacy, McFarland & Co., New York, 2019, 153p.

Hardy, Phil, Science Fiction: The Complete Film Sourcebook, The Film Encyclopedia, Volume 2, William Morrow and Co., New York, 1984, 400p.

Lantern Wisconsin Centre for Film and Theater Research, University of Wisconsin. Database of American and foreign movie magazines and periodicals.

Wenn Der Electromensch Kommt, HNF-Blog - Yesterday's news from computer history, Heinz Nixdorf Museum, Paderborn, 8 February 2016. Available URL: https://blog.hnf.de/wenn-der-elektromensch-kommt/

Wikipedia, Die Grosse Wette [German], Wikipedia, 2020. Available URL: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_gro%C3%9Fe_Wette.

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Harry Piel, Master of the World 1934

Harry Piel's science fiction films

* Die Grosse Wette [The Big Bet], 1916.

* The Flying Car, 1920.

* Ein Unsichtbarer Geht Durch die Stadt [An Invisible Man goes through the City] 1933.

* Derr Herr Der Welt [The Master of the World] 1934.

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Acknowledgements

Compiled by Victor Mabuse and Michael Organ, with research assistance from Aitam Bar-Sagi.

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Cinema Art Films - Posters | Die Grosse Wette 1916 | Metropolis Film Archive | Pandora's Box 1929 | Royal Commission 1927 | Variety 1925

Last updated: 4 June 2023

Michael Organ

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