Originally posted to Facebook on 2/3/2019
Escape from Dartmoor was our fourth film from 1929 - a British thriller very much in the Hitchcock mode, but directed by Anthony Asquith.
In fact, based on the two Hitchcock silents we've seen (1927's The Lodger and 1929's Blackmail), this is a better thriller than Hitchcock himself was producing at this time; both of those films had excellent sequences, but also significant flaws, while this film is of a more consistent quality. It opens stylishly, with a man escaping from Dartmoor prison, and breaking into a house. From there the film flashes back to the events leading up to his imprisonment -- the origins of which begin with a love triangle made up of Uno Henning, Hans Schlettow, and Norah Baring. Henning and Baring work in a barber shop together, and Schlettow is a customer whom Baring seems to like -- which doesn't sit well with Henning. Tension and misunderstandings build steadily. In addition to the main plot, there is a very meta sequence in which the lead characters go to a movie theater transitioning to sound -- which the film posits is not popular with audiences. That judgment could not have been more wrong -- but the movie's strongest argument for silent film is not that scene, but the spare, efficient way in which it builds its story.
Of the three leads only Baring was English -- with Schlettow being German and Henning Swedish -- which of course mattered not at all in a silent. Schlettow is the only one we've seen before, appearing as Hagen Tronje in Fritz Lang's 1924 Die Nibelungen films, and also in a small role in the film we saw just previous, Pandora's Box.
Our next film is The Man and the Moment, our fifth film from 1929, our second partial talkie, and the second time we've seen Billie Dove. The list, as always, is here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT
Showing posts with label Hans Adalbert Schlettow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hans Adalbert Schlettow. Show all posts
Sunday, June 23, 2019
Monday, February 18, 2019
Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge (1924)
Originally posted to Facebook on 10/5/2017
Our fourth film from 1924 was Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge, the follow-up to Siegfried, again directed by Fritz Lang and written by Thea von Harbou. It takes place shortly after the previous movie, and stars Margarete Schön as Kriemhild. Most of the other cast also carries over from the previous movie, including Theodor Loos as her brother King Gunther, and Hans Adalbert Schlettow as his advisor Hagen Tronje. One addition to the cast is Attila the Hun, played by Rudolf Klein-Rogge, who also played the title character in Dr. Mabuse. Early in the film Kriemhild agrees to marry Attila, with the intent of using him to seek her revenge. Once in his kingdom, she conspires to invite her brother and his retinue to visit. The conflict escalates once they arrive, and Gunther and Hagen Tronje are eventually besieged, surrounded in a dining hall by Attila's army. This film is much more focused and intense than the previous film -- there are no dragons or subterranean treasure hordes -- and, I think, it is better for that single-mindedness. Schön does not give a particularly varied performance, but she is a strong and forceful presence, unlike the previous film where she largely played a more supporting role to Siegried. It must be said too, that, unlike the previous film, in which Siegfried was represented as more or less heroic, in this film Kriemhild is depicted as obsessed and borderline unbalanced; she is clearly the protagonist, but she is not shown entirely sympathetically.
The movie does, though, have some of the same questionable markers of German nationalism as the previous film. The Huns, for instance, are portrayed as essentially subhuman, which is probably the film's deepest flaw. Klein-Rogge, in fact, wears so much make-up for his depiction of Attila that I did not recognize him until I looked the movie up later on IMDB.
For our next film we return to 1922, for our sixth and final film from that year: When Knighthood was in Flower, our first film starring Marion Davies. We watched this one out of order because it was recently restored using a kickstarter campaign, and did not arrive until we had finished all of the other 1922 films (and the 1923 films as well.) The list, as always, is here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT.
Our fourth film from 1924 was Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge, the follow-up to Siegfried, again directed by Fritz Lang and written by Thea von Harbou. It takes place shortly after the previous movie, and stars Margarete Schön as Kriemhild. Most of the other cast also carries over from the previous movie, including Theodor Loos as her brother King Gunther, and Hans Adalbert Schlettow as his advisor Hagen Tronje. One addition to the cast is Attila the Hun, played by Rudolf Klein-Rogge, who also played the title character in Dr. Mabuse. Early in the film Kriemhild agrees to marry Attila, with the intent of using him to seek her revenge. Once in his kingdom, she conspires to invite her brother and his retinue to visit. The conflict escalates once they arrive, and Gunther and Hagen Tronje are eventually besieged, surrounded in a dining hall by Attila's army. This film is much more focused and intense than the previous film -- there are no dragons or subterranean treasure hordes -- and, I think, it is better for that single-mindedness. Schön does not give a particularly varied performance, but she is a strong and forceful presence, unlike the previous film where she largely played a more supporting role to Siegried. It must be said too, that, unlike the previous film, in which Siegfried was represented as more or less heroic, in this film Kriemhild is depicted as obsessed and borderline unbalanced; she is clearly the protagonist, but she is not shown entirely sympathetically.
The movie does, though, have some of the same questionable markers of German nationalism as the previous film. The Huns, for instance, are portrayed as essentially subhuman, which is probably the film's deepest flaw. Klein-Rogge, in fact, wears so much make-up for his depiction of Attila that I did not recognize him until I looked the movie up later on IMDB.
For our next film we return to 1922, for our sixth and final film from that year: When Knighthood was in Flower, our first film starring Marion Davies. We watched this one out of order because it was recently restored using a kickstarter campaign, and did not arrive until we had finished all of the other 1922 films (and the 1923 films as well.) The list, as always, is here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT.
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