Friday, September 26, 2014
Adolph DeBerg -- Meet Judge Conscience
DeBerg, who claimed to be a film director and misrepresented himself as a field man for Universal Film Corporation, was in the lower California town of Calexico to supposedly begin shooting a Spanish talking picture titled Virgin Gold. When the film fell through, he was subsequently wanted by police for passing two bad checks totaling $100. On August 4, 1930, the body of the "director" was found beside a shock of hay in a small pasture in Calexico, the victim of a fatal dose of self-administered ant paste. A note found on his body read: "I've studied myself all over, and I'm nothing but an unmitigated scoundrel. I've given myself a final trial and Judge Conscience, who is right always, has decreed the sentence of death. I'm going to the movies again and then I'll end everything." In an added postscript to the note, DeBerg concluded: "The picture is over, and the lights are out for me."
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Adolph Deberg was what you would call today's Quentin Tarantino. He did things with a camera that no man did, or was ever supposed to do. In my mind, he was one of those directors that blossomed way too early and died way too late. He was working on a Spanish language Western titled "Virgin Gold" when he developed clinical depression. His other movies had failed and he was no longer considered Grade A material in Hollywood. So he decided to kill himself rather than face that disappointment. In his suicide note, he simply said, "I'm going to the movies again". As if he ever left. I was thinking about making the "Virgin Gold" film a reality. I was hoping to one day finish what Adolph Deberg started. But my version would be called, "Calexico" after the place in which Deberg was set to film his masterpiece. And as you might have guessed, it will be a Western. Because we need more of those, right? Here's to wishing me luck and may Adolph Deberg rest in peace.
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