Gold

Gold (1934), a German sci-fi drama produced under the direction of Nazi propaganda leader Josef Goebbels, uses the premise of an experimental alchemical process that turns lead into gold to explore the evils of greed and power brought on by capitalism. Hans Albers stars as Dr. Werner Holk, an ethical German scientist who survives a lab explosion that kills his mentor. The equipment was sabotaged by Scottish industrialist John Wills (Michael Bohnen), who hires Holk to work on a parallel experiment (with plans stolen from Germany) in his lab built in an enormous mineshaft carved out beneath the ocean floor. Brigitte Helm costars as Wills's daughter, a captivating woman who has little respect for her rapacious, emotionally chilly father. Art director Otto Hunte and cinematographer Günther Rittau, who worked on Metropolis and other Fritz Lang silent classics, here create a giant electrical reactor in an underground laboratory, giving Gold a large sense of scale and spectacle. Director Karl Hartl explores themes with a nationalistic perspective, as the moral German Holk protects the interests of the common man against the destructive greed of the Scottish Wills. Of more historic interest as a rare example of sci-fi under the Nazis than as a compelling drama, this is a strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)