In a flight over the Arctic the plane of Captain Ramper and Ipling crashes. The badly injured Ipling commits suicide, leaving Ramper to survive the next 15 years, where he is altered into a wild creature without memory. He is captured by a whaling vessel who believe he is the abominable snowman. He is sold to a circus where Tony the animal trainer tries to humanize him. There Ramper falls in love with her, while Professor Barbarzin experiments on Ramper to try to get him to return to his former physical and mental self. The experimentation on him makes Ramper only aware of the corrupt nature of modern society, leading him to return to the North.[3]
Cast
Cast adapted from Michael Pitt's book Thrills Untapped and Filmportal.de.[2]
The Strange Case of Captain Ramper was released in Berlin on October 31, 1927.[2]
It was released in the United States by First National in 1928. On the film's American release, it was re-edited, adding brief spoken prologues about a dirigible castrophe as the lead in to the film's plot.[1]
The film was believed to be lost, with only some visual material showcasing it, but the full 50 minute version under the original title "Ramper, der Tiermensch" has been uploaded to Youtube and is Public Domain due to its age.[1]
Reception
From contemporary reviews, a reviewer in Variety found the film "somewhat better than the Contemporary German pictures seen on this side during the last season or two" but that it was also "draggy" concluding that the film was "fair to middling screen fare" and suggested it needed more editing.[4]Photoplay described it simply as a "German picture with original plot. Just a bit heavy."[4]
