Arnold Ernst Toht is one of the three main antagonists of the 1981 film called Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark alongside Rene Belloq and Armando Morello.
Biography[]
Arnold Ernst Toht was born September 28, 1895 in Berlin, Germany. He served in the German Army during WW1 but was subsequently kicked out in 1919 after he was caught cheating in a card game. He fled to the United States shortly afterwards and settled in Chicago, Illinois. Desperate for money, he decided to work for the local Chicago Outfit. Because of his nationality, he would always be an associate. Regardless, he was still good friends with Al Capone, Armando Morello, Frankie Angelo, and Otto Schliemann, as they all understood each other’s dangerousness. In 1936, Frank Nitti sent Arnold and Otto to Nepal in order to retrieve the headpiece of Ra which was in possession of Marion Ravenwood. This staff would assist the Chicago Outfit in finding the Ark of the Covenant which could be sold on the black market for a fortune. After arriving in Nepal, Arnold and Otto hired a couple of local thugs before heading to the bar where it was located. American archaeologist Indiana Jones got there before them to the bar though he didn’t leave with the headpiece. Arnold interrogated Marion with a heated fire stoker before Indy ambushed Arnold, using his bullwhip to pull the stoker out of his hands and onto the curtains, lighting it aflame. A lengthy skirmish ensued in the burning building, with Arnold branding his hand on the superheated headpiece after it was caught in the flames. Out of sheer panic from the immense pain, Arnold dove through a window to cool his hand with the snow. Despite his fleeing, he was the only survivor between himself, Otto, and the hired thugs. In Egypt, Arnold was tasked with torturing Marion who was kidnapped by local collaborators with the Chicago Outfit. After a lengthy chase with Indiana Jones, Marion, and an Egyptian excavator named Sallah, he and the Chicago Outfit finally got ahold of the Ark of the Covenant. Indiana Jones and Marion met up with them once again off the coast of Crete. Outnumbered by the mobsters, they were tied to a post and as the ark was opened and the riches were about to be exported through the island, Arnold’s face melted at the hands of the ancient Israelite spirits.