Hans Junkermann is Coletti, the greatest detective in Berlin. He has just captured a desperate criminal. However, notes a newspaper, he might have captured him a lot sooner, had he enlisted the general population of the city. Coletti dictates a reply to the letter, saying it is a lot easier to hide in plain sight than the paper seems to think. Here's a recent photo, and here's his bond for 100,000 marks. He will disappear the following day, and anyone who can find him can have the money.
It's quite good, with lots of quick changes, cross-dressing, dirigible-riding, and general good humor. This raises the question: is this the first comedy feature? TILLIE'S PUNCTURED ROMANCE is usually cited for that, but it came out the following year. There's little doubt this is a feature-length film. The copy I looked at was 55 minutes in length, quite long for a feature in 1913, and the IMDb lists its release length at 86 minutes. So could this be the first? Or is one of director Max Mack's nine earlier features also a comedy? Or does some movie by another director deserve the title?
It's quite good, with lots of quick changes, cross-dressing, dirigible-riding, and general good humor. This raises the question: is this the first comedy feature? TILLIE'S PUNCTURED ROMANCE is usually cited for that, but it came out the following year. There's little doubt this is a feature-length film. The copy I looked at was 55 minutes in length, quite long for a feature in 1913, and the IMDb lists its release length at 86 minutes. So could this be the first? Or is one of director Max Mack's nine earlier features also a comedy? Or does some movie by another director deserve the title?
