Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, was released on this day in Germany in 1929. Based on two plays by the acclaimed German dramatist Frank Wedekind, Die Büchse der Pandora (or Pandora’s Box),
tells the story of Lulu, a lovely, amoral, and somewhat petulant
showgirl whose behavior leads to tragic consequences. Louise Brooks
plays Lulu, the singular femme fatale. As Brooks’ biographer Barry Paris
put it, her “sinless sexuality hypnotizes and destroys the weak,
lustful men around her.” And not just men. . . Lulu’s sexual magnetism
had few bounds, and this once controversial film features what is
thought to be the screen’s first lesbian character.
More about the film can be found on the Louise Brooks Society website's filmography page.
When the film premiered at the Gloria–Palast in Berlin at the
beginning of 1929, critics and the movie-going public were largely
dismissive of the much anticipated work. The very idea of the film had
been rejected by some who claimed “Lulu is inconceivable without the
words that Wedekind made her speak.” Hoping to deflect such criticism,
director G.W. Pabst conducted a well-publicized search for an actress
who was just the right type: according to one film journal of the time,
the search was a topic of considerable interest, and “Everywhere one
went one heard ‘What about Lulu?’ and ‘Is Lulu found yet?’” Once the
part was cast, however, Germans objected to the little known Brooks in
the role, doubting an American actress could play what was thought to be
an essentially German character.
As a psychological study, some also found Pandora’s Box a
disappointment; such critics regretted Pabst’s seeming retreat from the
social and political engagement of his earlier works. Critics and
censors were likewise taken aback by what was then considered a rather
frank portrayal of sexuality. Even from afar, the poet H.D. (Hilda
Doolittle), writing in the English/Swiss film journal Close Up,
noted the controversy when she stated the film had “passed by the
German censors after a stormy discussion of several hours duration.”
Pabst’s choice of Brooks was said to be a mistake, and her acting
came under fire. Many German critics stated she looked attractive but
appeared unconvincing. Siegfried Kracauer, writing in Frankfurter Zeitung, thought Brooks not enough of a whore. While one German critic called Brooks “an inanimate dummy.” Variety’s
correspondent in Germany chimed in with a critique hardly more
sympathetic, “Louise Brooks, especially imported for the title role, did
not pan out, due to no fault of hers. She is quite unsuited to the vamp
type which was called for by the play from which the picture was made.”
Pandora’s Box played across Europe, where it was similarly
received and cut according to local standards. In France, for example,
censors thought it indecent for a father and son to vie sexually for the
same woman. Their solution was to tinker with the titles and convert
Alwa (Franz Lederer) from Dr. Schön’s son to his male secretary. Other
changes were made in other countries. The film was shown in north
Africa, South America, and Asia.
By the time Pandora’s Box debuted in the United States in
late 1929, nearly a third of the film was reportedly missing. The 55th
Street Playhouse in New York City, the small art house that debuted the
film, projected a statement lamenting that the film had been censored.
The theater also apologized for the “added saccharine ending” in which
Lulu joins the Salvation Army.
Quinn Martin, critic at the New York World, wrote “It was the privilege of a few reviewers to see Pandora’s Box
shortly after it was received by its American exhibitors and before the
New York censors got at it. In the beginning it appeared to this one to
be a rather harmlessly lewd little exhibition with misery and murder
and a touch of abnormalcy along other lines, but at that time, at least,
it told a sort of story. Now, it is recommended principally, if at all,
for its striking photographs of Miss Louise Brooks, the American
actress. At least, the persons who have charge of our film morals have
seen fit to leave Miss Brooks’s back, legs, and haircut as they pictured
at the outset. Miss Brooks, therefore, retains all of her original
charms. . . . It does occur to me that Miss Brooks, while one of the
handsomest of all the screen girls I have seen, is still one of the most
eloquently terrible actresses who ever looked a camera in the eye.”
Billboard magazine had a similar take, “This feature spent
several weeks in the censor’s board’s cutting room: and the result of
its stay is a badly contorted drama that from beginning to end reeks
with sex and vice that have been so crudely handled as not even to be
spicily entertaining. Louise Brooks and Fritz Kortner are starred, with
Miss Brooks supposed to be a vampire who causes the ruin of everyone she
meets. How anyone could fall for la belle Brooks with the clothes she
wears in this vehicle is beyond imagination. . . . This is a silent
production that has no business playing anything but guild theaters.”
Photoplay, one of the leading fan magazines of the time,
noted “When the censors got through with this German-made picture
featuring Louise Brooks, there was little left but a faint, musty odor.
It is the story, both spicy and sordid, of a little dancing girl who
spread evil everywhere without being too naughty herself. Interesting to
American fans because it shows Louise, formerly an American ingénue in
silent films, doing grand work as the evil-spreader.” Mordaunt Hall,
critic for the New York Times, famously countered when he
wrote, “Miss Brooks is attractive and she moves her head and eyes at the
proper moment, but whether she is endeavoring to express joy, woe,
anger or satisfaction it is often difficult to decide.” Variety
put the nail in the coffin when its critic opined “Better for Louise
Brooks had she contented exhibiting that supple form in two-reel
comedies or Paramount features. Pandora’s Box, a rambling thing that doesn’t help her, nevertheless proves that Miss Brooks is not a dramatic lead.”
Regina Crewe, writing in the New York American, said “But
not even the censors may be blamed for all the film’s deficiencies – the
acting, for instance, and the rather absurd melodramatic story. . . .
Unlike Anna May Wong, and other Hollywood actresses who have blossomed
into skilled players under European influence, Miss Brooks doesn’t seem
to have improved since her departure. She is comely as ever, but her
pantomimic abilities are sadly limited. . . . The picture is one of the
less deserving efforts and was received with apathy by the audience.”
But was it? Despite poor reviews, the film was widely written about
(for a limited release) and did well in its New York debut. The New York Sun reported Pandora’s Box
“ . . . has smashed the Fifty-fifth Street Playhouse’s box office
records. It will therefore be held for another week.” At a time when
most new or first-run films played only one week, a two-week run was
considered noteworthy, and a little above average.
In 1929, however, sound had come in and poorly reviewed silent films
from abroad were little in demand. Although exhibition records of the
time are far from complete, the film was rarely shown in America in the
years following its New York debut. Following New York, Pandora’s Box
was shown at the Little Theater in Baltimore (January 1930), Acme
Theater in New York City (May 1930), Little theater in Newark, New
Jersey (May 1931), and 5th Ave. Theater in New York City (December
1933). The film’s last known public showing in the United States prior
to its later revival was at the Sunday playhouse at Taliesin, the
Wisconsin estate of Frank Lloyd Wright, in May, 1934.
After that, Pandora’s Box fell into obscurity, and was only
recalled in reference works as a failed film by a noted German director.
It took decades for film historians and audiences to rediscover the
work. In his 1989 biography of Brooks, Barry Paris put it this way: “A
case can be made that Pandora’s Box was the last of the silent films—not literally, but aesthetically. On the threshold of its premature death, the medium in Pandora achieved near perfection in form and content.”
Under its German title, Die Büchse der Pandora, documented screenings of the film took place in Austria, Danzig
(a free city-state), Slovakia (then part of Czechoslovakia), Latvia
(then part of the U.S.S.R), Luxembourg, Ukraine (then part of the
U.S.S.R), and the United States.
Outside Germany, Die Büchse der Pandora was exhibited or written about under the title Loulou (Algeria); La caja de Pandora and Lulu (Argentina); Le boîte de Pandore and Loulou (Belgium); A caixa de Pandora (Brazil); Кутията на Пандора (Bulgaria); La caja de Pandora and Lulu (Chile); Lulu La Pecadora (Cuba); Pandořina skříňka or Pandořina skříňka (Lulu) and Umrít Büchse der Pandoru (Czechoslovakia) and Pandorina skrínka (Slovakia); Pandoras æske (Denmark); De doos van Pandora (Dutch East Indies – Indonesia); Pandora’s Box (England); Pandora laegas (Estonia); Pandoran lipas (Finland); Loulou and Le boîte de Pandore (France); Λούλου and Lulu- το κουτί της Πανδώρας (Greece); Pandóra szelencéje (Hungary); Lulu and Il vaso di Pandora and Jack lo Sventratore (Italy); パンドラの箱 or Pandoranohako and The Box of Pandora (Japan); Korea (Box of Pandora); Pandoras lade and Pandoras Kaste (Latvia); Pandoros skrynia (Lithuania); Lou lou La Boite de Pandore (Luxembourg); La caja de Pandora (Mexico); De doos van Pandora (The Netherlands*); Pandoras eske (Norway); Lulu and Puszka Pandory (Poland); A Bocéta de Pandora and A caixa de Pandora (Portugal); Cutia Pandorei and Lulu and Pandora szelenceje (Romania); Lulu and Pandorina skrinjica (Slovenia); La caja de Pandora (Spain); Pandoras ask (Sweden); Meş’um Fahişe and Meş’um Fahişe (Lulu) (Turkey); Dzieje Kokoty Lulu (Ukraine); Box of Pandora and Pandora’s Box (English-language press) and Pandora szelencéje (Hungarian-language press) and Ящик Пандоры (Russian-language press) (United States); La caja de Pandora and Lulu and El alma de la herrera (Uruguay, sound version); Lulu and Лулу and Ящик Пандорьі (U.S.S.R.); La caja de Pandora (Venezula).
Since the late 1950s, numerous screenings of the film have been taken
place around the world, including first ever showings under the title Pandora’s Box
in Australia, Canada, India, Israel, Northern Ireland, and elsewhere.
Within the last decade, a first ever showing of the film took place in
Turkey under the titles Pandora’nın Kutusu and Pandora’nýn Kutusuö. The film has also been shown on television in a few countries in Europe as well as in Australia, Canada, the United States.
* According to European censorship records, the film was banned in
Finland (1929), Norway (1929), and Sweden (dates unknown). Despite the
film also being banned in The Netherlands in 1930, it was shown on
October 18, 1935 in Amsterdam at De Uitkijk theater. With the rise of
Nazi party, the film was banned in Germany from 1933-45. It was also
banned in Portugal from 1936-1945.
SOME THINGS ABOUT THE FILM YOU MAY NOT KNOW:
— The jazz combo seen playing in the wedding scene is Sid Kay’s Fellows.
They were an actual musical group of the time. Founded in 1926 and led
by Sigmund Petruschka (“Sid”) and Kurt Kaiser (“Kay”), Sid Kay’s Fellows
were a popular ten member dance band based in Berlin. They performed at
the Haus Vaterland (a leading Berlin night-spot) between 1930 and 1932.
And in 1933, they accompanied the great Sidney Bechet during his
recitals in the German capitol. Sid Kay’s Fellows also accompanied
various theatrical performances and played in Munich, Dresden,
Frankfurt, Vienna, Budapest, Barcelona and elsewhere. The group’s
depiction in Pandora’s Box predates their career as recording
artists. In 1933, when the Nazis came to power, Sid Kay’s Fellows were
forbidden to perform publicly. They disbanded, and transformed
themselves into a studio orchestra and made recordings for the Jewish
label Lukraphon.
— When Pandora’s Box debuted in
Berlin in 1929, an orchestra playing a musical score accompanied the
film. The score was reviewed in at least one of the Berlin newspapers.
The score, however, does not apparently survive. What is also not known
is if the music of Sid Kay’s Fellows, or any sort of jazz, played a part
in the music of Pandora’s Box. [Director G.W. Pabst also included a jazz combo in his next film, The Diary of a Lost Girl.]
More about
Pandora's Box can be found on the newly revamped Louise Brooks Society website on its
Pandora's Box (filmography page).
THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas
Gladysz, Director of the
Louise Brooks Society (www.pandorasbox.com).
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