The Burgomeister
1935 film by Harry Southwell
The Burgomeister is a 1935 Australian film directed by Harry Southwell based on the 1867 play Le juif polonais (aka The Bells) by Erckmann-Chatrian, adapted into English in 1871 by Leopold Lewis, previously filmed a number of times. The Burgomeister is considered a 'substantially lost' film, with only one sequence surviving.
Southwell had performed the play in Europe, and had previously filmed it in Belgium (1925) as Le juif polonais (The Bells). This silent film version was shown in Australia in 1928.
Cast
Harry Southwell as Mathias
Janet Ramsey Johnson as Annette
Muriel Meredith as Catherine
Lily Molloy as Sozel
Stan Tolhurst as the Polish Jew
Gabriel Toyne as Fritz
Ross Vernon as Christian
Harold Meade as Father Walter
Bertie Wright as Heinrich
Leslie Victor as Hans
Judy Eccles as Baby Annette
Paul Furness as hypnotist
James Toohey as witness
Jane Munro as Marie
Alf Scarlett
Reginald Riddell
Production
Southwell wanted to make the 1935 remake for less than £4,000. He formed a production company in April 1935 called Film Players Corporation. Among its directors were Sir John Butters, a director of Associated Newspapers, and W.J. Bradley, K.C. and society figure George Rayner.
Production began in June 1935 at Cinesound's Bondi studios. It ended in July with a cost of £10,000.
The original music score was by Isador Goodman, and costumes by Barbara Robison.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Burgomeister” is 1935 film by Harry Southwell. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Burgomeister, film and Harry, not as a finished interpretation.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7720639. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1935, 1867, 1871 and 1925.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Burgomeister” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.