The Strange Case of Captain Ramper

The Strange Case of Captain Ramper (German: Ramper, der Tiermensch) is a 1927 German silent film directed by Max Reichmann and starring Paul Wegener and Mary Johnson.

The Strange Case of Captain Ramper
Directed by	Max Reichmann
Screenplay by	Curt Johannes Braun Paul Wegener[1]
Based on	Ramper by Max Mohr
Starring	Paul Wegener Mary Johnson
Cinematography	Friedrich Weinmann Herbert Körner[2]
Music by	Walter Ulfig[2]
Production company	Deutsche Film-Union AG[2]
Release date	31 October 1927 (1927-10-31) (Berlin)
Country	Germany[2]
Language	Silent

Plot

In a flight over the Arctic the plane of Captain Ramper and Ipling crashes. The badly injured Ipling commits suicide, leaving Ramper to survive the next 15 years, where he is altered into a wild creature without memory. He is captured by a whaling vessel who believe he is the abominable snowman. He is sold to a circus where Tony the animal trainer tries to humanize him. There Ramper falls in love with her, while Professor Barbarzin experiments on Ramper to try to get him to return to his former physical and mental self. The experimentation on him makes Ramper only aware of the corrupt nature of modern society, leading him to return to the North.^[3]

Cast

Cast adapted from Michael Pitt's book Thrills Untapped and Filmportal.de.^[2]

• Paul Wegener as Kapitän Ramper
• Camillo Kossuth as Charles Ipling
• Kurt Gerron as Chocolat
• Mary Johnson as Tony
• Hugo Döblin as Doktor
• Georg Guertler as Freddy
• Max Schreck as The Thin One^[1]
• Hermann Vallentin as Barbazin
• Raimondo van Riel as The Captain^[1]

Production

The Strange Case of Captain Ramper was based on the play Ramper play by Max Mohr.^[1] The film's sets were designed by the art director Leopold Blonder.^[2]

Release

The Strange Case of Captain Ramper was released in Berlin on October 31, 1927.^[2]

It was released in the United States by First National in 1928. On the film's American release, it was re-edited, adding brief spoken prologues about a dirigible castrophe as the lead in to the film's plot.^[1]

The film was believed to be lost, with only some visual material showcasing it, but the full 50 minute version under the original title "Ramper, der Tiermensch" has been uploaded to Youtube and is Public Domain due to its age.^[1]

Reception

From contemporary reviews, a reviewer in Variety found the film "somewhat better than the Contemporary German pictures seen on this side during the last season or two" but that it was also "draggy" concluding that the film was "fair to middling screen fare" and suggested it needed more editing.^[4] Photoplay described it simply as a "German picture with original plot. Just a bit heavy."^[4]