Punainen sulttaani

Juonikuvaukset(1)

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. (Viennale)