The Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin (lost film 1918)

The Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin is a lost 1918 film that was produced by, directed by, written by, and stars the actor Rupert Julian in the title role of the Kaiser Wilhelm ll.

Plot Description
The film depicts the life of Kaiser Wilhelm ll from the moment of his coronation in the late 1880s to, as depicted in the film itself, the Kaiser's imprisonment in a dungeon by the Allies after the war. In actual fact, Wilhelm was not imprisoned, because it was felt that to put him on trial could damage the peace process after the war, and he was allowed to go and live in Sweden after he had abdicated his throne. Not much else is currenly known about the plot, other than that the film was intended as a propaganda piece and was an immediate hit.

The film also depicts the atrocities committed under the Kaiser's rule, including the killing of women and the forced drafting of men to serve as soldiers in the Great War, all of which were well-depicted in Mr. Julian's script for the film, which, sadly, also appears to have been lost. In the film's ending, in which the Kaiser was imprisoned in a dungeon as mentioned above, his jailer is the very blacksmith (played by Elmo Lincoln) who has lost his family to both conscription and the Kaiser's atrocities.