The German short "Accident," a.k.a. "Uberfall" or "Assault," is a Emo Metzner-directed 20-minute short that follows a man who picks up a counterfeit coin he spots lying in a roadside gutter. The viewer instantly knows this coin is bad luck since the previous man who had scooped it up had just died hit by a car. With the coin, its new owner wins at dice and leaves the premise with a handful of money. An observer who sees him pocket the money follows him. The coin holder is shanghaied by an aggressive hooker, who leads him into her den with her pimp there acting as an enforcer. Things get sticky for the owner of the coin as the pimp wants to roll him, forcing the man to defend himself both from the thug inside as well as the waiting bandit outside the door.
"Accident" was the most important work for its director, Emo Metzner. As a production set designer for Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Ernst Lubitsch, Robert Wiene and other European directors for many years, Metzner copied Pabst's artistic style. "Accident" is noted for its realistic, bleak examination of street life in Germany during the 1920s, placing the short film into the category of the 'New Objective' movement identified with Pabst. So dour but convincingly graphic was the portrayal of German street life in the economically-depressed country seen in "Accident," German film censors banned Metzner's movie from public showings in 1928, claiming it had a "brutalizing and demoralizing effect."
Metzner eventually relocated to England when Adolf Hitler took over the German government in the early 1930s. He continued to ply his art and set design skills for a number of United Kingdom film studios well into the late 1940s.
"Accident" was the most important work for its director, Emo Metzner. As a production set designer for Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Ernst Lubitsch, Robert Wiene and other European directors for many years, Metzner copied Pabst's artistic style. "Accident" is noted for its realistic, bleak examination of street life in Germany during the 1920s, placing the short film into the category of the 'New Objective' movement identified with Pabst. So dour but convincingly graphic was the portrayal of German street life in the economically-depressed country seen in "Accident," German film censors banned Metzner's movie from public showings in 1928, claiming it had a "brutalizing and demoralizing effect."
Metzner eventually relocated to England when Adolf Hitler took over the German government in the early 1930s. He continued to ply his art and set design skills for a number of United Kingdom film studios well into the late 1940s.