Hans Albers

Brigitte Helm

Michael Bohnen

Lien Deyers

Friedrich Kayssler

Ernst Karchow

Eberhard Leithoff

Rudolf Platte

Walter Steinbeck

Heinz Wemper

Hans-Joachim Büttner

Erich Haußmann

Willi Schur

Heinz Salfner

Rudolf Biebrach

Friedrich Ettel

Ernst Behmer

Rainer Litten

Fita Benkhoff

Heinz Förster-Ludwig

Fred Goebel

Willy Kaiser-Heyl

Alfred Karen

Curt Lucas

Philipp Manning

Ferdinand Robert

Egon Stief

Elsa Wagner

Erwin Werner

Karl Hartl

Rolf E. Vanloo

Alfred Zeisler

Hans-Otto Borgmann

Otto Baecker

Werner Bohne

Günther Rittau

Wolfgang Becker

Otto Hunte

Waldemar Jabs

Gerhard Tandar

Ernesto Remani

Crime

Science Fiction

Gold

Germany

CinemaSerf

Hans Albers is really quite good in this rarely seen sci-fi story. His character "Dr. Holk" has been working on the principle of using huge amounts of electrical current to effect some startling alchemy - and he thinks he can turn lead into gold! His efforts attract the attention of British millionaire "John Mills" (Michael Bohnen) who agrees to build a magnificent underwater generator - where, low and behold, his technique of generating 7½ millions volts and zapping the lead does exactly that! Now, this is where the plot loses it's way a little... "Mills" decides to make loads and loads of gold, concluding that it would solve world poverty (rather than just reduce the value of gold to that of, well, lead...) but "Holk" goes ahead with the plans to up-scale production, though it is evident he has a plan of his own. Most English speakers will be used to folks with foreign characters speaking our tongue with an accent to indicate their origins; it is interesting here to see both "Mills" and his daughter - who has taken a bit of a shine to our scientist - "Florence" (Brigitte Helm) speaking fluent German throughout - indeed Bohnen delivers an almost Nazi-esque speech towards the end. Speaking of the ending, it's tense and the "Metropolis" (1927) style machinery comes to life to great effect. The scale of the sets gives the science a certain degree of plausibility and coupled with a strong effort from Albers makes this must see film if you like this genre.

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