This German film was distributed in Italy in one of those “weird” versions which were so common in the years of transition from silent to sound. Since technical facilities for dubbing were not available yet, Pittaluga decided to distribute the film with Italian intertitles added, and by substituting original soundtrack and dialogues with a new score; the original soundtrack had been kept only whenever it contained songs: as soon as the song ends, abruptedly the dialogues are covered by the Italian score. Unfortunately the print held by the Cineteca di Milano is the only existing, and thus the original sound is probably lost forever; fortunately, the print can still witness of the great photographic quality of the film.

“Two inspiration sources appear clearly: contemporary American gangster movies and Alfred Döblin’s novel Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929). Also Tumultes, as well as Little Caesar, is dominated by a gangster/dictator who carelessly pursues his personal desires, taking everything for himself with the strength of his body, in order to assert his power and his world, thanks to his relentless iron will: an attempt leading him to a tragic fall. The film itself states ironically that its setting, placed in the area of North Berlin, is just a small depiction of the vaster world of crime. An old friend of a Berlin boss sends him a postcard from America, where he proudly says that he is now a member of Al Capone’s gang”.

(Karl Prümm, Universeller Erzähler. Realist des Unmittelbaren, in Siodmark Bros, ed. by W. Jacobsen and H. Prinzler, Berlin, Argon, 1998)