The Vice of Humanity
{{Short description|1927 film}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Infobox film
|name = The Vice of Humanity
|image = Laster der Menschheit (1927) poster.jpg
|caption = Austrian film poster
|native_name = {{Infobox name module|de|Laster der Menschheit}}
|director = Rudolf Meinert
|writer = Leo Birinski
|starring = {{ubl|Asta Nielsen|Werner Krauss|Alfred Abel|Charles Willy Kayser}}
|music = Willy Schmidt-Gentner
|cinematography = Ludwig Lippert
|studio = International Film-AG
|distributor = International Film-AG
|released = {{Film date|1927|4|5|df=yes}}
|runtime =
|country = Germany
|language = Silent
German intertitles
}}
The Vice of Humanity (German: Laster der Menschheit) is a 1927 German silent drama film directed by Rudolf Meinert and starring Asta Nielsen, Werner Krauss and Alfred Abel.{{cite book|editor-link1=Hans-Michael Bock|editor-last1=Bock|editor-first1=Hans-Michael|editor-last2=Bergfelder|editor-first2=Tim|title=The Concise Cinegraph: Encyclopaedia of German Cinema|publisher=Berghahn Books|year=2009|location=New York|page=2|isbn=1571816550|jstor=j.ctt1x76dm6}} It premiered at the Marmorhaus in Berlin.
Plot
Opera singer Tamara is heavily addicted to cocaine. Her manager Mangol, who also acts as their coke supplier, goes in and out of her house and uses it as his drug transshipment point. Due to her addiction, Tamara has now lost both her husband and her daughter, who is growing up with her ex-husband. In order to spare his daughter's greater suffering, Mangol tells them both that their mother had died. When her daughter sits in the audience for one evening, she becomes a great admirer of Tamara's singing skills.
For Mangol, the young girl is nothing more than another potential customer whom he wants addicted to cocaine, but Tamara is on guard, and won't let it happen. Tamara decides to snatch her daughter from the dirty hands of the dealer and put her back in the safe hands of her ex-husband. Tamara sees no hope and commits an act of desperation. She snatches her daughter while Mangol is strangled by one of his junkie customers.
Cast
- Asta Nielsen as Tamara
- Werner Krauss as cocainist
- Alfred Abel as Mangol
- Charles Willy Kayser
- Elizza La Porta
- Trude Hesterberg
- Maria Forescu
- Carla Meissner
- Sybille Lerchenfeld as Countess
- Ekkehard Arendt
- Eberhard Leithoff
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb title|0018082}}
{{Rudolf Meinert}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vice of Humanity, The}}
Category:Films of the Weimar Republic
Category:German silent feature films
Category:Films directed by Rudolf Meinert
Category:German black-and-white films
Category:Silent German drama films
Category:Films scored by Willy Schmidt-Gentner
{{1920s-Germany-silent-drama-film-stub}}