Az aranyember - Man of Gold

Alexander Korda (Sándor Korda), HU, 1918, Oscar Beregi Sr., Ica von Lenkeffy
⁄ 87' ⁄ HU ⁄ ST: FR - NL

The first adaptation of Mór Jókai's classic, directed by Sándor Korda, in a silent film long thought lost.

The film is a faithful adaptation of the original story, with a sophisticated exhibition that emphasises its exotic and adventurous elements. 

Ali Csorbadzsi (Gyula Szőreghy), a disgraced Turkish pasha, flees with his daughter Tímea (Margit Makay) to Komárom on a grain ship on the Danube. Tódor Krisztyán (Gábor Rajnay), a Turkish police informer, is chasing them to get his hands on their treasures. The ship is steered by Mihály Tímár (Oszkár Beregi), who falls in love with the beautiful and wild Noémi (Ica Lenkeffy) on the island of No man, which he visits on the way. After the Pasha commits suicide, he leaves his daughter in his will to the owner of the ship, the merchant Athanaz Brazovics (Jenő Horváth). The ship sinks, but Mihály Tímár still finds the fabulous treasure among the cargo. The man keeps it all for himself, so Brazovics thinks Tímea has gone completely underground. Later, Tímár marries the girl, who is kept in the servants' quarters, because he is tormented by remorse for his earlier deed. Their marriage is not a happy one, as they are both in love with someone else. Tímár often secretly visits the island of No Man, where Noémi gives birth to his child. Todor Krisztyan, who is totally depraved, finds out and tries to blackmail the couple. In the meantime, he suffers a fatal accident and, wearing Tímar's clothes, creates a good opportunity for him to use the news of his own death to withdraw from society for good. Tímár begins a new and clean life on the island with Noémi, and the widowed Tímea is able to marry her old beau, Captain Kadisa (Gusztáv Vándory).

It is the earliest of three film versions of Mór Jókai's novel. Long thought to be lost, it was nevertheless found in 1983 in the catalogue of the Bundesarchiv Filmarchiv in Koblenz, where it was listed as The Red Crescent. The film was first restored in 1995 with the support of the European Union's LUMIÈRE programme for the preservation of film heritage, and in 2018 a full 4K restoration was completed in cooperation with the Hungarian National Film Fund's Filmarchiv and Filmlabor directorates. The new version premiered at the 2018 Budapest Classic Film Marathon.