This Hungarian film was originally released in two parts; I saw both parts (in separate screenings) in July 1996 at the Cinema Ritrovato festival in Bologna; they screened prints with Dutch intertitles, on loan from the Nederlands Filmmuseum. Each half had a running time of 75 minutes, but there's a slight overlap of footage between the two release prints, and some now-read-on material in the second half: allowing for these, the total running time is still well over two hours.
In the first half: Eva (Melitta Mea), the orphaned heiress of a noble family, has been raised in a convent while the mines which constitute her family's fortune have been administered by Rudolf (Kató Dömötör), her tutor. It's blindingly obvious that Rudolf can't be trusted. Sure enough: as soon as Eva attains legal age and is prepared to claim her title to the mines, Rudolf tries to provoke the miners into a rebellion by sabotaging their work conditions and making it seem that this is Eva's fault.
Meanwhile, Eva has met the leader of the miners: Jora (Emil Fenyö), a mysterious man who seems to possess psychic abilities. Get this, now: Jora claims to have spent his entire life in the mines, where he was (he says) raised by a witch.
The miners attempt to kill Eva, and there are some exciting scenes of a conflagration as Jora rushes to save her ... but then Rudolf frames Jora as a criminal, and has him put into prison. End Part One.
Still with us? In the second half, Eva gets Jora out of chokey, but he is betrayed by an exotic temptress and he must flee the country. (Why doesn't he just go live in the mine again?) Eva suspects that Jora is of noble birth, and she tries to determine his origins. Rudolf pays a stranger, clearly identified in the title cards as an 'Italian' (played by Karoly Latjthay), to destroy all records of Jora's origin. However, the Italian sells the information to Robertson (Emil Fennoy), an English detective in Eva's employ.
Ouch! To say that this movie isn't logical would be unfair, since it's quite similar in spirit to 'The Exploits of Elaine' and several other American cliffhanger serials which frankly aren't very logical either. However, this Hungarian movie is harmed by the fact that there seem to be supernatural elements in the plot line, but we can never be certain just how much of the foofaraw is genuinely supernatural and how much can be explained otherwise.
One thing which profoundly annoyed me is the elitist assumption at the centre of this movie: Jora seems to be more refined, more intelligent, more noble (in the figurative sense) than other men, so the blue-blooded Eva snobbishly assumes that Jora must be of noble birth in the literal sense ... and of course she's right. I'll rate this goulash 3 out of 10.
In the first half: Eva (Melitta Mea), the orphaned heiress of a noble family, has been raised in a convent while the mines which constitute her family's fortune have been administered by Rudolf (Kató Dömötör), her tutor. It's blindingly obvious that Rudolf can't be trusted. Sure enough: as soon as Eva attains legal age and is prepared to claim her title to the mines, Rudolf tries to provoke the miners into a rebellion by sabotaging their work conditions and making it seem that this is Eva's fault.
Meanwhile, Eva has met the leader of the miners: Jora (Emil Fenyö), a mysterious man who seems to possess psychic abilities. Get this, now: Jora claims to have spent his entire life in the mines, where he was (he says) raised by a witch.
The miners attempt to kill Eva, and there are some exciting scenes of a conflagration as Jora rushes to save her ... but then Rudolf frames Jora as a criminal, and has him put into prison. End Part One.
Still with us? In the second half, Eva gets Jora out of chokey, but he is betrayed by an exotic temptress and he must flee the country. (Why doesn't he just go live in the mine again?) Eva suspects that Jora is of noble birth, and she tries to determine his origins. Rudolf pays a stranger, clearly identified in the title cards as an 'Italian' (played by Karoly Latjthay), to destroy all records of Jora's origin. However, the Italian sells the information to Robertson (Emil Fennoy), an English detective in Eva's employ.
Ouch! To say that this movie isn't logical would be unfair, since it's quite similar in spirit to 'The Exploits of Elaine' and several other American cliffhanger serials which frankly aren't very logical either. However, this Hungarian movie is harmed by the fact that there seem to be supernatural elements in the plot line, but we can never be certain just how much of the foofaraw is genuinely supernatural and how much can be explained otherwise.
One thing which profoundly annoyed me is the elitist assumption at the centre of this movie: Jora seems to be more refined, more intelligent, more noble (in the figurative sense) than other men, so the blue-blooded Eva snobbishly assumes that Jora must be of noble birth in the literal sense ... and of course she's right. I'll rate this goulash 3 out of 10.
