The Prussian Cur (lost silent World War I anti-German propaganda film; 1918)
Surviving still depicting the Crucified Canadian
Status: Lost
Tags: silent film WWI
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The Prussian Cur is a lost film from 1918, it was produced by Fox in 1918 as anti-German propaganda following America's entry into the First World War. It was similar to other contemporary war films such as "Hearts of the World", and "The Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin" (now also lost).
It was directed by prolific silent film director Raoul Walsh, and starred famed actress Miriam Cooper (Walsh's wife).
The film depicts a war-hungry Kaiser Wilhelm unleashing waves of submarine attacks in Atlantic which devastate shipping and culminates in the sinking of the Lusitania. Meanwhile German spies in America work to sabotage railways and factories, and support a fifth-column of German sympathetic Americans to stir up civil unrest. In the end, the film's hero Dick Gregory, played by Sidney Mason, flushes out the spies and leads a group of patriots against the German subversion. Supported by the homefront victory, American soldiers flood into Europe, freeing the continent as the Kaiser's plans crumble around him and he dies.
The film is perhaps best remembered for depicting the story of the Crucified Canadian, a popular piece of atrocity propaganda during the war, regarding the purported 'crucifixion' of a Canadian soldier against a barn using bayonets by German soldiers. While some historical evidence has come to light that substantiates the story, it's veracity is debatable, though belief in it was fervent enough at the time that British sculptor Francis Derwent Wood created a bronze statue depicting the event.
The film was considered exploitational and jingoistic, even for the time. Both Walsh and Cooper disowned the film and expressed regret over participating in it's production.
Several film stills and pieces of advertising materials have survived but no copy of the film is known to exist. The only existing copies may have been destroyed in the 1937 Fox vault fire in Little Ferry, New Jersey where many of Fox's early silent films, including The Prussian Cur, were filmed.