Essays & reviews about the classic (mostly black and white) era of film and TV. Especially Silents, Horror, Sci-Fi, Film Noirs, Cartoons, Dada & Experimental Films. Member of the Classic Movie Blog Association (CMBA).
The Corona pandemic has thus far killed dozens of musicians including Toots Hibbert, John Prine, Ellis Marsalis, Lee Kontiz, Bucky Pizzarelli, Trini Lopez, Dave Greenfield of the Stranglers, Allan Merril of the Arrows, Adam Schlesinger of Fountains Of Wayne, and actor Alan Garfield. Along with a million other deaths worldwide (so far).
The 1918-19 Spanish Flu pandemic killed somewhere between 17-50 million people, most of whom would remain forever unknown but there were a few noteworthy actors & filmmakers.
ACTORS & FILM MAKERS;
Gaby Deslys - A French stage & film actress, dancer & singer who was famous as a scandalous stage star in Paris, London & New York in the 1910's. She was considered a sex symbol who caused her male fans to brawl for her favours, carried on an affair with the King of Portugal and carried on fueds with critics than included a lawsuit against one and threats to have another horsewhipped. She made a few recordings and five films (all now lost) before dying of the flu. Her fame suggests she certainly would have made more films if she had lived but at the time of her death she was 38 and probably would not have been a film sex symbol in the Jazz Age, although her stage career would have been secure.
GABY DESLYS
GABY DANCING (1916)
Vera Kholodana - A major star of Russian films who made dozens of films (unclear how many) of which only eight survive, speciallizing in romantic and historic melodramas. After the Russian Revolution she remained in Russia and was still working when she died aged only 25 with a future in Soviet films assured.
VERA KHOLODANA
"THE LAST TANGO" (1918) ~ Starring Vera Kholanda;
VERA'S FUNERAL;
Gilda Langer - A young German film actress who in her short career managed to work with actor Conrad Veidt, and directors Fritz Lang, Paul Leni and Robert Wiene who had just cast her as the lead role as the damsel in distress in his next film "The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari" a soon-to-be horror classic when she died suddenly aged only 23.
GILDA LANGER
Myrtle Gonzalez - An American actress of Mexican-American background, Gonzalez made over 70 films in only 4 years (most of which were likely shorts) including several with actor/director William Desmond Taylor and a six part serial. Her trademark was a spunky girl-next-door type in westerns and outdoor adventure films. Ironically in spite of her tomboy image her health was poor and after marrying in 1917 she retired at least temporarily which turned out to be permanant when she died aged only 27.
MYRTLE GONZALEZ
"THE KISS" (1914) Starring Myrtle Gonzalez
Tessie Harron - The younger sister of actor Robert Harron, both members of DW Giffith's stable, Tessie had also appeared in a small role in a Griffith film "Hearts Of The World" (1918) but may have appeared as an extra in others. Griffith was pleased enough with her performance to sign her up for future roles but before she had the chance to make any more films she died aged only 22.
TESSIE HARRON
Corinne Gray - An American model who appeared in the notoriously graphic 1919 film about the Armenian Genocide "Ravished Armenia" (AKA "Auction Of Souls"). She reportedly caught the virus during filming of the final scene and died soon afterwards, this was her only film credit and nothing else is known about her although she may have appeared as an extra in others.
"RAVISHED ARMENIA"
Harold Lockwood - A major American leading man of the 1910's, he started out in Vaudeville before appearing in a number of films of various types including major films like DW Griffith's "Intolerance", "Tess Of The Storm Country" (with Mary Pickford) and "The Avenging Trail" when he died aged 31.
HAROLD LOCKWOOD
"A BRAVE LITTLE LADY" (1912) starring Harold Lockwood
Clifford Bruce ~ A Canadian actor known for being a strapping leading man or heavy in four dozen films including the classic serial "The Perils Of Pauline" (1914) and the Theda Bara films "A Fool There Was" (1915) and "Lady Audley's Secret" (1915, now lost), died aged 34.
CLIFFORD BRUCE
Shelley Hull - An American actor who had a successful stage career with several popular Broadway plays to his name over a dozen years. He had only recently moved into film making two films before dying aged 34.
SHELLY HULL
Einar Zangenberg - A Danish leading man known for action hero roles as well as playing Sherlock Holmes (which still survives), like some other Scandinavian actors as he built a name he moved to a bigger country to boost his career in 1914, in his case Germany where he was once again successful although. Apparently a burn-the-candle-at-both-ends type he also worked and partied himself into a sanitarium where he caught the influenza and died aged 35
EINAR ZANGENBERG
Julian L'Estrange - A British born actor who also had a successfull stage career for over a decade both in London and on Broadway before moving into films including one with Pauline Fredrick and Betty Blythe when he died aged 38.
JULIAN L'ESTRANGE
Dark Cloud - American-Indian film actor who appeared in several popular western films including directed by Francis Ford, DW Griffith and actors Mary Pickford & Mack Sennett including "Birth Of A Nation" and "Intolerance" as well as a model for painter Fredrick Remmington. He was one of the older actors of the 1910's dying aged 62
DARK CLOUD
John Collins - An American film director and screenwriter who made over forty films, many starring his wife popular actress Viola Dana when he died aged only 28.
Walter Stradling - Anglo-American cinematographer who worked with Cecile B DeMille, Mary Pickford, Blanche Sweet and Sessue Hayakawa.
Several months back I did a project where I added a soundtrack to Andy Warhol's 1964 silent film "Empire" which I described at the time as thus;
"Empire" was a black & white art film made by Andy Warhol in 1964 for which he simply pointed a camera at the Empire State building overnight and let it run. The film is silent and runs for eight hours and nothing actually happens other than some atmospheric and lighting conditions. The film starts in the early evening as the sun sets. As darkness falls flood lights in the tower come on and lights from other buildings flash on and off. Clouds roll in, birds fly past, planes fly by. Occasionally the lights go off and the tower is lost in darkness. Since the film is in black & white and silent it has a timeless quality, although shot in 1964 it could easily be from any time since the tower was finished in 1931. This quality is added to by the degradation of the already grainy super 8 film stock.
Of those critics who deigned to take note of the film most dismissed it as a crude gimmick. However there were a few who saw it as a new way of using a film camera to make a landscape just as his later "Screen Tests" would become a new way of portraiture. Due to it's extreme length the film has rarely been shown in it's entirety. Warhol himself refused to show it after 1972. After his death it was shown at MOMA which eventually created an edited down two hour version.
There have been a few tributes filmed using modern video cameras including one that is almost as long as the original but the modern video lacks entirely the grainy authenticity and moodiness of the Warhol version.
As the original film was silent and had no soundtrack I decided to add one using various tracks from the British band Cabaret Voltaire, one of the pioneers of Industrial Music starting in the late 1970's and into the 80's. The Cabs were not only pioneers in creating the new genre of music but also in making videos using grainy found footage synched up to their electronic drones. As such I figured they were the perfect soundtrack for a Warhol film, I also added a bunch of their tracks to a number of Warhol's infamous "Screen Test" portraits. Basically I thought they turned out like something that Warhol would have found interesting but than I remembered there was a possibly even better candidate for a posthumous collaboration. Like someone who actually had collaborated with Warhol.
Lou Reed's classic 1967's band the Velvet Underground were discovered by Warhol who built a multi-media show around them called "The Exploding Plastic Inevitable" in 1966 and then "produced" their 1967 debut album. I put produced in quotes because the band themselves always said Warhol, who had little knowledge or interest in music had little presence in the studio other than to occasionally say "Can it be louder"? (The answer by the way was; "Yes. Yes it can"). What he was able to do is use his clout to get them a deal in the first place and convince the label to give them leeway in the studio to do what they wanted. He did introduce them to the German singer Nico and have her sing a couple songs on the album over their protests. He also designed the album's classic banana album cover. The result was an album that every survey of most influential albums lists as one of the top ten most important. At the time the album was however a flop and Warhol and the Velvets drifted apart. The band would put out three more classic albums before breaking up in 1972. Warhol would occasionally dabble in music from time to time; doing a screen-test of Bob Dylan, designing album covers for the Rolling Stones "Sticky Fingers" and Billy Squires's "Emotions In Motion" and a video for the Cars "Hello Again" which he also appears in as the worlds worst lip-syncher. He died in 1987. As for Reed he went on to a long and influential career as one of the cranky Godfathers of Punk. In he reunited with former Velvets member John Cale to record a tribute to Warhol in 1989's "Songs For Drella" which got mostly negative reviews. In 2011 he collaborated with Metallica in recording "Lulu", a tribute to the classic Louise Brooks film "Diary Of A Lost Girl" which got even worse reviews. He died in 2013.
Before that however he recorded one of the more controversial albums of the era with 1975's "Metal Machine Music", a double album of nothing but layers of screeching feedback, distortion, static and white noise that was by any objective standard completely unlistenable. Reed and the Velvets had been pioneers in experimenting with feedback on their first two albums but this time there were no actual songs, just the feedback. Suffice it to say the reaction was not friendly with the album getting universally hostile reviews and no chart action or airplay and it swiftly went out of print. Reed himself once said; "Nobody I know has actually listened to all of it. Including me". The 1991 book "The Worst Records Of All Time" ranked it as number two, behind only an album of a non singing Elvis Presley giving rambling stage banter and ahead of the likes of The Shaggs, Pat Boone, John Travolta, Bruce Willis, Joey Bishop, Joel Grey, America, Milli Vanilli and the much despised Starland Vocal Band. However the album would take on a second, if limited life as an inspiration for the next generation of extreme Industrial and Noise band like Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, the Severed Heads, Residents, SPK and Sonic Youth and eventually got re-released on CD which I kinda forgot I had.
Anyway when I remembered it I realized it was perhaps a better candidate for a mashup with Warhol's "Empire" with it's soundtrack of urban cacophony, and one that Warhol and Reed themselves would have agreed to if one of them had thought of it. I'm still going to leave the Cabaret Voltaire set I already did as it's frankly more varied and interesting, not to mention listenable, but here's the Warhol/Reed mashup in all it's screeching post-modern glory.
Since "Metal Machine Music" was a double album I divided it into four parts, one for each side.
LOU REED vs ANDY WARHOL ~ "METAL EMPIRE MUSIC" pt.1;
LOU REED vs ANDY WARHOL ~ "METAL EMPIRE MUSIC" pt.2;
LOU REED vs ANDY WARHOL ~ "METAL EMPIRE MUSIC" pt.3;
LOU REED vs ANDY WARHOL ~ "METAL EMPIRE MUSIC" pt.4;
2022 UPDATE; As I mentioned above the full eight hour Warhol film is locked away in the bowells of MOMA and not currently available but somebody did shoot an eight hour tribute of the Empire State Building. Since it was shot using video rather than the super 8 Warhol used it doesn't have the grainy charm of the original but it's the only eight hour version available so I got the idea of taking it and adding a version of Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music" which I slowed down 100% thus stretching it out to a full eight hours (as well as making it way more ambient and dreamy) to get the closest approximation of the full project in one film. Note I also had to serioulsy compress the sound file to make it fit and uploadable.
"EMPIRE"(REDUX) vs "METAL MACHINE MUSIC" (Slowed down 100%);
By way of context here's some actual footage from the Warhol's "Exploding Plastic Inevitable" with the Velvet Underground circa 1966. The first few minutes have actual live sound while the rest obviously are Velvets tracks that were added later.
And while we're at it here's the video Warhol made in 1984 for the Cars "Hello Again" including Warhol himself as the world's worst lip-syncher. The video has references to his "Screen Tests" and the "Exploding Plastic Inevitable". It was his last major project.
"Empire" was a black & white art film made by Andy Warhol in 1964 for which he simply pointed a camera at the Empire State building overnight and let it run. The film is silent and runs for eight hours and nothing actually happens other than some atmospheric and lighting conditions. The film starts in the early evening as the sun sets. As darkness falls flood lights in the tower come on and lights from other buildings flash on and off. Clouds roll in, birds fly past, planes fly by. Occasionally the lights go off and the tower is lost in darkness. Since the film is in black & white and silent it has a timeless quality, although shot in 1964 it could easily be from any time since the tower was finished in 1931. This quality is added to by the degradation of the already grainy super 8 film stock.
Of those critics who deigned to take note of the film most dismissed it as a crude gimmick. However there were a few who saw it as a new way of using a film camera to make a landscape just as his later "Screen Tests" would become a new way of portraiture. Due to it's extreme length the film has rarely been shown in it's entirety. Warhol himself refused to show it after 1972. After his death it was shown at MOMA which eventually created an edited down two hour version.
There have been a few tributes filmed using modern video cameras including one that is almost as long as the original but the modern video lacks entirely the grainy authenticity and moodiness of the Warhol version.
Clearly what this film needs is a soundtrack. Accordingly I used some Cabaret Voltaire as being the closest thing to early Velvet Underground and added that to some clips from the film. Since the original was eight hours long I decided to string together several sections in separate parts which almost makes it one of those old time multi-part film serials most of which lasted 12 chapters. Using 12 chapters is also a tribute to Arnold Schoenberg, the Father of Avant Garde music who developed the 12 Tone method of composition.
Chapter 1. "WAIT & SHUFFLE";
This version is actually sped up to cover the entire 8 hours in 7 minutes, it also has cleaned up visual quality. Since it starts in the evening it's a good chapter to start this series with. The track is from a box set of early tracks.
Chapter 2. "GET OUT OF MY FACE";
This track is from the "2x45" album from 1982.
Chapter 3. "TAXI MUSIC" (HAI! Live);
This track is from the "Hai!" live album of 1982.
Chapter 4. "TAXI MUSIC" (live);
This is another live version from "Live At The Lyceum" (1981)
Chapter 5. "TAXI DUB";
This track is from the soundtrack to "Johnny Yesno" from 1983.
Chapter 6. "WESTERN MANTRA";
This track is from "The Three Mantras" from 1980.
Chapter 7. "IF THE SHADOWS COULD MARCH";
This track is from the "Voice Of America" album from 1980.
Chapter 8. "UNTITLED LIVE TRACK";
This is another live track
Chapter 9. "GUT LEVEL";
This track is from "Eight Crepuscule Tracks" (1988)
Chapter 10. "EDDIE'S OUT";
This track is another early track from a compilation.
Horror has been one of the most durable film genres since the days of silent films. However the first generation of film-makers were actually slow to latch on horror as a subject matter. The first decade of film, from 1895 to about 1904 focused on simple documentaries (or "actualities"), slapstick comedies, dancers and prize fighters, historical recreations and tableaus taken from classic literature, such as Shakepeare, Dickens and the Bible. Early film techniques were however too limited to effectively convey horror.
"LE MONSTRE" ~ "DIRECTED BY GEORGE MELIES;
That changed when French film-maker George Melies began his revolutionary developments. Melies had been experimenting as early as 1896 and by 1903 he had developed a whole arsenal of film tricks which could be used to suggest the supernatural including stop-action photography and double exposures. He had also built a studio with elaborate sets which could portray a world of myth and magic. However Melies, while imaginative and experimental in many ways, was oddly conservative in his staging methods, preferring to simply set a stationary camera in front of his actors and sets and leave it there as if films were just another form of theatre. More importantly Melies was primarily interested in a whimsical world of child-like wonder and fantasy, not horror. The gentle Melies, who made mechanical toys as a sideline, would have been shocked at the idea of scaring an audience.
"THE HAUNTED CASTLE" ~ DIRECTED BY GEORGE MELIES;
"LE DIABLE AU CONVENT" ~ DIRECTED BY GEORGE MELIES;
His Spanish contemporary Chomon De Segundo (1871 - 1929) made use of all of Melies' bag of tricks but he had a somewhat different thematic sense. While the Frenchmen Melies was influenced by the works of Jules Verne and Hans Christian Anderson and fantasy paintings of Gustave Moreau, the Spaniard Segundo, was more influenced by the darker sense of Edgar Allan Poe and Francisco Goya. Some of his films have a more Gothic feel.
"RED SPECTRE" ~ DIRECTED BY SEGUNDO CHOMON;
While Melies had been a performer (as a magician) and set decorator, Segundo had actually little theatrical experience but had instead been a publicist and agent married to an actress when he decided to move into films in 1901. He started out with simple "actualities" but learning fast he soon picked up on the camera tricks of Melies and set out to top them by adding in some early animation tricks and a slightly more flexible camera. As Melies' career declined Chomon's career picked up and he continued to work into the 1920's albeit mostly as a photographer and set designer on other people's films including the Italian epic "Cabiria" (1914) and Abel Gance's classic "Napoleon" (1927). He was working to develop colour film when he died suddenly aged only 57.
"THE HAUNTED HOUSE" ~ DIRECTED BY CHOMON DE SEGUNDO;
SEGUNDO DE CHOMON;
In spite of his talents as a filmmaker Chomon was however not a playwrite and his films have little in the way of plotline, even less than Melies famous fantasy films, for that early film-makers would have to turn to to a rich tradition of Victorian Gothic literature which they now had the techniques to portray. A 1901 British version of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", while obviously not a horror story, did feature a ghost (using double exposures and a white sheet typical of stage ghosts of the time) that probably impressed audiences of the day. With a running time, usual of it's day, of only five minutes of which three and half minutes remain, it's not much of a film but it does have a proper story and characters. The film saves time by having only one ghost rather than four. For decades it was assumed to have been lost until an incomplete version was found. It also features early use of some crude special effects including a double exposures to create the ghostly image of Marley's face on Scrooge's door and using a black drape to show images of the past. The film was obviously shot indoors and the sets are clearly painted backdrops of the sort used on stage. The actors are similarly stagebound, sometimes openly gesturing, and even speaking to an audience that obviously can not hear them. This looks odd and even campy to modern eyes but was common in films of that era. The film was directed by Robert Paul, a former stage magician who directed other films using photographic tricks. He may have also appeared in the film as well but the cast is unknown.
"SCROOGE" (1901);
In 1910 Edison studios did their own version with a by then standard ten minute running time and correspondingly somewhat more more detailed story directed by Edison contract regular J Searle Dawley. He had already been directing films for Edison from the earliest days of proper narrative films including "Rescued From An Eagle's Nest" (starring DW Griffith) in 1908. His films were only one reel (ten minutes) in length but they did tell a proper story and sometimes used more than one set although his camera was still stationary.
"A CHRISTMAS CAROL" (1910)
Directed by J Searle Dawley
Cast;
Marc McDermott ~ Ebenezer Scrooge
Charles Ogle ~ Bob Crachit
William Bechtel ~ Unknown (The Ghost?)
Carey Lee ~ Unknown (Mrs Cratchit?)
Viola Dana ~ 13 yr Old Child
Shirley Mason ~ 10 yr Old Child
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
LEGEND OF THE MISTLETOE BOUGH (1904);
Another sort-of Christmas film was this British film tells a story which seems right out of Edgar Allan Poe but in fact in predates Poe coming from a Gothic poem from English poet Samuel Rogers in 1822. In the story a bride and groom on their wedding night party have a game of hide & seek during which she locks herself into a large chest and can not be found. She dies of thirst or suffocation and is only discovered years later when her ghost appears and reveals her corpse, still locked in the chest in her wedding gown. Rogers claimed he this was a true ghost story attached to a certain noble house but was vague about where eventually leading to several old mansions claiming to be the site of the original ghastly honeymoon. This poem was turned into a popular song in the 1830's and a play by Charles Sommerset. In fact it's entirely possible, even likely that Poe himself was aware of it. In the 1860's Henry James would turn it into a short story and later Thomas Hardy would use it in one of his novels. Somewhere along the way the date of the fatful wedding was moved to Christmas which led the morbid Victorians to add the story as a now forgotten part of their Christmas customs.
"THE MISTLETOE BOUGH" (1904);
The film version was directed by Percy Stow, a British prolific director who made over two hundred films in the 1900's and 1910's (mostly shorts of course) including a version of Shakespear's "The Tempest", "The Pied Piper Of Hamelin" and a popular series of spy films just before WW1. His career was cut short when he died suddenly in 1919 aged only 43 during the Influenza Pamdemic although his cause of death is unlisted.
The same year as the second "Scrooge" film was made Edison studios also made what is generally considered to be the first proper horror film with a version of Mary Shelly's "Frankenstein". Although often credited to Edison himself by that date Edison had long since handed the actual film-making to directors like Edwin S Porter and J Searle Dawley having moved on to his myriad other business dealings. Edison had never taken film seriously as a narrative form or shown any artistic leanings anyway.
This film was directed again by J Searle Dawley and starred Augustus Phillips (as Dr Frankenstein), Charles Ogle (who had previously appeared Bob Crachit) as The Monster and Mary Fuller as the Dr's girl, the rest of the cast are unknown although since the film was shot in the same year as "A Christmas Carol" using the same director at the same studios it is quite possible that the two films shared the rest of their cast as well which would have common at the time. The story keeps as true to the spirit of the original Shelly novel as could be expected considering the short length and lack of dialogue. The actual scientific process involved is kept extremely vague and seems more akin to a witch's cauldron than the elaborate laboratory of the later James Whale/Boris Karloff film. The ending is even more mystical with the monster simply disappearing when the Doctor's personality reasserts itself after his having being earlier weakened and distraught rather than having the monster being killed. The film seems to imply then that the monster is connected to Dr Frankenstein in a way that is more similar to "Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde" than the actual Shelly novel or any later film version. As is common to Edison Studio films the film is shot entirely indoors.
FRANKENSTEIN ~ (1910);
Directed by J Searle Dawley
AUGUSTUS PHILLIPS ~ DR VICTOR FRANKENSTIEN
CHARLES OGLE ~ THE MONSTER
MARY FULLER ~ ELIZABETH
"Frankenstein" gained a mythical status party because it was considered a lost film for decades with no known copies and the only surviving evidence being a still photo of Ogle in his monster costume and makeup used in the promotional posters. That iconic shot of the hulking monster became an enigmatic image of film history but there was only guesswork about the actual film. In 1963 a full plot description and further stills were found in an old Edison Studios catalog. That filled in some holes but still no actual film. As it happened there had been a copy of the film sitting in the library of a private collector who had bought it in the 1950's but did not realize what he had since his copy was in poor shape and not easily screened. That actually happens more often than you would think. It wasn't until the late seventies that the film was cleaned up and released to the public. Fortunately by then it was in public domain.
Director J Searle Dawley (1877 - 1949) would make around one hundred and fifty films, all silents, between 1907 and 1924 including the original versions of "Snow White", "Uncle Tom's Cabin", "The Charge Of The Light Brigade" and "The Four Feathers". Unfortunately most of his films have been lost.
Mary Fuller (1888 - 1973) was a well known leading lady who had worked both on stage and in film from it's earliest days who made a number of successful films (most since lost) and she also branched out into screen writing and marrying an opera singer. However by the end of World War One facing middle age and changing public tastes, her career and marriage were essentially over and she retired after suffering a series of nervous breakdowns. By the time she died at age 85 in a nursing home she was a forgotten figure. Although she lived long enough to have seen the re-release of the original "Frankenstein" it's unlikely she was made aware of it.
As for Charles Ogle (1865 - 1940), the first horror film star, he made at least three hundred films (most long lost of course) as well as appearing on Broadway. His broad features, untamed hair and bulging eyes made him an ideal villain and he would appear as Long John Silver in the 1920 version of "Treasure Island" (with Lon Chaney in a supporting role) as well as a version of "The Ten Commandments". He retired in 1926 just before the end of the silent era and died remembered by a few horror film buffs but having no idea that any of his films would ever be seen again.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE;
Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel had already been adapted as a successful play in London in 1889 during the year of Jack The Ripper's rampage by writer Thomas Russell Sullivan and German/American actor Richard Mansfield. Mansfield was so realistically terrifying that some people actually thought he might be Jack and he was even questioned by the police. His transformation into Mr Hyde was accomplished without excessive makeup using body language, facial expressions and lighting. Mansfield would have been the obvious choice to play the film role however he had died in 1907 aged only 50. The first film version was made in 1908 only months after Mansfield's death by William Selig starring one Hobart Bosworth in the title role, but has not survived, this version was reportedly quite stage-bound and filmed entirely on a stage set. Another version was made in Denmark in 1910 which has also been lost. Two surviving film versions were made in 1912 and 1913.
The 1912 version was directed by Lucius Henderson and starred James Cruze, who had previously appeared in "Last Of The Mohicans" in 1911, and Florence LaBadie, one of the leading actresses of the era.
DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE (1912);
Directed by Lucius Henderson;
Cast;
JAMES CRUZE ~ DR JEKYLL
FLORENCE LA BADIE ~ ALICE (JEKYLL'S GIRL)
HARRY BENHAM ~ MR HYDE
MARIE ELINE ~ LITTLE GIRL
The story follows the original story and play reasonably closely albeit simplified to allow for the one reel twelve minute time-length which forces the exclusion of several characters. Unlike films of the 1900's there is use of multiple realistic sets including outdoors although the camera angles used are all essentially the same. The transformation scenes are simple dissolves from the Jekyll to Hyde characters with no in-between scenes. Typical of most one reel films of the day this was probably shot quickly and has a small cast. Even including extras the entire cast only numbers about a half dozen. The film's running time seems to be missing several seconds at the beginning and end including the credits, however it's doubtful this would change much from the story.
James Cruze (1884 - 1942) was not an especially charismatic figure and it was long rumoured that the Mr Hyde character was actually played by another actor not listed. In 1963 Harry Benham revealed (or claimed) to be that actor. At this point this is impossible to verify (Cruze had died in 1942) but it is generally considered to be true. The actor playing Mr Hyde does indeed appear to be a completely different person from Cruze with dramatically different facial features even taking into account the obvious stage make-up. Hyde is also notably shorter than Cruze although some of this is due to his hunched posture. Cruz was a contract player for Thanhauser Studios and is typical of leading men of the age; tall, distinguished and blandly handsome. Although he would make around a hundred silent films Cruze would become more successful as a director of westerns well into the sound era.
Harry Benham (1884 - 1964) had already had a stage and film career including a lost film called "The Mummy" (about which little is known) and "Cinderella" (as Prince Charming) along with various Dickens adaptations. He would make films into the 1920's before retiring.
Florence LaBadie (1888 - 1917) was actually the bigger star. Her origins were a mystery even then although it is known that she was raised in Montreal. As a New York based model LaBadie had moved on to a stage career when she was befriended by fellow Canadian Mary Pickford who encouraged her to move into film where she worked with Biograph Studios DW Griffith on a half dozen films including 1911's Victorian romance "Enoch Arden". That same year she was offered a contract with Tanhauser Studios where she would become a rival to Mary Pickford making an astonishing 185 films in six years, many obviously shorts, few of which survive. LaBadie was a classic romantic leading woman; beautiful, blonde, statuesque but with girl-next-door appeal. She was sexier than the virginal Mary Pickford as well as being athletic, she would do her own stunts in a later action serial. She is not really given much to do in this film and and a better example of her acting ability can be seen in "The Woman In White" a Gothic mystery (from a novel written by Wilkie Collins and also starring Cruze) filmed in 1917 which still survives. LaBadie was an intelligent woman who, unusual for actors of the day, involved herself in politics as a pacifist during World War I. Less plausible were vague rumours started by Republicans of an affair with Woodrow Wilson. She was killed in a traffic accident in 1917 aged only 29. She was the first major Hollywood figure to die, indeed she had been largely responsible for keeping Thanhauser Studios in the black, and while her contract had recently expired, her future seemed secure. Although she has largely been forgotten with few of her movies surviving, LaBadie was arguably the first real film sex symbol although how she would have competed with the next era of Vamps and Flappers is an open question, she was a strong and smart enough actress to have moved to character roles if given the chance.
FLORENCE LA BADIE:
1913 VERSION;
The following year saw a longer version produced by Carl Leammle at IMP studios. At 26 minutes this version was more than twice the length of the previous version and boasted a bigger star than Cruze in King Baggot, a major leading man of the day. In fact it is entirely possible that Tanhauser Studios fired off their quickie version to preempt the bigger budget IMP version.
DR JEKYLL & MR HYDE (1913);
Directed by Herbert Brenon
Cast;
KING BAGGOT ~ DR JEKYLL/MR HYDE
JANE GAIL ~ ALICE
MATT SNYDER ~ ALICE'S FATHER
HOWARD CRAMPTON ~ DR LANYON
WLLIAM SORELLE ~ UTTERSON
Since this version is more than twice the length of the Tanhauser version they have more time to develop the story and characters although it's actually not substantially different from the earlier version. King Baggot has a more commanding presence than Cruze and is more dramatic especially in the transformation scenes. For these scenes Baggot seems to have based his performance on Mansfield's stage role albeit with the luxury of being able to stop the camera and change makeup. Baggot was no Lon Chaney and other than some relatively minor facial and hand make-up he relies mostly on messing up his hair and changes in posture to become Hyde. It would be fair to say that as Mr Hyde, Baggot could be accused of over-doing it, especially in his painfully hunched over scuttling crap-like gait which looks distinctly uncomfortable, if not painful. Jane Gail as Alice entirely lacks the beauty and grace of Florence LaBadie and is quite plain by comparison, although to be fair neither actress is given much to do with such a passive role. Oddly Gail had actually appeared in the previous IMP film version the year before as an extra.
The Tanhauser film has somewhat better sets notably in the dingy pub Hyde frequents and the use of some lattice-work windows as framing devices in a few shots. These shots, which symbolically portray Hyde as if in a cage, would almost belong in the German Expressionist films of a decade later although there's nothing else here to suggest such cutting-edge thinking.
King Baggot (1879 - 1948) was already a well known leading actor having appeared in films since 1909. Previously he had been a semi-pro soccer player in St Louis before becoming a successful stage actor in a variety of roles including Shakespere and had even appeared on Broadway before being lured to the easy money of film by IMP studios. With his stage experience and athletic skill Baggot became one of the bigger male stars of the day working many times with Mary Pickford and Margueritte Snow and director Thomas Ince in movies such as "Ivanhoe" and "The Scarlet Letter". Later as he became too old to continue as a leading man he, like Cruze, moved into directing including working with William S Hart on the classic western "Tumbleweeds" in 1925. Unfortunately he took to drink and his career went into decline in the sound era and he was reduced to playing bit parts. He died of a stroke in a sanitarium aged 68. By then he was largely forgotten although he would later be given a star on Hollywood Boulevard.
KING BAGGOT;
Jane Gail (1890 - 1963) had appeared both in films and on Broadway but abruptly retired in 1920 when she reached age 30 and did not act again. Matt Snyder (1835 - 1917), who appeared as Gail's father actually had the most interesting life and longest career of all. He had served in the Civil War in the Union Navy before going on to a long career on stage before moving into films albeit in supporting roles due to his age. He was generally considered to be the oldest actor in the early film era although few of his films survive. He died, still working, at age 81. The rest of the cast were not particularly notable even at the time and they stayed that way.
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Oscar Wilde's 1890 novel "The Picture Of Dorian Grey" had obvious dramatic potential and was the subject of a play and at least a half dozen silent films between 1910 and 1917 including versions from America, Britain, Germany, Denmark, Hungary and Russia. One 1913 American version starred matinee idol and tragic drug casualty Wallace Reid and future pioneering female director Lois Weber while a 1918 Hungarian version starred Bela Lugosi but these films all appear to be lost with one exception.
"THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GREY" (1915);
This American film produced by Thanhouser Studios is missing a few minutes from the beginning but is essentially complete. This version spends almost half it's time on the relationship between Grey and Sibyl Vane, the singer he seduces and cruelly abandons leading to her suicide. We don't get much of a build up but that may be due to the missing minutes. Thanhouser was not an especially innovative studio and while the film is competently directed with the shots of the degenerating portrait well done enough but there's an obvious lost opportunity in not showing Grey's degraded face after he dies in what is supposed to be the story's grim climax. Grey is played by one Harris Gordon who is not really young and pretty enough but a more interesting figure is Helen Fulton who plays Sibyl Vane. Although only twenty-one at this time she already had been a busy stage actor since her mid-teens. Born in Virginia in 1894 but reportedly educated in Paris, by 1912 she was living in New York she had been acting in touring shows in the midwest being the subject of good reviews and at least one 1912 newspaper interview. She made it to film by 1915 and Thanhouser apparently saw her as potential lead actress material giving her plenty of screen time here. However in less than a year she was gone from Thanhouser and at Edison where she appeared in a supporting role in "Vanity Fair", a fairly big film. A year later she was at another studio for a lead role in "The Unpardonable Sin" but a year later she was gone from film and back on stage again in a few popular travelling productions and had branched out into writing with a couple of plays of her own and was reportedly working on a history of film (although that could not have been a weighty tome at that point) and dabbling in designing Cubist art dolls so she sounds like a creatively ambitious girl. However while she is still listed in the "Motion Picture News Studio Directory" in 1918 (which describes her as 5.5 and 120 pounds) after that she disappears completely and doesn't turn up in the Broadway database either. Did she marry, change her name and retire or move away? She doesn't seem a likely candidate for domesticity. Did she die in the 1919 Flu Pandemic? A search through the census or grave records might turn her up but otherwise her fate and whereabouts are a mystery and likely to remain so.
HELEN FULTON;
Besides the novels of Mary Shelley, Robert Lewis Stevenson and Oscar Wilde the works of Edgar Allan Poe would be used in early film including a few attempts by DW Griffith, although most of these films would have to wait a few more years. I've already written about these films here.
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EUROPE;
The film system in America in the 1910's was dominated by studios like Edison and Biograph who actively discouraged either a star system for actors or auteur directors since they would inevitably demand more money. Instead they promoted their corporate brand and churned out movies quickly and cheaply like any other product of the industrial era. It wasn't until Carl Laemmle and his IMP Studios (IMP stood for "Independent Movie Productions") wooed away Canadian film star Florence Lawrence (known as the Biograph Girl) from Biograph studios by offering her not only more money but also star billing, that the other studios had no choice but to offer the same. However while actors became household names the directors, except for DW Griffith and Mack Sennett, remained largely unknown. France and Italy were different. While in 1910's America the industrialist was a heroic figure, in France the artist was still the romantic hero and the idea of the auteur director who treated film as an art form was accepted while Americans still saw film as little better than vaudeville. Thus Europe quickly produced "artistic" film-makers like the Frenchmen Abel Gance and Maurice Tourneur, the latter of whom would make an early horror film, as well as Italian epics and and the later Italian Futurists and German Expressionists but the first European "art films" were ponderous epics, usually made in Italy and France, which took works of literature or Greco-Roman history and recreated them in literal minded versions with lavish sets, large casts of extras and actors strutting about in very stagey ways in front of static cameras. These films have not dated well but would be an influence on the more deftly made epics of DW Griffith, Cecile B DeMille and Abel Gance. One such film was the 1911 version of "The Hunchback Of Notre Dame"'
The "Hunchback Of Notre Dame" is a Gothic Romance rather than a proper horror novel but is often added in with the classic film monsters of the silent and early sound era mostly because of the grotesque title character and his portrayal by Lon Chaney in the classic 1923 film and again by Charles Loughton in 1939 although the Hunchback is of course more a victim rather than a monster, the same could also be said of Frankenstein's monster and Cesare in "The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari". The earliest film version was in 1905's ten minute short "La Esmerelda" (unfortunately now lost) directed by influencial French director Alice Guay Blache in one of her early films and starred one Henry Vorins as the Hunchback in what was apparently his only known acting role as he later became a director, and Denise Becker as Esmerelda who only has two other films to her her credit including a version of Poe's "The Pit & The Pendulum".
"LA ESMERELDA" (1905);
The oldest surviving version of Hunchback in the 1911 "Hunchback Of Notre Dame" by French director Albert Capellani (1874-1931). A former stage actor with two actor brothers, Paul and Roger, by 1911 Albert was already an experienced veteran having worked in film since 1905 and his direction here is thoughly conventional to it's times albeit having a larger canvas on which to work with a large cast and sets.
PLOT SUMMARY (spolier alert);
Esmerelda is a Gypsy dancing girl living in 14th century Paris, Claude Frollo is an Archdeacon and alchemist who lives at Notre Dame Cathedral along with his assistant Quasimodo, a mishapen but strong Hunchback. Frollo lusts after Esmerelda but she is in love with Phoebus, the tall, handsome, popular Captain of the guards. Frollo sends Quasimodo to kidnap Esmerelda but he is thwarted by Phoebus arrested and sentenced to be lashed in the town square. Esmerelda takes pity on Quasimodo and stops the whipping and gives him water. After he is rejected by Esmerelda Frollo murders Phoebus and frames Esmerelda who is arrested who is tortured and sentenced to hang after she once again rejects Frollo. Quasimodo rescues Esmerelda from the gallows and hides her in the Cathedral where he claims sanctuary. However Frollo discovers betrays her and she is hanged while Frollo watches from the belfry. Quasimodo kills Frollo by throwing him from the belfry. Finis
With about a half hour run time Cappelani is able to cover the basics of the story and the sets are well done for the time with several different locations both indoors and out although the outdoor sets were probably actually shot indoors. However his direction strictly conventional with no close-up and all strictly full length shots. Quaismodo is played by Henry Krauss who bears a strong resemblance to Charles Ogle's Frankenstein from the year before with similar wild hair and costume, although it's unknown whether Cappelani or Krauss had seen this film. Similarly Krauss's stooped, bandy legged walk resembles the various potrayals of Mr Hyde since Richard Mansfield's stage play which they probaby were aware of. Without close-ups it's hard to compare his facial make-up with the later mishapen Lon Chaney and Charles Laughton faces but it appears to be fairly minimal. Krauss had a long career on stage and screen including playing Jean Veljean in "Les Miserables" (1912), a role in Abel Gance's classic epic "Napoleon" (1927) and small role in the sound version of "Les Miserables" (1934). He died in 1935. Albert Capellani made several films in France including with Krauss and his younger brother Paul Capellani (who is listed in the cast for this film, presumaby as one of the guardsmen). World War One interupted his career as he enlisted in the army and was wounded. Afterwards he moved to Hollywood where he made some succesful films with Alla Namizova including one of her nest films in "Red Lantern" (which I wrote about here)" which showed that by that time he had updated his filmmaking skills before returing to France where he was unable to find work and in ill health he retired from film dying in 1931.
Maurice Turneur's 1914 film "Figures De Cire" ("The Wax Figures") was the first in a genre of Wax Museum films that would include Paul Leni's legendary 1924 German Expressionist film "Waxworks" (starring notable actors of German silent horror Conrad Veidt, Emil Janning and Werer Krause), 1932's "Mystery Of The Wax Museum" (directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray), 1953's "House Of Wax" (in 3D with Vincent Price) and the 2005 "House Of Wax" with Paris Hilton, not to mention any number of "Twilight Zone" episodes.
"FIGURES DE CIRE" (THE WAX FIGURES);
Directed by Maurice Tourneur
CAST;
Henry Roussel ~ Pierre de Lionne
Emile Tramont ~ Jacques
Henri Gouget ~ Caretaker
PLOT SUMMARY (spoiler alert);
A group of wealthy and frivolous dandies including Pierre de Lionne and Jacques and their wives are at a fancy dress dinner and drinking heavily. One of the Jacques challenges Pierre to stay the night in a wax museum's Chamber of Horrors.The challenge accepted they head off and Pierre is locked in. At first he is bored and dozes off but later decides to tour the exhibits which consists of displays of various murderers as well as a guillotine and severed heads. Pierre begins to feel uneasy and claustrophobic and finally believes the figures have come to life, especially when his jacket becomes snagged on a knife brandished by one of the wax killers. He begins to panic and thrash about wildly, seizing the knife from the wax statue. Meanwhile his former diner companions have become bored and the Jacques goes to the museum to check on his Pierre. Finding him a nervous wreck Jacques, while unseen by Pierre, decides to throw a bigger scare into him by hiding behind a screen and making noises of some sort. The now terrified Pierre slashes at the screen with the knife and kills Jacques. The final scene shows the police and museum authorities surrounding the body of Jacques and Pierre, now a raving maniac, as he lashes out in every direction. Fade out.
There is no supernatural in the film, the wax figures do not actually come to life, yet there is definite horror in Pierre's complete mental melt-down and murder of Jacques. This sequence, shot with Jacques completely in silhouette, is very well done. The wax figures are suitably creepy, especially a row of severed heads, as is the museum's shifty looking handyman. Henry Roussel as Pierre is very good as he moves from casual arrogance, note the cockiness of his slumped posture and bored puffing on a cigarette early on, to paranoid fear and mental collapse. He is able to suggest in the earlier scenes that his arrogant swagger covers for a basic unease even before his meltdown.
The film shows a far more advanced filming technique with a greater variety of shots, shorter edits and better use of lighting, although there are still no proper close-ups. The wax museum sets are spartan but creepy, especially a collection of decapitated heads starring at Pierre or another scene of Pierre cringing before robed figures (shown only from behind) who seem to be judging him. Unlike the Jekyll & Hyde films this film belongs more to the director than the actor. Henry Roussel (1875-1946) would have a long career as an actor, director and writer in France into the sound era retiring just before the Second World War.
MAURICE TOURNEUR;
Maurice Tourneur would go on to a long career both in France, and after 1914, in Hollywood. Among his films was a 1915 version of "Trilby" with it's character of Svengali, an evil hypnotist who manipulates the title character, a beautiful singer. The film is somewhat of a horror film but will have to be considered in a seperate essay.
The films of Post-Revolutionary Russia film-makers like Eisenstein are well known but in fact Tsarist Russia jumped on to film quite early making films that were easily as sophisticated as those made in the better known centers like the USA, France, Italy, Germany and Scandinavia. Even the otherwise dully reactionary Tsar himself encouraged the development of a domestic film industry. Russian films were not known for horror (there is a rumour of a vampire film made around 1918 but there is no proof it ever actually existed) but there is one interesting curio. "The Portrait" (1915) was a film adaptation of a short story by Nikolai Gogol directed by Ladislas Starevich who was actually Polish but living in then Russian controlled Polish territory.
"THE PORTRAIT" (1915);
Directed by Ladislas Starevich
CAST;
ANDREJ GROMOV ~ YOUNG ARTIST
IVAN LAZAREV ~ GHOST
PLOT SUMMARY (spoiler alert);
A young artist buys a painting of a creepy old man from a junk shop and takes it home to his studio where he hangs it on the wall and dusts it off, then he decides to take a nap. While he tries to sleep he has visions of the painting coming to life. Eventually the figure comes out of the painting and while the Artist cowers in terror the Ghost stalks about the room, takes out what appear to be gold and counts it before suddenly vanishes. The Artist then wakes and looks around relived before falling back in his bed. Finis.
There is obviously little plot here but the film has plenty of atmosphere and in many ways looks so positively Expressionist that one seriously wonders if any of the post WW1 German filmmakers saw it. The image of the Ghost climbing out of the painting has obvious echos in the German horror classic "The Student Of Prague" first made in 1913 starring Paul Wegener and remade in 1926 with Conrad Veidt. The 1913 version clearly predates "The Portrait" but the version here is far more creepy and atmospheric. The painting itself looks more Expressionist in the style of Edvard Munch, Egon Schiele, Emil Nolde or Ernst Kirchner rather than anything traditionally Russian. Of course as stated Starevich was not Russian at all but Polish and Catholic with a closer relationship to Western Europe. The anguished acting style of the Artist is also very Expressionist, with the Ghost scuttling about the room looking rather like similar characters in German films played by Werner Krause, Max Schreck and John Gottowt albeit with a Russian looking beard. The sets are rather more cluttered and realistic than most expressionist sets however and there is little use of light and shadows even though much of the film presumably takes place at night.
Thematically the film's uses of a nightmare dream world clearly presages later Expressionist classic like "The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari", "Genuine" and "Warning Shadows" with the film never really making clear whether the Artist is in fact dreaming or not although that is implied at the end. The "it was just a dream, or was it" theme would explicitly turn up in "The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari" and "Genuine" both directed by Robert Wiene who would follow up by travelling to the USSR to direct a version of "Crime & Punishment".
Ironically while Starevich would go on to an important film career it would be not as a director but as a pioneering animator in the field of stop motion animation mostly in France and occasionally in Poland. He died in 1965 aged 82.
These early films were all short films done quickly on a low budget, as were most films of the 1910's, even the IMP version of "Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde" could hardly be called a major production. The first attempt at a major big-budget epic horror film would come from Italy.
Although it's often forgotten about by Americans the first epic films, with large casts, big-budgets and long running times came not from American filmmakers, who preferred to churn out crowd-pleasing quickies but from the Italians who were the first to see film as a medium for serious art. To Italian filmmakers their idea of a serious "Art Film" would be ponderous full-length versions of classic literature with Roman motifs such as "Quo Vadis", "Cabiria", "Dante's Inferno" and "The Last Days Of Pompei" done with large casts, and big elaborate sets. These films, largely forgotten today by American critics, were a sensation in their day and are the obvious inspiration for the later epics of DW Griffiths and Cecil B DeMille.
"L'Inferno" (or "Dante's Inferno") was the first of these classical epics. Taking an unheard of three years to film with an even more eye-popping cast and crew of 150 people and a massive budget to match, "L'Inferno" was a major international hit even though it played mostly at large legitimate theatres in major cities with expensive ticket prices and tuxedo wearing patrons as at an opera. Audiences were spellbound by the film's air of Gothic fantasy, classical allusions and it's astounding special effects. Even the film's length of 71 minutes, more than twice the length of any previous film, contributed to the film's epic feel.
None of which makes it a great film by today's standards. In fact all these Italian films, while sharing similarly epic lengths, casts, budgets and classical motifs also share a similar glacial pacing, unimaginative static camera work and bland acting that amounts to little more than striking heroic poses and pulling elaborate facial expressions. While the Italian filmmakers put much work into their elaborate sets they gave little thought to actual film-making and were essentially still approaching film as if it were no different than a play or opera. Woodrow Wilson was reportedly a big fan of these Italian epics and arranged a screening at the White House of the Roman epic "Cabria". These films, while obviously influencing those later films of Griffiths and De Mille, lack entirely their flair however.
That said; "L'Inferno" is easily the best of the lot largely due to it's spectacular special effects which truly horrified audiences of it's day. The film has demons, headless ghosts, giants and monsters that far surpassed the playful stage tricks of Melies and were meant to terrify.
"L'Inferno" (1911);
Directed by Giuseppe De Liguoro
Cast;
SALVADORE PAPA ~ DANTE ALIGHIERI
ARTURO PIROVANO ~ VIRGIL
AUGUSTO MILLA ~ LUCIFER
The plot, to the extent there is one, is beyond simple. The poet Dante (wearing a notably fake nose and chin) is escorted on a tour of the various circles of Hell by the poet Virgil wherein he meets various historical figures (many so obscure that only an obsessive classical scholar could know who they were) some of whom tell the stories of how they got there. Then he gets back to the surface world. And that's literally it. But the film doesn't owe it's success to it's story, such as it is, but to it's Gothic atmosphere, sets and special effects, which are still pretty creepy.
Melies and to a lesser extent Chomon had used some quite elaborate sets for their fantasy films, but their artfully elaborate designs resembled illustrations from some Art Nouveau children's book, perhaps by Arthur Rackham, beautiful and dream-like. By contrast for his film Giuseppe De Liguoro took the illustrations from Gustave Dore's 1860's edition of "Dante's Inferno" as a template and set out to copy them with notable success. Dore showed Hell as a grim, grey, barren wasteland of jagged rocks, steaming fissures, dark clouds and gritty rain, gaping caverns and lakes of solid ice. The film captures this perfectly, even obsessively. It is impressive but far too stark and grimy to be have any beauty. Instead of using obvious stage sets Liguoro shot in what appears to be a desolate quarry. The opening shot shows obviously real mountain peaks while the closing shot has Dante exiting through an equally real craggy cavern. None of this appears to be made of the the sort of paper mache and plywood of normal stage sets. Note how the various barefoot extras hobble around painfully as if on jagged rocks. For comparison check out the Dore illustration of the Lake of Ice with trapped souls with the film's recreation. This also explains Dante's fake pointed nose and chin. He has them here because Dore drew him that way.
DORE'S ORIGINAL;
FILM VERSION;
While the sets are authentic enough it was the special effects that really caught people's attention. Dore's Hell is populated by a collection of demons, ghosts, giants and various monsters which the film faithfully recreates. The horned devils aren't quite as creepy as those who would later show up in "Haxan" (1922) but they aren't the playful imps of Melies either. Either scrawny and leering or fat and grotesque they are ugly and hateful brutes.
A brief scene with a cursed soul waving his wailing severed head uses double exposures effects similar to those already used by Melies. But while Melies played for laughs "L'Inferno" goes for the macabre quite effectively in one of the film's great stills.
Not all the special effects work so effectively however. The double exposures used to create the giants are a little wobbly and the one attempt to have Dante and Virgil interact with the giants clearly involves two fake looking dolls. There is a scene with a flock of flying ghosts swirling overhead done with double exposures which is rather clumsy (if albeit attractive). Other flying ghosts are awkwardly on cables. The monsters Cerebus and Geryon are look like the clumsy stuffed animals on strings they obviously are. The Hounds of Hell are just normal dogs who aren't all that big and don't even look particularly fierce.
These faults are forgotten with the big reveal monster who of course is Lucifer himself which is still plenty eye-catching. Satan is shown here as a giant winged sphinx gnawing on a squirming male body in a still iconic image that Griffith himself would borrow for his one attempt at a full-length horror film "The Avenging Conscience" (which I wrote about here).
One imagines rural, religious audiences of 1910 would have been properly horrified by the whole spectacle of a nightmarish Hell both Catholics and Protestants could identify with. However it's unlikely any such audiences ever saw the film and that was not it's intended audience. By 1910 movie theatres had moved beyond the big cities somewhat but were still largely an urban entertainment and a big budget films like this and other Italian (non-horror) epics would not have played in any small town theatres. Instead for it's run the film played in large theatres with ticket prices that were several times the usual fare. The targeted audience was not the working classes or even the vaudeville going middle class but instead the kind of wealthy and cultured urban elites and Bohemians who could be expected to catch the literary and artistic allusions and classical themes. They would also be impressed by the epic scale, opera-like settings and pacing and excessive running time which would signal that these films were "High Art" and not the slapstick and melodrama of the mass cinema. While the later epics of Griffith and DeMille as well as some of the bigger German films owe much to these Italian epics, they are essentially very conservative in their actual film-making approach. While the Italians put much work into their sets and costumes and made decent use of their army of extras the camera-work is static (there are still no close ups) and flat, the pacing slow, the editing pedestrian (every scene must start with inter-titles) and the acting wooden posturing taken from the opera stage. They are also utterly humourles and stuffy. "L'Inferno" largely gets away with this because of it's simplicity. Since there is no real plot and only two simple characters (who don't actually do anything but observe) the film doesn't have to spend time on developing it's story or characters, it simply sends them to Hell and watches passively as it unfolds. In spite of it's pretensions the film is little more than an excuse to string together some cool and creepy sets and special effects which it does very well.
This would set the pattern for the later string of Italian epics into the early 1920's. These films were hugely successful throughout Europe, North America, Australia and parts of Latin America until the end of World War One. After the war the conservatism of the Italian film-makers (aside from a few Futurist film-makers) became dangerously out-of-step with the bold new innovations coming from America, France, Scandinavia and Germany and the once powerful Italian film industry fell into a decline they never recovered from. Economic recession and political chaos ending in Mussolini coming to power in 1922 further isolated Italy, although as it turned out that Il Duce was a huge film buff and happy to encourage the making of, and export of epic films that promoted the glory of ancient Rome. Accordingly in 1926 Italian studios, with the enthusiastic boosting of Mussolini, tried to blast their way into the world market by staging remakes of two of their hits from the previous decade; "Quo Vadis" and "The Last Days Of Pompeii". These were epics done in the usual lavish style with the biggest budgets yet however American and European audiences of the mid-twenties were already used to the big budget epics of DW Griffith, Cecil B DeMile, Carl Laemmle ("Phantom Of The Opera" and "The Hunchback Of Notre Dame", both with Lon Chaney sr) and the German Expressionists and these Italian epics were massive failures that bankrupted the major studios. In 1937 one final bigger budget classical epic, the infamous flop "Scipio Africanus" financed by Il Duce's government, was the coup de grace. The next time anyone paid any attention to Italian films would be after World War two with the smaller realistic "The Bicycle Thief" and the films of Felini.
THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE;
Today German cinema of the silent era is known for it's iconic works of Expressionist Horror such as "Nosferatu", "The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari", "Metropolis" and "Der Golem". In fact the Germans were rather late in producing film works of any note. The early decades of film from the 1890's to just before World War One belonged to the Americans, French, Italians, Danes, Swedes and to lesser extent the Russians while German films were mostly non-nondescript comedies, ribald burlesques and crime stories including several adaptations of Sherlock Holmes. German audiences were also quite happy to devour foreign films like the westerns of Bronco Billy, William S Hart and Tom Mix and the French comedies of Max Linder rather than demand any particularly distinctive homegrown product unlike the Italians and Russians who produced "Art Films" based on historical epics or the Danes and Swedes who produced films based on Nordic folklore and literary themes. These last films came to fascinate many German writers, stage directors and actors who felt a common Nordic kinship known as Expressionism.
Expressionism was a post-impressionist art movement influenced by the Dutch artist Van Gogh and more especially the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch and the playwrite Ibsen which would inspire Germans who strongly identified with their themes of deep emotional turmoil constrained by bourgeois convention, a strong connection with nature and a shared Nordic heritage. They would make these themes their own with a passionate intensity and thoroughness adding to them philosophical strains from Goethe, Schiller, Nietzche and Freud and a willingness to experiment quite lacking in previous German film-makers. This ambitious vision came from stage directors and playwrites like Max Reinhardt and Frank Wedekind who produced ground-breaking plays which attacked bourgeois values as well as challenging conventional stage designs with minimalist sets influenced by constructionist and cubist art, impressionist lighting and dramatic and physical acting styles influenced by modern dance. Previously the Expressionist theatre world had not taken film very seriously as a medium thinking it fit only for low-brow entertainment but the Scandinavian films (which were quite popular in Germany, especially those of actress Asta Nielsen) convinced them of the artistic possibilities.
Max Reinhardt's theatre troupe contained many figures who would become crucial figures in Expressionist films including actors Conrad Veidt, Werner Krause, Emil Jannings, Paul Wegener, Max Shreck, John Gottowt, Lil Dagover ("Caligari"), Greta Schroder ("Nosferatu") and Lyda Salmonova ("Der Golem") along with directors Ernest Lubitsch and Paul Leni and set designer Ernest Stern. Reinhardt's own attempts at film direction starting with "Sumuran" in 1910 were failures. Reinhardt simply did not understand the new medium and merely shot his films with static cameras as if they were simply plays. This sort of approach had already gone out of style in America and France by this time and audiences in Germany, who were by then used to foreign films were bored by such a dull, out-of-touch approach. However some of his younger actors and directors learned these lessons and soldiered on.
The first to successfully make his mark was Paul Wegener with his 1913 film "The Student Of Prague". Wegener was one of Reinhardt's stage actors who had been considering the possibilities of film as dramatic medium capable of portrayal of fantasy after seeing an exhibition of trick photographs featuring a man fencing and playing cards with himself. Clearly the stage would not be up to such effects but film-makers such as George Melies and Segundo De Chomon had already shown how film could be used to create an unreal fantasy world. Melies and other fantasy film-makers were content to engage in childlike magic, however Wegener's aim was to use fantasy to explore expressionist themes of psychological horror. Working with a script written by Hanns Heinz Ewers, a novelist of Gothic horror already known for the novel "Alarune", they came up with a story about a young man selling his soul and revealing his inner demon. The story was based on the iconic (especially in Germany) story of Faust and the Devil along with Robert Louis Stevenson's "Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde", Oscar Wilde's "Dorian Gray", Edgar Allan Poe's "William Wilson", Joseph Conrad's "Secret Sharer" Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "The Double" and a touch of Bram Stoker's "Dracula". Two other novels now forgotten but popular in Victorian times and thus possibly known to the writers might have been the trashy English Gothic potboilers "The Monk" by Mathew Lewis and "Memoth The Wanderer" by the Irish writer Charles Robert Maturin about characters selling their souls.
Wegener brought in director Stellan Rye and one of Germany's best cameramen Guido Seeber along with some other Reinhardt actors including John Gottowt and Lyda Salmonova, who would also be one of Wegener's many wives. The resulting film caused a sensation not only in Germany but also internationally becoming the first German film to do so aside from 1912 "Night And Ice", a well done but conventional docudrama about the Titanic sinking. With it's dark themes of obsession, guilt, greed, lust, betrayal and death the film exposed the hidden tormented soul behind the sober, conformist, respectable German bourgeois in the false dawn before the nightmare of The Great War and became the catalyst for the growth of German Expressionist film after the war.
"THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE" ~ 1913;
CAST;
Paul Wegener ~ Balduin, The Student
John Gottowt ~ Prof. Scapinelli, The Magician
Grete Berger ~ Countess Margit Von Schwarzenberg
Lyda Salmonova ~ Lyduschka, The Servant Girl
Lothar Korner ~ Count Von Schwarzenberg
Fritz Weidermann ~ Baron Waldis-Schwarzenberg
Directed by Stellan Rye
PLOT SYNOPSIS (SPOILER ALERT!);
In 1821 Prague Balduin is a young university student of limited means. He is socially ambitious but rather decadent, preferring to drink, dance and gamble. He is also a champion fencer. Lyduschka is a pretty and flirtatious servant girl at the pub he frequents. She longs for Balduin but he is hoping to find a rich wife. Scapinelli is a magician who makes a deal to find Balduin a likely target. Countess Margit is a wealthy heiress who is already engaged to her cousin Baron Waldis-Schwarzenberg as per her father's wishes although she does not love him. As the Countess and the Baron go off on fox hunt she rides off on her own and falls into a lake where she is rescued by Balduin who has been walking by with Scapinelli. Balduin returns to his small apartment to change and practice fencing where he is met by Lyduschka who gives him a bunch of flowers and flirts with him only to have him ignore her and take the flowers to give to the Countess whose estate he visits. She is there with her father the Count. She is happy to see Balduin but then Baron Waldis shows up with a much larger bouquet of flowers. The Baron is rude to Balduin and the Count quickly ushers him out. A dejected Balduin sheepishly returns home, still with his pathetic bunch of flowers. Scapinelli visits him and makes a proposal; he will pay Balduin one-hundred thousand pieces of gold in exchange for which Scapinelli may take any one item he wants from the room. As Balduin has nothing of value he readily agrees and signs a contract. Scapinelli gestures to a large full-length mirror Balduin uses for fencing practice and states that he will purchase Balduin's reflection. Balduin is dismissive until much to his shock his reflection does indeed step out of the mirror and walk slowly and silently towards the door before simply vanishing. Scapinelli laughs before exiting as well. Balduin is even more shocked to discover that he no longer has a refection in the mirror, although at the time he is inclined to laugh it off and enjoy his new found wealth.
The newly respectable Balduin is invited to a fancy ball where he pursues Countess Margit. He passes her a note asking her to meet him later even though she is to be married. Baron Waldis shows up and angrily pulls her away. Lyduschka has been spying on Balduin and witnesses this. As Balduin leaves he runs into his Doppelganger who mocks him before once again vanishing. Balduin is frightened at first but assumes he has been having a hallucination and laughs it off. Lyduschka has followed Countess Margit home and found the note Balduin gave Margit, she steals it and runs off. Balduin and Margit are having their tryst in a cemetery when the Doppelganger shows up and scares her away before disappearing. Balduin is now frightened.
Lyduschka goes to Baron Waldris' house and gives him the tryst note from Balduin to Margit. Waldris is outraged. He dismissively offers to pay her for the note but she indignantly refuses any money and gives him the note anyway before marching out. Baron Waldris calls on Balduin and challenges him to a duel which Balduin accepts. Count Von Schwarzenberg begs Waldris to call off the duel since Balduin is the finest fencer in Prague but Waldris arrogantly refuses. The Count then calls on Balduin and begs him to spare Waldris as he is the superior fencer and Waldris is both his proposed son-in-law and heir. Reluctantly Balduin agrees. Passing through a forest on his way to the duel Balduin is met by his Doppelganger who tells him he has already fought the duel and killed Waldris. The horrified Balduin runs to the spot of the duel where a crowd is gathering around the body of Waldris. He then rides to speak to the Count who refuses to see him. Balduin tries to forget his troubles by going to a fancy party and drinking alone. Lyduschka is at the party and flirts with him but he rejects her and leaves. Balduin attends a high-stakes card game where he wins until the other players quit and he is left alone. The Doppelganger then enters and sits down and invites Balduin to play him. The terrified Balduin runs away and tries to visit Margit, climbing over the fence of her estate. He climbs a latter into her room where he begs her forgiveness, crying in her lap. She is at first resistant but then relents. They kiss but when they parade together in front of a full length mirror and she discovers he has no reflection she is frightened. Before the distraught Balduin can explain the Doppelganger appears and Margit faints. The terrified Balduin flees out the window.
Balduin attempts to run away but at every turn he finds the Doppelganger impassively waiting for him. Eventually he flags down a coach and flees the city. When he exits the coach he discovers the coachman is in fact the Doppelganger. Balduin runs home, bars the door and arms himself with a dueling pistol. In his room Balduin sits at his desk to write a note (or confession?) when the Doppelganger appears. Balduin shoots him only to have the Doppelganger vanish. Balduin searches the room and finding no sign of his tormentor decides he is dead, especially when he grabs a mirror and discovers his reflection has returned to where it belongs. Balduin is overjoyed until he feels a pain in his chest. Checking it he discovers a bullet hole and crumples to the floor dead. Scapinelli enters the room and seeing Balduin's body takes the contract he had signed from his pocket and laughingly tears it up. Then he gives an elaborate bow before vanishing. Finis.
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The Gothic literary references in this clever story are obvious but ingenious. The "Faust" influence is overt, especially to a German audience, as when Balduin sold his reflection he was actually selling his soul and Scapinelli is obviously the Devil or at least one of his minions. The "Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde" influence is shown as the Doppelganger also reflects (so to speak) Balduin's dark side. The issue of a doppelganger had also been raised in Poes' "William Wilson", Dostoyevsky's "The Double" and Conrad's "Secret Sharer". As the reflection is destroyed Balduin also dies as had Dorian Gray with his portrait. That the soulless Balduin has no reflection is a convention taken from "Dracula". There is a notable difference though in that when Balduin makes his deal with the Devil he does not know who he is dealing with nor does he know he is selling his soul. By comparison Faust, Dr Jekyll, Dorian Gray and even Dracula knew exactly what deals they were making and made them anyway thinking they could handle the consequences. Balduin does not understand what he has sold until it is far too late. This changes the moral dynamic of the fable. Those characters had free-will and chose unwisely because of pride and ambition (Faust), intellectual arrogance (Jekyll), vanity (Dorian Gray) or the promise of immortality and power (Dracula). Balduin is certainly a selfish social climber but since he did not make even a somewhat informed choice he was in effect denied free will which makes him more of a victim than the others. There is no way of knowing if the film-makers Wegener and Ewers considered the ramifications of this change or not when they wrote the script. Were they dismissing or making a mockery of the very idea of free will as Sophocles had done in "Oedipus Rex"? Or did they not notice this at all?
A common theme that would later run through Expressionist film as identified by such influential critics as Fredrich Krakauer (in his landmark book "From Caligari To Hitler") and Lotte Eisner (the equally important "The Haunted Screen") is seen here in the manipulative figures who lead characters astray or control their minds. Characters such as Scapinelli, Dr Caligari, Dr Mabuse, Nosferatu, Lulu ("Pandora's Box"), Lola Lola ("Blue Angel") the mad scientists and magicians in "Der Golem", "Metropolis", "Aralune", "Homonculus", "Genuine" and "Warning Shadows" not to mention the film versions of "Faust" and "The Pied Piper" all show this was a real trend. Krackuer and Eisner saw this as a reflection of the innate German need to follow a strong leader that would later lead to Hitler. It's worth pointing out here that Hanns Heinz Ewers, who wrote the main script (as well as the novel "Alarune" which featured a beautiful, artificially created young (Briget Helm) was also made into a movie twice), would later become an enthusiastic Nazi including writing scripts for Nazi propaganda films and plays including one glorifying the notorious Storm Trooper Horst Wessel.
In fact the film is notable for it's time in having no really sympathetic characters at all. Let alone a hero. Balduin may be a victim but he is also a decadent wastrel, an utterly shameless social climber who makes it clear that he is after the Countess for her money and social position even though the Countess is not even especially attractive compared to the younger, prettier and more flirtatious Lyduschka. The servant girl actually really does love him although it's hard to see why since he consistently ignores her. She is not even motivated by money since when Waldris offers to pay her she indignantly refuses. That's not to forget that Lyduschka is still sneaky, possessive and vengeful as she spies on him and squeals to Waldris which she had to know would end in a duel. Waldris is an arrogant snob who is also marrying Margit for money and status even though she has openly told him she does not love him and is going through with the arranged marriage due to family loyalty which Waldris obviously has no problems with. Neither does her father who is marrying her off to a cousin she does not love to keep the title in the family. Accordingly Margit is more of a victim but she is still cheating on her fiance and quickly forgives Balduin for killing him, although under the circumstances we can probably give her a pass on some of that. Balduin is not a villain as he is not without conscience since he does agree to call off the duel (or at least not kill Waldris) and feels some guilt over his death. Or is that just fear? We don't really know. And Scapinelli is of course the Devil. So that leaves us with no heroes, a strange position for a film of the time but one German intellectuals at least found revelatory. Or liberating.
BALDUIN CONFRONTED BY HIS DOUBLE;
As for the actual film-making, it is pretty conventional and shows little of the innovative camera work or set design that would become the trademarks of Expressionist film after 1919. The direction is perfectly competent and efficient and moves at a quick pace, however there are even some archaic touches such when characters gesture towards the camera as if on stage, by 1913 the Scandinavians and American directors like DW Griffith were discouraging this sort of thing, although it was still common in French films. The rather clunky need to formally introduce each character was also on it's way out although still common in Italian and Russian films. There are some Expressionist touches in the filming however such as in the gambling scene which is shown surrounded by darkness, and the placing of Balduin in settings were he is dwarfed by architecture as the story progresses in contrast with the beginning where he is shown in sunshine and in settings where he seems more imposing. One later trademark of Expressionist film was it's use of elaborately constructed indoor sets which allowed film-makers to control every aspect of design and lighting as well to the extent of sometimes creating fantasy worlds as in "Caligari" and "Metropolis". Wegener would later pioneer this approach with his second version of "Der Golem" (1920) but in 1913 he was still working with natural settings as the Scandinavians had done. Wegener had in fact chosen Prague as a setting for both films because he felt the city's old quarter would be have suitable atmosphere, especially for a scene in a Jewish graveyard with some large primal looking tombstones. While Wegener was giving some thought to setting a proper atmosphere he was not yet taking control of his environments yet to set the mood. Ironically the Rabbis denied permission to film in the graveyard so he had to build a fake one. By the time he was making the second version of "Der Golem" he was building an entire town as a set. The double exposures where Balduin is confronted by the Doppelganger were not really a new process but they are well done and must have impressed audiences at the time. Such trick shots would also become a standard feature in German films.
Wegener would normally be an odd choice for the role of the student, he is a stocky, even bulky man, with heavy features and although he is actually more physically gracefull than he appears as when he fences, scurries up and down ladders and scampers over a high fence with evident ease, he is still clearly too old to be a student. One suspects that if he had not been in charge of the project he would not have been cast in the lead role. Still he was a thoughtful actor who had given much consideration to the new medium (he would also give lectures on the subject of film acting) and he is a confident presence who can display some subtlety. This is important since he is able to convey the two distinct but identical characters successfully even though he would have actually be acting to a blank wall at the time. His skill compares well to the actress playing the Countess who is still bound by the conventions of the stage. By contrast Lyda Salmonova as Lyduschka, is pretty, lively and flirtatious and comfortable on film. The most impressive performance is John Gottowt as Scapinelli, he gets the best costume; dressed in a frock coat, top hat, drape pants and spats with a bald vulture head. He minces with birdlike movements and perches on Balduin's desk like a vulture. If he were more chubby he could be the model for the Batman villain The Penguin. His appearance and style would be shown again in the 1919 film "The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari" (although the actor himself was not) as both Werner Krause's title character as well as the sneering clerk perched on his impossibly high desk. Gottowt would become an excellent character actor and would play another similar looking devious old man in "Genuine" as well as the Renfield character in "Nosferatu" and yet another creepy old clerk in "Waxworks".
BALDUIN MEETS SCAPINELLI;
Paul Wegener would become one of the founders of Expressionist Horror following up the next year with the influential "Der Golem" (now unfortunately lost aside from the last few scenes) which he would remake (as both actor and director) in 1920 as one of the most important horror films of all time. He would also fire off a critically acclaimed version of "The Pied Piper Of Hamlin" which has also been lost, and a version of Hanns Ewers mad scientist novel "Alarune" in 1928 among many other film credits. He would cast his then wife Lyda Salmonova as the female lead in both versions of "Der Golem" and "The Pied Piper" although they would later divorce and he would marry six times, once to Greta Schroder from "Nosferatu". He had a short career in Hollywood playing mad scientists before returning home when sound films came in. After that the rather rotund actor's days as a leading man were clearly over but he continued to act as a supporting player into the sound era even after the Nazi's took over. Unlike many other Expressionist artists and film-makers he did not flee Germany and continued to work including in some notorious propaganda films, including "Kolberg", generally seen as one of the most expensive disasters in film history. Unlike Hanns Ewers, Wegener was no Nazi though, (he had of course already used a Jewish story and characters with respect in "Der Golem") he reportedly gave money and some assistance to the underground although how much is impossible to know. He managed to avoid being swept up by the Gestapo purges after 1944 so they obviously did not see him as a real threat although his celebrity may have given him some protection. At any rate the post war West German government had no problems with him and he continued to play an elder statesman role in German film and stage including reviving a Jewish play in Berlin and doing charitable work until his death after having a heart attack on stage while acting in a play. He died two months later in 1948 aged 78.
Besides the movies Lyda Salmonova, a former stage actress and dancer originally from Czechoslovakia, made with Wegener she also appeared in a now lost if minor FW Murnau horror movie "The Hunchback & The Lady" with Werner Krause (of "The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari" and the 1926 "Student Of Prague" remake) and John Gottowt. She also appeared in some big budget historical epics like Lucrezia Borgia (1922) (starring Wegener and Conrad Veidt) and "The Loves Of The Pharaoh" (directed by Ernst Lubicsh and starring Emil Jannings)as well as in "The Pied Piper Og Hamlin" with Wegener. However she and Wegener divorced in 1924 and she retired to become an acting teacher. After the war she returned to Czechoslovakia and died in 1968.
John Gottowt's fate was considerably darker. He did appear in a few other important films horror including as the Renfield character in FW Murnau's iconic "Nosferatu" along with Robert Weine's "Genuine" and Paul Leni's "Waxworks" as well as Murnau's "The Hunchback & The Lady". However the rise of the Nazis led to his fleeing Germany as he was Jewish. He fled first to Denmark but then to Warsaw (which had a thriving Yiddish theatre and film community) which turned out to provide little shelter after the Nazi tanks rolled in. He was murdered in 1942 by the Nazis.
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THE 1926 REMAKE;
In the aftermath of World War One German film developed (to coin a phrase) with surprising speed, taking up the themes explored by Wegener's early films. He had followed up "The Student Of Prague" with other supernatural stories "The Pied Piper Of Hamlin", "The Yogi" and "The Golem" (1917). Unfortunately none of these films survive aside from a few stills and the last few minutes of "The Golem" which surfaced a few years ago. These films would inspire even darker films with more imaginative direction, lighting, and set design starting with Robert Wiene's "Cabinet Of Dr Caligari" in 1919 and his followups "Genuine" and "Rashkoliov" (AKA "Crime And Punishment"), FW Murnau's "Nosferatu" (1920) and Wegener's own remake of "The Golem" in 1920. These films would establish the Expressionist template; harsh contrasts in lighting and jagged editing to set a world of dreams and nightmares, elaborate and often fantastic sets, deeply emotional and sometimes stylized acting and story-lines that probed the darkness of the human psyche with themes of alienation, fear and guilt. It was inevitable that the film that effectively started the genre would be remade using proper expressionist techniques although it's a little surprising that Wegener himself didn't do it. Perhaps by 1926 the now 52 year old no longer had the clout to helm his own projects, he was certainly too old to play Balduin.
The film would be directed by Henrik Galeen who had previously worked with Wegener on as writer on "The Golem" and with Murnau on "Nosferatu". In the cast would be two iconic figures of Expressionist Horror, Conrad Veidt as Balduin and Werner Krause as Scapinelli. Veidt had played Cesare the Sleepwalker in "The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari" as well as Orlock in "The Hands Of Orlock", Ivan The Terrible in "Waxworks" and numerous other films. Krause had also been in "Caligari", as the title role and later in "Waxworks" as Jack The Ripper. The film would show that they had fully absorbed the lessons of expressionism in full flower.
"THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE" (1926);
CAST;
Conrad Veidt ~ Balduin
Werner Krause ~ Scapinelli
Elizza La Porta ~ Lyduschka, A Flower Girl
Agnes Esterhazy ~ Countess Margit Von Schwarzenberg
Fritz Alberti ~ Count Von Schwarzenberg
Ferdinand Von Alten ~ Baron Waldis
Leni Reiefenstahl ~ Unknown
Host Wessel ~ Unknown
Directed By Henrik Galeen
PLOT SYNOPSIS (SPOILER ALERT!);
The basic story in the changes little from the first film however the later film is twice as long as the first which gives Galeen more time to flesh out the story and characters. The story opens with foreboding with a shot of a tombstone in a Jewish cemetery with the epitaph "Here lies Balduin; He challenged the devil and lost. Since the German audience was already quite familiar with the story from the first film this would not have seen as a spoiler. There is a longer sequence introducing Balduin as student, drinking and fencing with his happy-go-lucky mates at a pub. Balduin himself is a dour, somber loner worried about his poor prospects. Lyduschka is once again carrying a torch for Balduin. After he rudely snubs her she publicly responds him with a song mocking his lack of money. Scapinelli is at the same pub and witnesses this. He offers Balduin a loan by Balduin brushes him of saying he needs a wealthy heiress to wed. Scapinelli vows to find him one. Balduin fences with a fellow student who had been laughing at him and wins
Meanwhile Countess Margit is shown at a fancy party and heading off with Baron Waldis on a fox hunt. As they ride Scapinelli watches from a hill top. He appears to command the fox to lead the riders through obstacles which cause Margit to fall from her horse in front of Balduin who runs to her rescue. She is smitten by him and gives him her cross pendant which had been knocked off. Baron Waldis rides up and fetches her. Balduin returns home a practices his fencing before storming out just Lyduschka has come to visit giving him a flower. He takes them and walks off. She sneaks into his room and begins cleaning up and polishing his boots. Balduin has gone to visit Countess Margit and her father the count. She is happy to see him and he is about to give her his solitary flower when Waldis shows up with a large bouquet to be welcomed by the Count. Balduin sheepishly shoves his own flower in his pocket and leaves. He arrives home in a bad mood to find Lyduschka still there. She tries to comfort him but he rebuffs her. She leaves dejected after she finds the flower he gave her tossed in the gutter. Scapinelli enters and makes the offer of 600,000 florins in exchange for anything he wishes from the room. Balduin laughingly agrees and signs the contract. When Balduin demands the money Scapinelli produces a small purse from which a seemingly endless rain of coins falls on the table. Balduin is shocked but accepts the money. Scapinelli then gestures to the full length mirror and invites Balduin's reflection to step out of the mirror which it slowly does.
A now wealthy Balduin is hosting a party at his lavish new house. While dressing he discovers he has no reflection in the mirror. He orders a massive bouquet of flowers and sends it to Countess Margit with and invite to his party which she accepts. Balduin enters the party while Margit is playing the piano, he gives her a flower. Baron Waldis is also in attendance, he angrily grabs the flower from Margit and crumples it. She storms off. Standing on a balcony she discovers a note from Balduin asking her to meet him and she agrees. Lyduschka sneaks into the party and witnesses this. Scapinelli also creeps in, in shadow form, and seizes the note without Balduin or Margit noticing and tosses it to Lyduschka who runs off. After Margit returns to the party and Balduin is left alone he is confronted with his Doppelganger who slowly stalks off with out speaking to the horrified Balduin. Margit and Balduin have a clandestine meeting in a cemetery during which he begs her not to marry Waldis and pledges his love. While they are embracing the Doppelganger arrives frightening Balduin but not Margit who does not see him. Lyduschka confronts Waldis and gives him the note from Baldin to Margit. Waldis angrily rides off to find Balduin and strikes him his sword. Balduin challenges him to a duel which Waldis accepts. Count Von Schwarzenberg implores Waldis to cancel the duel as Balduin is the finest fencer in Prague. Waldis refuses but allows Count Von Schwarzenberg to intercede with Balduin who he begs to spare Waldis. Balduin reluctantly agrees. Margit finds out about the deal but is assured Balduin will spare Waldis. At the duel site Balduin is late because his carriage has lost a wheel in a ditch so he sets off on foot. He meets his Doppelganger who informs him that the duel has taken place and Waldis is dead. Balduin is terrified and runs to the scene to find a crowd around Waldis' dead body. A depressed Balduin returns to see the Count and Countess but they refuse to see him. Balduin goes to a pub and drinks heavily while Lyduschka watches. He grabs and kisses her and becomes more rowdy throwing items around the pub and encouraging the other patrons to further debauchery finally trashing the pub. As the revels get out of hand Balduin becomes upset and leaves. The next day he is expelled from university. Balduin is winning money gambling with is friends when the news of his expulsion arrives and they all walk out. A dejected Balduin returns to his home and climbs into bed. Lyduschka enters and climbs into bed with him. At first he allows her to embrace him but when she asks him for Margit's cross pendant which he is still wearing he throws her out. Balduin leaves and wanders out in a stormy night to visit Margit. He tells her about his Doppelganger and shows her his lack of reflection. She is horrified and faints. The Doppelganger appears and confronts Balduin who runs away. The Doppelganger follows as Balduin first attempts to kill him with a club the Doppelganger simply vanishes. Balduin runs home through the storm but at every turn the Doppelganger is waiting for him. When Balduin gets home he locks himself in and arms himself with a dueling pistol. The Doppelganger appears and dares Balduin to shoot him which he does. The Doppelganger disappears while a full length mirror he had been standing in front of shatters. Balduin looks in the remaining shards of the mirror and discovers his reflection has returned. He is overjoyed but then feels a pain in his chest and finds a bullet hole. He collapses and dies. The film cuts to the opening shot of Balduin's tombstone again.
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By the time of the remake's filming in 1926 Expressionism was an established style with a visual language of it's own some which is used here to good effect. The entire final section where Balduin staggers and later flees through a raging storm past barren trees is almost perfectly Expressionist. Likewise the scene of Balduin crouching to see and finally caressing the reflection in the broken mirror and the final appearance of the Doppelganger in front of a now broken window pane with billowing curtains. There is also the scene where Scapinelli takes control of the fox hunt. He is shown on a hill-top silhouetted against a stormy sky with a twisted tree stump wearing a frock coat and top hat and umbrella looking distinctly demonic. In fact this version makes Scapinelli's demonic nature more explicit in this scene where he appears to have power over the fox and hounds as well as the elements. In the first film Margit simply falls off her horse into a pond but it is not made clear that any magic was involved. Similarly when Scapinelli dumps his endless shower of coins from his purse it should be obvious that this is magic since no small purse could possibly hold so many coins. Balduin seems to notice this but is overcome by greed as his only comment is; "Is that all for me?". On the other hand Galeen passes up two obvious chances for supernatural horror from the first film. One is when the Doppelganger steps out of the mirror for the first time. In the Wegener film the double strides around the room before the shocked Balduin before disappearing while in the second the scene simply ends as soon as he steps out. A bigger omission is the scene in the first film where the Doppelganger appears at the poker game to challenge Balduin to a game. Since a similar scene had also turned up in Fritz Lang's "Dr Mabuse, The Gambler" Galeen may have decided the audience would see it as derivative but it's still a glaring loss.
SCAPINELLI STALKS THE HUNT;
Notwithstanding any such minor reservations Galeen does a good job here and there are some good Expressionist effects using a moving camera following Balduin as he flees down the desolate road (that shot should have really gone on longer), a spinning camera during Balduin's drunken revels at the pub to show his disorientation and a later brilliant shot directly after where a shot of wildly sawing blade is superimposed over his head. The film also makes use of another expressionist standard, the symbolism of inanimate objects, Scapinelli's umbrella is a stand-in for a magic wand, the flowers which are given, refused and finally discarded, and of course Balduin's sword which allows for a clearly sensual subtext when Lyduschka caresses it lovingly while cleaning his room. The art direction was by Hermann Warm who had worked on the iconic Expressionist film "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", Fritz Lang's 1921 film "Destiny" and later the 1931 Danish horror classic "Vampyr".
SCAPINELLI'S SHADOW STALKS BALDUIN;
The biggest change from the first film is really the acting however. Paul Wegener was solid enough but by 1926 Conrad Veidt was one of the finest actors in Germany if not the world. His sensitive portrayals of tortured souls like Cesare (from "Dr Caligari"), Orlock ("Orlack's Hands"), Ivan The Terrible ("Waxworks") and numerous others helped set the standard for the doomed expressionist hero. He wears his emotions on his sleeve; guilt, terror, dejection, frightened relief, desperation all come off him in waves. His face, with his oddly high domed forehead, wild shock of hair, enormous eyes and nervous shark-like grin is is highly expressive and the opposite of Wegener's impassive glower. He also has great physical grace as he had already displayed in his earlier films. When he is terrified or dejected it seems to rock or drag down his entire body. Such emotional physicality had become a standard motif of Expressionist film as seen in scenes where Balduin kneels in front of Margit begging forgiveness and placing his head in her lap while she caresses his hair, a common image in German film of the era. Veidt's wonderfully expressive face is shown to full effect (as for that matter are Werner Krause, Elizza La Porta and Grete Berger) by the films use of closeups, something lacking in the first film.
CONRAD VEIDT;
Werner Krauss as Scapinelli was the other well known star here having appeared as Dr Caligari as well as Jack The Ripper in "Waxworks". He is suitably menacing here but does not have the hunched, crab-like posture of Dr Caligari. He is actually more naturalistic than the lesser known John Gottowt from the earlier film both in his manner and his wardrobe. Eliza La Porta as Lyduschka actually looks like Lyda Salmonova from the first film and behaves in much the same flirtatious way although she is more given more to do here and her obsession with Balduin is made more explicit. Similarly Agnes Esterhazy is given slightly more to do than Grete Berger as Margit. She is also younger and more attractive although I'm not sure that is an improvement since Balduin's attraction to her as opposed to the prettier Lyduschka is clearly due to her having money and social status.
A note that two other actors reportedly appear in minor roles, perhaps little more than extras, who would later go on to greater fame or infamy. Leni Reiefenstahl, later the documentary director of Nazi propaganda films "The Triumph Of The Will" and "Olympia" was at this point an ambitious and strikingly attractive up-and-coming actress who had already appeared as little more than a model of physical perfection in one other movie documentary, with her first starring role later that year, she is presumably one of the women at one of the parties. Horst Wessel was at this point a university student and member of various far-right groups, while he was not an actor he was an amateur musician and poet who was also a member of fencing and boxing clubs and could be one of the group of rowdy students or musicians. In another year he would join the Nazi party's Brownshirts and take part in their street brawls until 1930 when he would be murdered in one of them. A song he wrote for the Brownshirts would then become their anthem as "The Horst Wessel Song".
BALDUIN MEETS HIS DOUBLE;
An additional note here is that while both films have clearly Jewish characters they are in no way anti-Semitic. In fact it's worth pointing out that while Balduin, and presumably the other main characters, are not only Jews but respectable members of the lower aristocracy and no different than any proper German junkers. Lest this be seen today as odd coming from a German film of the era it should be noted as well that Wegener also dealt with even more explicitly Jewish characters and settings in "Der Golem" (where the Imperial Austrians are the actually the villains) and Veidt would do the same in the 1936 British version of "Jud Suss" (as opposed to the hateful 1940 Nazi version) and he would also play sympathetic gay characters in a few films. Veidt's wife was also Jewish as was one of Wegener's six wives wives That Weimar culture could allow for such openness while Hollywood was still trading in racist stereotypes of all sorts is worth remembering.
Conrad Veidt would continue to make successful films in Germany until he was lured away by German director Paul Leni when he moved to Hollywood. Leni cast Veidt in the Gothic horror film "The Man Who Laughs" in 1928 and when Leni was given the job of bringing Dracula to the screen he immediately saw Veidt in the title role. Unfortunately Leni died suddenly in 1929 and with his patron and fellow countryman dead, Veidt, speaking little English and worried about typecasting dropped out and returned to Germany. After much searching the role of course went to Bela Lugosi leaving us to wonder what kind of brooding intensity Veidt might have brought to the role. In Germany he continued his career until the Nazis took power in 1933 and Veidt, whose wife was Jewish, fled back to Hollywood. He learned English and returned to the screen in films like "Jud Suss" and "Under The Robe" (as Cardinal Richelieu) before scoring the most famous sound roles as evil Nazis including the major in "Casablanca". His career seemed assured when he suddenly dropped dead of a heart attack while playing golf in 1943. He was only 50 years old.
Director Henrik Galeen would finally work with Paul Wegener in "Aralune" (1928) another horror film about a mad scientist creating artificial life also starring Brigitte Helm of "Metropolis" fame. However he as also a Jew and like Gottowt had to flee Germany after the Nazi takeover. He fled first to Sweden, then Britain before finally landing in Hollywood but did nothing of note before dying in 1949.
Werner Krauss would have very different career, and one far less honorable. Unlike Veidt and other German film-makers and actors such as Marlene Dietrich, Fritz Lang, Paul Weine, Douglas Sirk, Briggitte Helm, Asta Neilson and Hans Richter, he stayed in Germany after Hitler came to power. Also unlike some who also stayed, like Paul Wegener, Krauss became an avowed Nazi. Thus he had no problem finding work during the Hitler years. In fact he was named as Reichskulturkammer theatre department and a "Cultural Ambassador" for Nazi Germany. However none of the many movies the Nazis made were of much note and it mostly as the iconic Dr Caligari he is remembered today. After the war he spent some years in disgrace due to his Nazi past but was eventually considered rehabilitated enough to rejoin the German film community, more as a respected figure of the past than as a real creative force. He died in 1959.
BALDUIN TRIES TO FLEE THROUGH A TYPICAL EXPRESSIONIST URBAN SET;
"The Student Of Prague" would get a German sound remake in 1935 directed by Arthur Robison and starring Anton Walbrook.
