Abdul the Damned

Abdul the Damned (also known as Abdul Hamid) is a 1935 British drama film directed by Karl Grune and starring Fritz Kortner, Nils Asther and John Stuart.^[2] It was made at the British International Pictures studios by Alliance-Capitol Productions. It is set in the Ottoman Empire in the years before the First World War, during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II and the constitutionalist Young Turks who dethroned him.

Abdul the Damned
Directed by	Karl Grune
Written by	Robert Neumann Ashley Dukes Roger Burford Warren Chetham-Strode Emeric Pressburger Curt Siodmak
Produced by	Max Schach
Starring	Fritz Kortner Nils Asther John Stuart Adrienne Ames
Cinematography	Otto Kanturek
Edited by	A.C. Hammond Walter Stokvis
Music by	Hanns Eisler
Production company	Alliance-Capital Productions
Distributed by	Wardour Films (UK) Columbia Pictures (US)
Release dates	23 September 1935 (1935-09-23) (United Kingdom) 10 May 1936 (1936-05-10) (United States)
Running time	111 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	£50,000[1]

Plot

Cast

Fritz Kortner as Abdul Hamid II

• Fritz Kortner as Sultan Abdul Hamid II / Kelar
• Nils Asther as Chief of Police Kadar-Pasha
• John Stuart as Captain Talak-Bey
• Adrienne Ames as Therese Alder
• Esme Percy as Ali - Chief Eunuch
• Walter Rilla as Hassan-Bey
• Charles Carson as General Hilmi-Pasha
• Patric Knowles as Omar - Hilmi's Attache
• Eric Portman as Conspirator
• Clifford Heatherley as Court Doctor
• Henry B. Longhurst as General of the Bodyguards
• Annie Esmond as Therese's Train Companion
• Harold Saxon-Snell as Chief Interrogator
• George Zucco as Officer of the Firing Squad
• Robert Naylor as Opera Singer
• Warren Jenkins as Young Turk Singer
• Henry Peterson as Spy
• Arthur Hardy as Ambassador

Production

Schach borrowed £15,000 from Westminster Bank to make the film.^[3]

Critical reception

The New York Times wrote, "Although the film achieves a few moments of dramatic interest—chiefly through the performance of the Continental Fritz Kortner—it is in the main a tedious and uninspired biography, scarred by hypodermic injections of stale melodrama";^[4] whereas Film Weekly found it "magnificently acted by Fritz Kortner. Interesting, impressive and, for the most part, gripping entertainment."^[5]