User reviews

This little known movie is one of the best sci-fi movies made in the 1930's. Hans Albers is well cast as the lead. The female lead also is well chosen. Brigitte Helm (METROPOLIS), here in one of her last screen-roles, plays the femme fatale. The film tells the story of two scientist, who have discovered a way to make gold from lead. It"s achieved by using radioactivity. The experiment gets sabotaged by an unscrupulous tycoon, who likes to cash in on this discovery. One of the scientists (Friedrich Kayssler) dies when the lab explodes, the other one (Hans Albers), after recovering from his injuries, tries to find the saboteur. He very soon gets hired by the very person, and he pretends to play along with the tycoon's (Michael Bohnen) plans. The tycoon's daughter (Brigitte Helm) helps the hero, and of course, there will be a happy ending. The sets are breathtaking (for its time) and look very real- so real in fact, that during WWII the Americans confiscated a copy of this movie to find out how advanced the Germans use of radioactivity really was. For fans of this genre, this is a must.

Hans Albers stars as Werner Holk, an engineer who is working with Professor Achenbach (Friedrich Kabler) on a machine that will turn lead into gold. When an "accident" occurs that costs the Professor his life, Holk swears vengeance, and determines that the mastermind behind the sabotage was Scottish millionaire John Wills (Michael Bohnen), who has his own rival group working on the same machine. Wills actually hires Holk on to help make his machine a success, and while at first Holk is determined to destroy Wills' effort from within, when Holk meets Wills' daughter Florence (Brigitte Helm) he begins to second guess his mission. Also featuring Ernst Karchow, Lien Deyers, and Eberhard Leithoff.

This was one of UFA's biggest productions, and no expense was spared constructing the vast set containing the alchemical machine. Footage of the apparatus was later reused in The Magnetic Monster (1953). Despite the spectacle, this movie is at heart a drama about revenge, a rumination on science run amok, and a low-key if effective romance. Albers, an actor I was largely unfamiliar with, is very good. He was Germany's biggest star from 1930-1945, and is often referred to as "Germany's John Wayne". He wasn't a Nazi and never a sympathizer with their cause, but he was embraced by the regime, and when the war ended his career basically went with it, although he later had several smaller, character parts. Brigitte Helm, most famous for Metropolis, is also good as the rich man's daughter who has everything but love in her life.

Science fiction from the early Nazi era. Film production had been turned over to the Nazis in 1933 and all Jews and foreigners had been barred from the industry. There isn't much propaganda in this particular film, although the villain is a Brit. The British in general aren't depicted as terrible except for the villain. Hans Albers stars as a scientist who, along with his partner, has nearly perfected atomic alchemy, the ability to turn lead into gold. Their experiment goes suspiciously wrong, and Albers ends up barely alive. His partner isn't as lucky. After Albers recovers, a British billionaire (Michael Bohnen) offers him the opportunity to repeat the experiment in England, and Albers immediately suspects him of involvement in the original accident. In England, he meets and nearly falls in love with Bohnen's daughter (Metropolis' Brigitte Helm), which distracts him from his own German wife (Lien Deyers). This is more a slow burning drama than hard sci-fi, but there are big, electrical, Frankenstein-esque machines (Frankenstein having already been made, obviously). It's a decent film with a very good lead performance, some good cinematography and a good climax. Helm is probably the main point of interest for many, and it is nice to hear her speak. She's probably in it less than ten minutes, though.

Hans Albers is really quite good in this rarely seen sci-fi story. His character "Dr. Holk" has been working on the principle of using huge amounts of electrical current to effect some startling alchemy - and he thinks he can turn lead into gold! His efforts attract the attention of British millionaire "John Mills" (Michael Bohnen) who agrees to build a magnificent underwater generator - where, low and behold, his technique of generating 7½ millions volts and zapping the lead does exactly that! Now, this is where the plot loses it's way a little... "Mills" decides to make loads and loads of gold, concluding that it would solve world poverty (rather than just reduce the value of gold to that of, well, lead...) but "Holk" goes ahead with the plans to up-scale production, though it is evident he has a plan of his own. Most English speakers will be used to folks with foreign characters speaking our tongue with an accent to indicate their origins; it is interesting here to see both "Mills" and his daughter - who has taken a bit of a shine to our scientist - "Florence" (Brigitte Helm) speaking fluent German throughout - indeed Bohnen delivers an almost Nazi-esque speech towards the end. Speaking of the ending, it's tense and the "Metropolis" (1927) style machinery comes to life to great effect. The scale of the sets gives the science a certain degree of plausibility and coupled with a strong effort from Albers makes this must see film if you like this genre.