|
Das Lufttorpedo
Also known as The Air Torpedo in the USA
(1913) Germany
B&W : [?] Two or Three? reels
Directed by Marcel Robert
Cast: Suzanne Grandais [Suzy Crawford]
[?] Dekage-Film and/or Deutsche Kinematographengesellschaft? production. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / The film was released in the USA as The Air Torpedo by Warner’s Features, Incorporated, in January 1914.
Drama: Action.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? At the beginning of the story Colonel Crawford has completed a device for dropping explosive shells from aeroplanes while in full flight. Requested by his government to guard the plans of the invention with his life if need be, he has installed a safe in his home in which the plans are kept. Colonel Crawford’s son is continually getting into scrapes from which he is quite often rescued by his sister, who is married to Lieutenant Gordon, an attaché of Colonel Crawford’s staff. Young Crawford has unfortunately borrowed twenty thousand dollars from one of his companions, who is a spy in disguise. Pressed for the money, the ungrateful son resolves to steal the plans of his father’s invention to settle his loan with the scoundrelly McDonald. Young Crawford executes the theft in the middle of the night in the presence of his sister, who has followed him into the room. When dawn breaks, Lieutenant Gordon finds his wife in a stupor, the safe door swinging open and every evidence that the thief has made a clean getaway. The military detectives who are called in to investigate, discover Lieutenant Gordon’s gloves on the table, and lock him up as the culprit. To save her husband. Colonel Crawford’s daughter informs her father that his son is the real thief. Unable to bear the disgrace that an exposure of the theft will bring, Colonel Crawford resolves to sacrifice his son’s life in order to regain the precious plans. Taking his seat in a hydroplane, he flies through the air and gradually overtakes the motor boat in which the conspirators are escaping. With a blinding explosion, a shell speeds downward, totally destroying the motor boat plowing through the water beneath it. Weeks after the catastrophe has occurred, the sorrowing father received a letter from his son, stating he was not on board the boat that was destroyed, having changed his plans for flight at the last minute.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung [Germany]; Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 3 January 2025.
References: Tarbox-Lost p. 207 : Website-IMDb.
|
