Land without women

Poster by Paul Colin

A 1929 German film with the title "Das Land Ohne Frauen," with Conrad Veidt in the title role, was released the following year to audiences also in French, American and British cinemas, with the following titles respectively: "Terre sans femmes," "Bride 68," and "Land without women".

The plot was rather ingenious for its time. Conrad Veidt plays an Australian gold town's telegrapher who is among the 413 men who have ordered a bride from England. The shipload of women arrives, but, alas, the one intended for Veidt had died on the voyage and he is left without a bride. He promptly falls in love with No. 68, the one next to his intended bride, who was to have gotten a dirty gold prospector whom she despises.

The telegrapher gets the message that the prospector is in trouble in the desert. He has found gold but is out of water and needs urgent help. Veidt does not relay the message but sets out for the indicated place himself, hoping the prospector will be dead and the gold - and number 68 - his. But, cruel fate, it is Veidt who dies and the prospector who survives.

And No. 68? She has ran off with a doctor! Ah, women!