German postcard by Verlag Hans Dursthoff, Berlin, no. 1639. Photo: Ufa. Paul Heidemann in Der behexte Neptun / The Bewitched Neptune (Willi Achsel, 1925).
German postcard by Verlag Hans Dursthoff, Berlin, no. 1643. Photo: Ufa. Paul Heidemann and Harry Grunwald in Der behexte Neptun / The Bewitched Neptune (Willy Achsel, 1925).
A dream filled with grotesque special effects
Ulrich Dircks (Paul Heidemann) is a young sports patron. He has made it his mission to dedicate his inherited fortune to the public good through sports foundations, and is therefore a member of many sports clubs.
Unfortunately, he has inherited not only money but also, due to an accident as a child, a pathological fear of water. Ulrich falls in love with none other than Vicky (Erra Bognar), a passionate water sports enthusiast and swimmer.
He tries to hide his fear of water from her, unaware that Vicky has long known about his weakness. Whoever succeeds in freeing Ulrich from his fear of water stands to win a prize of 20,000 gold marks. Thus, various parties attempt to cure him. Since Vicky wants to use the money to save her father Janssen’s (Wilhelm Kaiser-Heyl) struggling boat yard, she starts the therapy from scratch: first with a swimming festival, then with a paddling festival.
This is followed by a race in a four-person Canadian canoe and a skill race (blind paddling), in which Vicky puts Ulrich in a kayak and steers him, paddling alone, right into the middle of the crowd of paddlers, as well as a ride in an amphibious vehicle, which is presented to Ulrich as a car but quickly turns out to be a motorboat with wheels.
To keep from losing his beloved, Ulrich practices rowing and sailing on dry land. Through a dream filled with grotesque and special-effects sequences—in which Ulrich finds Vicky in the water among monsters and mermaids—he is healed and emerges “as the winner of the sailing regatta'.
German postcard by Verlag Hans Dursthoff, Berlin, no. 1640: Photo: Ufa. Paul Heidemann in Der behexte Neptun / The Bewitched Neptune (Willy Achsel, 1925). The man in the middle, seen on the back, is Heidemann, visiting a training centre.
German postcard by Verlag Hans Dursthoff, Berlin, no. 1641. Photo: Ufa. Scene from Der behexte Neptun / The Bewitched Neptune (Willy Achsel, 1925).
A promotional tool for water sports
Paul Heidemann stars in Der behexte Neptun / The Bewitched Neptune (Willy Achsel, 1925) as a sports maecenas, Ulrick Dircks. The film was one of the comedian's Paulchen series, and its alternative title was therefore Paulchen als Sportsmann.
Other cast members included Julius Falkenstein as the financial operator Ganewsky, Harry Grunwald as Ulrich’s uncle Timotheus (known as Tim), and Erik Haffner as Rüstig, the chairman of a water sports association.
The sports footage was filmed and edited specifically by a sports advisory board. This is how the sailing scenes were created during the German Sailing Federation’s 1924 autumn regatta on Lake Tegel (Berlin). The 160 boats needed for the parade were transported by tugboats provided by Ufa and barges from clubs on the Spree and Havel to the grandstand near Tegelort.
Scenes with rowers were also shot, but they did not turn out well. That is why paddlers and sailors, but no rowers, appear in the film. The whole film was clearly intended as a promotional tool for water sports at large.
The sets were designed by Robert A. Dietrich. The German Film Censorship Board reviewed the film on 7 March 1925, and it premiered on 13 March 1925 at the Berlin Tauentzienpalast. Der behexte Neptun / The Bewitched Neptune (Willy Achsel, 1925) is now considered lost.
German postcard by Verlag Hans Dursthoff, Berlin, no. 1646: Photo: Ufa. Julius Falkenstein in Der behexte Neptun / The Bewitched Neptune (Willy Achsel, 1925).
German postcard by Verlag Hans Dursthoff, no. 1647 Photo: Ufa. Scene from Der behexte Neptun / The Bewitched Neptune (Willy Achsel, 1925).
Sources: Faltboot (German), Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.
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