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The Strange Case of Captain Ramper

1927 film by Max Reichmann

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ21869849 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Strange Case of Captain Ramper (German: Ramper, der Tiermensch), released in the UK as In the Path of Peril, is a 1927 German silent film directed by Max Reichmann and starring Paul Wegener and Mary Johnson. It was produced by Defu Company of Berlin, an American production unit associated with First National Pictures, Inc. The rights to the film were acquired by First National Pictures in 1928 for copyright and distribution.

Plot

Captain Ramper and his mechanic Charles Ipling set out on a daring flight to conquer the North Pole. Their aircraft is last seen over the furthest outposts of civilization before vanishing without a trace.

The pair crash-land in the frozen wilds of northern Greenland, their plane shattered and unusable. There, they discover the abandoned depot of an earlier expedition. Sustained by its remaining provisions, the two men endure brutal winters. But time stretches on, and hope fades. Ipling succumbs and dies; Ramper, shattered by isolation and grief, loses his mind.

Editorial summary

“The Strange Case of Captain Ramper” enters the record as 1927 film by Max Reichmann. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Strange, Case and Captain can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1927, 1928—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1927-10-31. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Strange, Case and Captain.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“The Strange Case of Captain Ramper” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Strange, Case and Captain provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q21869849. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1927 and 1928.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Strange Case of Captain Ramper”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Strange Case of Captain Ramper primary sources, The Strange Case of Captain Ramper archive and Strange research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Strange Case of Captain Ramper”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Strange Case of Captain Ramper” 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.