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Cult Review
Senior Film Conservator
If you are looking for a movie with a lot of explosions or fast talking, you should probably just skip this one. But if you have a rainy afternoon and want to feel like you are on a dusty Spanish island in 1929, it is actually pretty great.
It is the kind of film you watch when you want to see what people looked like before they knew how to act for a camera perfectly. Jenny Jugo is the main reason to even click play on this.
She has this way of looking at the horizon that makes you feel like she is actually worried about the boats. It is not like the overly dramatic acting you see in Alraune und der Golem where everyone is doing too much with their hands.
The story is about smugglers, which sounds exciting, but it’s mostly just people hanging out on rocks. They look like they are actually hot in those clothes.
There is a guy, Friedrich Benfer, who plays the lead male role. He is fine, I guess, but he mostly just stands there looking stoic while the sun hits his face. ☀️
I kept thinking about how many layers of wool they were wearing in the Mallorca heat. It makes me itchy just watching them climb over the limestone cliffs.
One scene has a boat bobbing in the water for way too long. The camera is shaky, probably because they were on a real boat and the cameraman was struggling with the waves. 🌊
It feels real in a way modern movies don't. There is no green screen, just the actual Mediterranean sea looking dark and sort of scary at night.
The print I saw was pretty beat up, which honestly added to the vibe. The scratches on the film look like rain falling over the sunny beach scenes.
It reminds me a bit of the atmosphere in Morgan's Raiders, though maybe a bit more grounded. It doesn't try to be a huge epic like Beau Geste or anything.
There is this one background actor in a tavern scene who just stares directly into the lens for about three seconds. It is totally accidental and it made me laugh because it breaks the whole illusion.
The plot about the "smuggler's bride" gets a little messy toward the end. I sort of lost track of who was betraying who, but I didn't really care because the scenery was so nice.
Mallorca back then looked so empty and quiet. No tourists, just goats and rocks and people hiding illegal stuff in caves.
Jenny Jugo does this thing with her hair where it’s constantly getting in her eyes because of the sea breeze. It’s a small detail, but it makes her feel like a real person instead of a movie star.
I noticed the shadows in the indoor scenes are really deep and black. It gives the movie a bit of a spooky feeling even when nothing scary is happening.
If you liked Das törichte Herz, you will probably find this interesting too. It has that same sort of European silent era mood where everything feels a bit heavy and serious.
The ending is a bit of a letdown if I am being honest. It just sort of stops rather than finishing the story in a satisfying way.
But maybe that’s how life was back then? Just things happening and then they are over. 🤷♂️
I wouldn't call this a masterpiece or anything. It is just a nice, slightly boring, very pretty piece of history that you can zone out to.
The way the light reflects off the water in the final shots is really something though. You can almost smell the salt and the old wood of the ships.
Anyway, give it a look if you want to see Jenny Jugo before she became a massive star. Just don't expect a lot of action.
IMDb —
1925
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