Gold
This film dramatizes the conflict between scientific idealism and corporate greed while reflecting the cultural anxieties and subtle condemnation of English and American culture present in films made under the Third Reich.
Directed by Karl Hartl (1934)
German; English Subtitles. 117 minutes.
A rare science-fiction film made in National Socialist Germany, Gold follows idealistic scientist Werner Holk as he attempts to transform lead into gold using atomic fracturing. After sabotage kills his mentor, Holk accepts the backing of ruthless industrialist John Wills, whose interest in the technology is purely financial. Convinced Wills orchestrated the sabotage, Holk secretly plots revenge while working in Wills’s vast underwater laboratory in Scotland, aided by Wills’s rebellious daughter Florence.
Blending high-tech spectacle, corporate espionage, romance, and themes reminiscent of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927), Gold dramatizes the conflict between scientific idealism and corporate greed while reflecting the cultural anxieties and subtle condemnation of English and American culture present in films made under the Third Reich.