The count of Clermont-Tonnère’s superintendent has become the master of the castle after having assassinated its owners and given Helda, their daughter, away to a circus. Fifteen years later the count’s nephew, Henri, returns to the castle and finds out the truth. He catches up with Helda and is soon hired by the circus. They escape the wrath of the evil superintendent thanks to their circus skills and crown their dreams of love between the walls of the castle. We have not been able to find out anything about the commercial fortunes of Dodsjokeyen (Il jockey della morte) in Belgium. It was distributed by Les Films Charles Hendrickx, a company that specialised in small American action films. Its presence in this distributor’s catalogue is rather unusual considering the quality and origin of Lind’s film. With the onset of talking pictures all copies were given to travelling cinemas, which carried on showing them up to the fifties. In 1962 the Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique started buying them. The film was not only in a deplorable physical state but it also seemed to be made up, for the most part, of rejected material. Many scenes were either over or underexposed and some shots were printed out of the frame. None of this detracts from the considerable poetic power of the film, which is full of images that border on surrealism. The audacity of the photography and the light effects are striking too. The action of this Italian film, shot by a Dane, is set in France. The only concession to local colour is a French poster on the wall of the circus. We hope one day to find the original Italian intertitles.

Jean-Marie Buchet – Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique