Legend of William Tell

The title tells all in the German-made Legend of William Tell. Hans Marr is at his most nobly heroic as the title character, the 13th-century Swiss huntsman-patriot who defied the despotic dictatorship of Herr Gessler (Conrad Veidt). The famous scene wherein Tell is forced to shoot an apple off his son's head rather surprisingly comes in the middle of the picture. The climax consists of the hero's escape from Gessler's dungeon and his subsequent victory over his enemies. Within a few years, anti-dictator films would be on German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels' no-no list, and Conrad Veidt would be plying his villainy in American films.