Picture postcard with the portrait of John ESSAW. (As a wrestler) Signed. / On verso ‘To Raber on my friend... Praha 21.12.48’. Essaw is known for his participation as a movie-star in: DER HERR DES TODES (The Master of Death) (Maxim Film, Ebner & Co., Berlin, DE 1926). Regia/dir: Hans Steinhoff.

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Der Herr des Todes (The Master of Death) belongs to a series of productions made to order by one of Ufa’s subsidiaries in an attempt to fulfil the company’s contractual obligations under its ill-conceived “Parufamet-Agreement” with Paramount and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer of December 1925 (forcing the Germans to produce a minimum of 40 German films in order to be able to import at least 20 pictures from each of the two Hollywood majors) and another, separate deal with Carl Laemmle (under which Ufa agreed to present 50 Universal productions in their cinemas in return for a loan of $ 275.000). Steinhoff (who appears to have taken on the project at short notice) was no newcomer to Maxim Film, Ebner & Co., having previously worked on two scripts for the company, Die Fledermaus (Max Mack, 1922) and Der Mann im Sattel (Manfred Noa, 1925). Based on a novel by Karl Rosner. Image disp.