The Polish Jew (International) assertion single work   drama   - 3 acts
Alternative title: The Bells
Note: The Polish Jew / The Bells is included in AustLit because of Australian-written adaptations.
Issue Details: First known date: 1867... 1867 The Polish Jew
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Adapted for the English stage in 1871.

Adaptations

form y separately published work icon The Bells W. J. Lincoln , ( dir. W. J. Lincoln ) Australia : Amalgamated Pictures , 1911 Z1870248 1911 single work film/TV horror

On Christmas Eve in 1833, a happily married but impoverished inn-keeper, Mathias, murders a wealthy Jewish visitor to the inn, driven by the chance at wealth. He uses the stolen money to pay his debts and rise in local society. But, fifteen years after his crime, his guilt drives him to hallucination: believing he can hear his victim's sleighbells outside the inn, he sleeps, dreams of being tried and convicted of the murder, and dies without his family ever knowing the source of their wealth and his guilt.

Based on the nineteenth-century melodrama by French writers Erckmann-Chatrian, which had been adapted for the Australian stage by director Lincoln, the story was a popular one for early film, and was adapted again in 1935. This film (like the 1935 one) is now lost.

form y separately published work icon The Burgomeister Flames of Conscience; Hypnotised Denzil Batchelor , ( dir. Harry Southwell ) Australia : Film Players Corp , 1935 Z1870301 1935 single work film/TV horror

Like the 1911 film The Bells, The Burgomeister is an adaptation of the nineteenth-century stage melodrama by French writers Erckmann-Chatrian. An inn-keeper murders a Jewish guest for his money but, years later, his guilt forces him into hallucinations of his victim's sleighbells and a dream state in which he is tried for and convicted of the crime.

Like The Bells, The Burgomeister is a 'lost film': in the case of the latter film, the National Film and Sound Archive knows of a single extant sequence.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Last amended 5 Nov 2013 12:48:27
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