German director and actor Luis Trenker, whose films The Kaiser from California and The Prodigal Son were included in William K. Everson's January presentation, began his acting career in the mountain films of Arnold Fanck (Fanck's The White Hell of Pitz Palu screens August 24) and went on to direct many of his own exquisitely photographed mountain adventures. In The Rebel, he portrays a Tyrolean who leads his fellow mountain people in espionage and battle against the invading Napoleon. Tonight's showing represents the U.S. premiere of the German version of The Rebel, a Universal German production that was also released in an edited American version co-starring Vilma Banky in the role here played by Luise Ulrich. An English synopsis will be provided for the unsubtitled film, which is nevertheless easy to follow (Variety's 1933 review noted, “It would have made a big silent film in the quiet days. The dialogue hurts”).
William K. Everson writes: “Apart from being one of his best films, The Rebel is also one of Trenker's most typical, filmed with his usual crew of mountain cinematographers, and with a magnificent score by Becce (The Blue Light, Extase) that works on an emotional level as well as lending excitement to the mountain thrills.... While there's never anything faked about Trenker's mountain footage...realism for its own sake was never an essential part of his work.... There's an operatic quality to all of the Trenker films.”