A newly uncovered article about Louise Brooks - from war-torn Eastern Europe

I recently came across a rather remarkable article about Louise Brooks. It's remarkable in that it is a virtual "love letter" to the actress from a time when she was pretty much forgotten... 1943. (That's four years after Brooks' last film was released.) What's also remarkable about this article is that it appeared in a Romanian newspaper in the midst of the second World War. At the time, Romania was allied with Nazi Germany, whose cultural ministry had previously banned the film at the center of this article, Pandora's Box. 

But first some context as to how this article was found: I subscribe to a handful of online newspaper and magazine archives, and pay to acquire scans of documents & images from other academic and institutional archives. As I am always researching various aspects of Louise Brooks career and films, it is what I do. And sometimes I find rare and unusual things....

Among the newspaper archives to which I subscribe is Arcanum, Eastern Europe's "largest continuously expanding digital periodical database" which contains millions of pages of scientific and specialized journals, encyclopaedias, weekly and daily newspapers, etc.... Its holdings are especially strong in publications from Romania and Hungary. There are also a smattering of titles from the Ukraine, Slovenia, Czechia, Slovakia, and elsewhere. Stay tuned to this blog for another remarkable advertisement from the Ukraine. (BTW: Romania and Hungary are two countries whose newspaper and magazine archives -- especially their film magazine archives -- had long proven difficult to access. Now, if someone would archive publications from Bulgaria and the former Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, I would be so pleased.... Does anyone know a good source or point of entry?) 

"O Piesa Uitata" appeared in Rampa, a once prominent Romanian cultural newspaper based in Bucharest, the capital of the eastern European nation. Though anonymous, the article has a strong, even personal voice. I can imagine the individual who penned it -- besieged by the war raging in Europe -- longing for the time when his or her favorite movie stars flickered across the peacetime screens of their homeland. (I assume the author is a movie-going male who might have seen Pandora's Box in a Romanian movie house some 13 or 14 years earlier.... but then a younger male who saw the film as a teen or twenty something might well be fighting in the war, and not writing articles for newspapers. Who knows? Perhaps the author of this piece was a woman, or an old man who loved movies, or....) 

Here is the article. I wonder what ever happened to its author? 

What follows is a Google assisted translation, to which I made a few tweaks. (If anyone can help with this translations, please let me know.)

A FORGOTTEN PLAY...
of PANDORA
The stars that have gone out. — Louise Brooks and the play by Frank Wedekind. — Asta Nielsen and Mrs. Gerhard Hauptmann in "Lulu"

Time passes, people forget, stars age...

Where have Marcela Albáni, Héléne Makowska, Fern Andra, Vivian Gibson disappeared? Where are Priscilla Dean, Louise Brooks, Maria Iacobini, Aud Egede Niessan, Nathalia Kowanko?...

Of all the artists mentioned above, some were truly very gifted. Only one left the memory of a unique appearance. However, today she is no longer talked about. Forgotten? I don't think so. Louise Brooks cannot be forgotten. Others have just taken her place...

The actress played "Lulu" with surprising skill, the femme fatale mistress from the famous play "Die Buechse der Pandora", by Frank Wedekind. The great German playwright caused an incredible stir at the premiere of his play on the stage of an avant-garde theater! Full of subtle psychological traps, with a bold subject and erotic scenes, the expressionist thesis was harshly criticized just like his other play "Spring Awakening". 

Wedekind was accused of immorality, destructive spirit and incitement to murder! Banned, the play was later revived and, following debate, it was a definite success.

Today all these controversies cause some bewilderment, but let us not forget that the story took place long before the First World War! The main role was played at that time by a very daring actress, the current wife of Gerhard Hauptmann. Pale, thin with restless eyes, she gave a very well-studied "Lulu". Short-cut with bangs, (she still has the same hairstyle today, only her hair is now white...) in defiance against the severe fashion of that time, the actress created and established the physical outline of her heroine.

Asta Nielsen, the great Danish tragedian, played “Lulu” on stage and in film. Dramatizing the complex character of this “Pandora,” the unconscious bringer (or not?) of all misfortunes. The famous artist remained faithful to tradition: thin, almost skeletal, with a livid face and burning eyes, she also appeared with short, disheveled hair, symbolizing the revolt of feminism against the conventional.

Many years passed and "Pandora's Box" seemed forgotten, just like "Nora" or "Hedda Gabler." But one day someone remembered this scandalous play. Who will be worthy of a new "Lulu"? Who will shyly utter the name of Louise Brooks, and in a while, this unknown name will be known everywhere...

Thus Louise Brooks knew glory. Without much experience, but by instinct, she brought a new rhythm to the performance. She made "Lulu" a cheerful woman, full of life and fire. A woman child, an angel demon who is spoiled without knowing it and evil without understanding it. Unaware to the point of stupidity, but generous and kind, when she wants to!

Driving all the men around her crazy, she seems to be wondering, why so much turmoil, why these passionate outbursts, which she nevertheless provokes on purpose. Or maybe not? Lulu is difficult to analyze, she escapes with a wink, with a tinkling of laughter. She brings no one happiness. But she is loved also for the suffering she causes.

Her end, however, is terrible and unexpected. Wedekind, loving the sensational, introduces into his often troubled play a monstrous character, a man who seems fictional and yet lived: 

This man is "Jack the Ripper"! The uproar his bloody crimes caused in the past is well known. London lived in a terrible fear. The police searched in vain for traces of this monster, who killed with precision and in cold blood under the sinister shield of the city. His victims were mostly street women, whose bellies he cut open with sadistic pleasure. It was said that he was a maniac, a doctor in his time, who sought revenge for a disease he contracted by contagion....

The murderer meets Lulu. Seeking escape in England, accused of murder and falling ever lower, she finally ends up on the Thames embankments. Here she "catches" a weak and sad man, who follows her almost in amazement. Her youth moves him. Her charm is strong, but the urge to murder is even stronger...

"Jack the Ripper" kills "Lulu". He kills her deliberately, but... with regret....

And so ends the drama and Louise's career. (She later appeared in a light comedy.) For those who haven't seen her, I'll say that she was brunette with black eyes. Her short hair with bangs covered her forehead to her eyebrows, hers very short and thick (they had never felt the plucking pliers). She had full lips, small breasts and long hands. 

An interesting woman, this Louise Brooks... 

THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original content copyright © 2026. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.  

Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, premiered on this day in 1929

Pandora's Box, directed by G.W. Pabst and starring Louise Brooks, debuted on this day in 1929. That first showing -- the film's world premiere -- took place at the Gloria–Palast in Berlin. And despite what has been stated elsewhere, Louise Brooks did not attend the premiere. (She had already returned to the United States.)

Based on two plays by the acclaimed German dramatist Frank Wedekind, the 1929 film Die Büchse der Pandora (or Pandora’s Box in English translation), tells the story of Lulu, a lovely, amoral, and somewhat petulant showgirl whose behavior leads to tragic consequences. Louise Brooks plays Lulu, a 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, as 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. 

Before the film premiered in February of 1929, critics and the movie-going public were somewhat dismissive of the much anticipated work. The very idea of the film had been rejected by those 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, Pabst’s search was a topic of considerable interest, and “Everywhere one went one heard ‘What about Lulu?’ and ‘Is Lulu found yet?’” (Later, a worldwide publicity campaign echoed the public’s interest when it asked “Wer ist Lulu?” or “Who is Lulu?) Once the part was cast, some 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.

The G.W. Pabst-directed film premiered at the Gloria–Palast theatre in Berlin on February 9, 1929. According to at least one report from the time, it was a great success. “The gala premiere of Wedekind’s Lulu tragedy, filmed by G. W. Pabst, has just taken place at Berlin’s Gloria-Palast. Despite the Siberian cold …  the turnout for the premiere was enormous. The most prominent personalities from the film, theater, and literary worlds were present. The critical audience was incredibly captivated by the film, and there was thunderous applause at the end of the screening. All actors, with the exception of Louise Brooks (Lulu), who has returned to Hollywood, appeared before the curtain again with G. W. Pabst.“

On the 11th of the month, reviews and articles began to appear in the major Berlin newspapers including Berliner Tageblatt, Berliner Morgenpost, Die Welt, Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, Neue Berliner Zeitung / Das 12 Uhr Blatt and other publications. As a psychological study, some found Pandora’s Box a disappointment, while others regretted Pabst’s seeming retreat from the social and political engagement of his earlier works. Some critics were taken aback by what was then considered a rather frank portrayal of sexuality, as had been the censors. 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 only “passed by the German censors after a stormy discussion of several hours duration.”

One brief anonymous review in the trilingual journal Der Film stated, “A film has been produced on the basis of Wedekind’s drama of the same title, but which neither comes up to the spirit of Wedekind nor excels in direction, performance or manuscript. The film leaves one cold and cannot even be described as an entertainment film, although it was given a big show in Germany at the premiere. Technique is satisfactory. With regard to business prospects, this journal does not take the liberty of offering an opinion”.

 

Pabst’s choice of Brooks as Lulu was thought by many to be a mistake, and accordingly her acting came under fire. German critics stated she looked attractive but was unconvincing. Siegfried Kracauer, writing in Frankfurter Zeitung, thought Brooks not enough of a prostitute, or whore, while another called Brooks “an inanimate dummy.” (This latter comment came at a time when “dummy” might translate to something like mannequin, which once was analogous to the term model, as in fashion model = nevertheless, the sentiment is akin to calling someone “pretty but dull” or “pretty but stupid”.) The critic for Tempo put it this way: “… Lulu, in the delightful guise of Miss Louise Brooks from Hollywood, clearly demonstrates that she has nothing whatsoever to do with the events around her. Her smiling disinterest makes the hustle and bustle around her completely incomprehensible. This charming American movie actress barely has two different nuances of expression for the primal force of Lulu.” Likewise, 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.”

Over the next number of months, Pandora’s Box opened across Europe (except in those places where it was banned). When shown, it was censored according to local standards and similarly critiqued as it had been in Germany and neighboring Austria. 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 from Dr. Schön’s son to his male secretary. In England, where the film was given an “adults only” rating, the critic for the London Observer suggested the “chaotic” film suffered from being cut. Other changes were made for other reasons in other countries, especially Russia. Nevertheless, over the next year or two, the film would be shown in north Africa, in the Caribbean and South America, and even in a few countries in Asia. In Japan, where Brooks was a cult star nearly as popular as Clara Bow, the film was heavily promoted.

n the United States, Pandora’s Box suffered a similar fate both in terms of censorship as well as criticism. When it debuted in America in late 1929, a substantial amount (perhaps as much as 20 minutes) of the film had been cut. The 55th Street Playhouse in New York City, the small art house that debuted the film, projected a statement lamenting the film had been censored. The theater also apologized for the “added saccharine ending” in which Lulu joins the Salvation Army. (For more on the film’s battle with censors both in Europe and the United States, see the Louise Brooks Society webpage Pandora’s Box – Censorship History.)

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 above average.

By late 1929, however, sound had arrived and poorly reviewed silent films from abroad were little in demand. Although exhibition records of the time are far from complete, the film was seldom shown in America in the years following its New York debut. 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, post WWII revival) was a one-off screening at the Sunday playhouse at Taliesin, the Wisconsin estate of architect Frank Lloyd Wright (May, 1934). A more detailed account of the early screening history of Pandora’s Box in the United States can be found in this Film International article from 2023, “Lulu in America: ‘Sin Lust Evil!’ and the Lost History of Louise Brooks and Pandora’s Box.”

After that, Pandora’s Box fell into obscurity, and was more often than not referenced in early film histories as a failed film by an otherwise noted German director. It took decades for critics, 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.”

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.]

And, 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). Original content copyright © 2026. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. 

Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, was approved for release on this day in 1929

Pandora's Box, directed by G.W. Pabst and starring Louise Brooks, was approved for release on this day in 1929, though the film did not premiere until February 9, 1929. That first showing -- the film's premiere -- took place at the Gloria–Palast in Berlin. (And despite what has been stated elsewhere, Louise Brooks did not attend the premiere. She had already returned to the United States.)

Pandora’s Box was based on two plays by the acclaimed German dramatist Frank Wedekind. Despite it being a German production made from a well known work of German literature, German censors were taken aback by what was then considered the film’s frank portrayal of sexuality. The modernist poet H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), writing in the English / Swiss film journal Close-Up, noted the controversy when she stated the film had only “passed by the German censors after a stormy discussion of several hours duration.”  

On January 30, 1929, the production received an approval card (No. 21540) from the Berlin Film Censorship Board which allowed for its public screening.** 

Some ten days later, the G.W. Pabst-directed film debuted at the Gloria-Palast in Berlin. Writing in Film-Kurier on February 11, Georg Herzberg thought it inevitable that the film would contain less provocative material than Wedekind’s stage play. The reason the reviewer suggests was “self-censorship” — because unlike the stage-play, the film was aimed at a larger audience, not only in Germany, but also overseas. Herzberg notes “… the filmmaker had to tone things down.” And then asks, “In popular cinema, how will one understand the character of Countess Geschwitz and her relationship with Lulu?” 

** On April 9, 1934 the Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda revoked the January 30, 1929 approval card, thereby banning the film in Germany. Please visit the Louise Brooks Society website for more on Pandora's Box and its history of censorship around the world. 

 
And, 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). Original content copyright © 2026. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.    

Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, screens in Northern Ireland with a live score by People That Listen to the Sky

Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, will be screened November 29th in Northern Ireland as part of the Foyle Film Festival in Derry - Londonderry. This special screening at the Nerve Centre will feature a live musical score by People that Listen to the Sky. More about this event can be found HERE. 

The Foyle Film Festival is Northern Ireland's longest running film festival. Here is what they say about this event:

"One of the masters of early German cinema, G. W. Pabst had an innate talent for discovering actresses (including Greta Garbo). And perhaps none of his female stars shone brighter than Kansas native and onetime Ziegfeld girl Louise Brooks, whose legendary persona was defined by this melodrama of lust, greed and violence.

Pabst’s startlingly modern adaptation of Wedekind’s Lulu plays follows the downward spiral of a vivacious showgirl, brought vibrantly to life by Brooks, wreaking casual havoc on all she encounters through the sheer power of charisma. Daring and stylish, Pandora's Box is one of silent cinema's great masterworks and a testament to Brooks's dazzling individuality.

People That Listen to the Sky is a multinational, multi-instrumental project based in the Northwest of Ireland (Derry/Donegal). With three core members, the group creates immersive soundscapes that fuse dark ambient, post-rock, experimental, and electronic elements which has been described as cinematic, atmospheric, and dark."

G.W. Pabst | Germany | 1929 | 134 mins | Silent Film | PG

 

 

Celebrating its 38th year in 2025, Foyle Film Festival takes place in venues across Derry~Londonderry each November to bring the best of international cinema and industry players to the city.

More about People That Listen to the Sky can be found on their SoundCloud page, where you can listen to extended cuts. 

More information about Pandora's Box can be found on the Louise Brooks Society filmography page devoted to the film.  

THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original content copyright © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.   

Adapting Sex on Screen: the Cinematic Biographies of Lulu, La Ronde and Venus in Furs

There is a new book out which should be of interest to fans of Louise Brooks and the Lulu archetype. The book, by Julian Preece, is titled Adapting Sex on Screen: the Cinematic Biographies of Lulu, La Ronde and Venus in Furs (Bloomsbury Academic). The book is out in the UK, but won't be released in the United States until January.

The publisher just sent me a pdf copy. And though I have not had time to really dig into it, the chapters I've glanced at regarding Lulu and Louise Brooks and Pandora's Box look detailed and fascinating. And recommended for the discerning reader. I was also pleased to see a footnote and an acknowledgement, "Thomas Gladysz from the Louise Brooks Society and Molly Harrabin from the Weimar Film Network have responded generously to my queries...."

The Louise Brooks Society was also mentioned in chapter six. "Brooks eclipses Pabst and Wedekind as the transmitter of the Lulu story and excreted a fascination in wider US culture. The first of many biographies of the rediscovered silent-screen star appeared in 1989, four years after her death. Thomas Gladysz formed the Louise Brooks Society in 1995, which provided a focal point for fans and scholars alike on the new forum of the internet. Gladysz's catalogue of Brooks's literary and pop culture afterlives is encyclopedia and surely unique for a 1920s star."

The publisher description reads: "Tracing the adaptation histories of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's novel Venus in Furs, Arthur Schnitzler's play La Ronde, and Frank Wedekind's play Lulu, Julian Preece explores how these works were censored, celebrated, and adapted for the screen from pre-World War I Austria to modern day United States.

Through case studies of filmmakers like Max Ophüls, G.W. Pabst, and Roman Polanski, this book explores how directors have used sexual themes to push boundaries and critique societal norms. From Pandora's Box (1929) to La Ronde (1950), these films captured shifting attitudes toward sex, confronting issues such as Nazism, Hollywood censorship under the Hays Code, and the AIDS crisis. Preece also highlights how marginalised voices-particularly women and minorities-have fought for sexual rights on and off the screen.

This compelling analysis will appeal to students, scholars, and general readers interested in the intersection of film, literature, and sexuality. Adapting Sex on Screen provides a nuanced and engaging look at how cinematic portrayals of sex have both reflected and shaped social change, making it an essential resource for understanding the ongoing cultural significance of these provocative works."

Julian Preece is Professor of German at Swansea University, UK. His articles have featured in The German Monitor, German Life and Letters, and Monatshefte. His previous books include the BFI Film Classic The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (2022), Günter Grass (2018), Baader-Meinhof and the Novel: Narratives of the Nation / Fantasies of the Revolution, 1970-2010 (2012), and Out of the Shadows of a Husband: The Rediscovered Writings of Veza Canetti (2007).

 

THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original content copyright © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. 

Tilly No-Body - the Story of Tilly Wedekind, Plays at Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Back in 2010, I wrote and article and posted a blog about a then new play called Tilly No-Body: Catastrophes of Love. The play, which is about Tilly Wedekind, the wife of Frank Wedekind - the author of the Lulu plays, is authored and performed by Bella Merlin. I wrote another blog in 2014 about the work when it was performed in Northern California.

Just recently, Bella Merlin contacted me to let me know she has revisited her work and will be performing it in August at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (August 1-25). The author's website for the play can be found at https://www.tillynobody.com

 

Tilly No-Body is a 60-minute, one-person play inspired by the life and love of Frank Wedekind (Spring Awakening; the Lulu Sex Tragedies) and his muse-wife and actress, Tilly. With 5 original cabaret songs, this love-drama weaves together mischief, magic and poignancy with puppets, circus balls and moments of surprise. 

"Why is romantic love so complicated? 

Why do we stay in relationships when they're no longer healthy? 

What does it mean to be an actor?"

And why a play about Tilly Wedekind? As Bella Merlin said in her email, "I am fascinated with Frank Wedekind, his wife, the role of Lulu, and how potent the imagery of both the Louise Brooks film and the original aesthetic are... " But that's only a small part of the story. 

 

According to the author's website, in the early 1990s, Bella Merlin was cast as Frank Wedekind's Lulu at the Chelsea Centre Theatre, London.

“The role is elusive, almost fantastical. And as part of my research, I discovered the autobiography of Wedekind's wife, Tilly. The book was called Lulu: The Role of My Life, and I imagined that I would discover within its contents the ways in which playing Lulu had launched Tilly into a dramatically successful career. As I was then in my early twenties, I was hoping for the same...”

​But the book was written in German. So, clutching her schoolgirl German dictionary, Merlin began the lengthy process of translating it into English.

“Bit by bit, I discovered that Tilly had coined the title for her autobiography because, in fact, Frank had turned her into Lulu in the course of their turbulent marriage. Frank would take parts of their married life, turn them into provocative plays, stage them for public consumption, and expect Tilly to enact the female roles. The boundaries between fact and fiction became increasingly blurred. And Frank became increasingly jealous. It was an absolute powder keg!”

One early write-up about the play, which includes an interview with Bella Merlin, can be found on the loureviews.blog

THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2025. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. 

New Novel Imagine's Life of Director G.W. Pabst

I am beginning to see articles about a new novel imagining the life of German director G. W. Pabst. Lichtspiel, by the internationally acclaimed German writer Daniel Kehlmann, is already being termed a "masterpiece." (As of now, the book is not available in the United States.)

The novel largely focuses on the years in which the Austrian-born Pabst, unable to leave Germany, continued making films while the Nazi regime was in power. Pabst's earlier life, including the years in which he made films with Garbo, Asta Nielsen, and Louise Brooks, is depicted in flashbacks.

Here are links to articles about the new book in the Berliner Morgenpost, the Basler Zeitung, NZZ Magazin, and Falter. Notably, each of these (and other) reviews make mention of "„Die Büchse der Pandora“ die US-amerikanische Schauspielerin Louise Brooks."

 

Kehlmann's novel Die Vermessung der Welt (translated into English as Measuring the World, 2006) is the best selling book in the German language since Patrick Süskind's Perfume was released in 1985. According to The New York Times, it was the world's second-best selling novel in 2006.

His subsequent novels reached the number one spot on German bestseller list, and each were translated into English. Interestingly, Kehlmann collaborated with Jonathan Franzen and Paul Reitter on Franzen's 2013 book The Kraus Project, a book of translations of Karl Kraus's essays. Notably, in 1904, Kraus aided Frank Wedekind in his first ever staging in Vienna of his controversial play Pandora's Box, which was later turned in a film directed by Frank Wedekind and starring Louise Brooks.

Louise Brooks, second from left, with G.W. Pabst, far right (though he was a leftist).

THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society  (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2023. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

The Loves of Lulu - the First American Lulu (not Louise Brooks) part 3

This post is a brief follow-up to the two previous posts about Margot Kelly, the first American actress to play Lulu. Kelly played Wedekind's famed character in The Loves of Lulu in New York in May, 1925 at the time Louise Brooks, who would play Lulu in the 1929 film, Pandora's Box, was performing in the Ziegfeld Follies and taking on a bit part in her first film, The Street of Forgotten Men. 

Margot Kelly in 1913

Camille Scaysbrook, a longtime member of the Louise Brooks Society noted on Facebook, she searched in vain for a positive review of the provocative play. "I tried in vain to find a positive review, given that everyone from Alexander Woolcott down seems to have considered it the stinker of the year. Amazingly, the only one who liked it was the great George Jean Nathan. His might have been the sole positive review, as it's quoted in advertisements. He also wrote positively (and insightfully) of it in Arts and Decoration. https://books.google.com/books?id=lNJL3qnLa1gC&pg=RA2-PA40"

Inspired by Camille, I went looking for more commentary on the play, and can confirm her findings - everyone hated The Loves of Lulu. Not only did Alexander Woolcott dislike the play, so did another famous critic of the time, Edmund Wilson. And so did John Mason Brown, who, writing in Theater Arts Monthly, called it an "unpardonably bad production." Critic Philip Hale stated, " The audience on the first night of The Loves of Lulu (Wedekind's Erdgeist) laughed ironically and coarsely, guying the whole performance." The New Yorker said it was "played for farce value, perhaps unintentionally."

Writing in The New Republic, Wilson said the play "failed so completely." In Vanity Fair, Woolcott said it lacked "perversion." Ouch! Even Picture Play magazine, which generally focused on films, got in on the massacre. Before noting The Loves of Lulu "played about a week to all but empty houses," Picture Play stated, "It was adapted from a German play called Erdgeist, by Wedekind, which in the original is a morbidly interesting work of real force and coherence. But the translation was so garbled and the acting so bad that it landed in the same heap with its almost illiterate neighbors."

In fact, many of the bad reviews the play received criticized the translation, which was by Samuel Eliot. His translation was the only translation into English at the time. And, according to Peter Bauland's 1968 book, The Hooded Eagle: Modern German Drama on the New York Stage, Margot Kelly's The Loves of Lulu was something rare -- the only professional production of a Wedekind play in New York for many years. Bauland writes, "Between the closing of The Awakening of Spring in 1917 and the off-Broadway performance of Erdgeist as Earth Spirit in 1950, the only professional production in New York of a play by Frank Wedekind came on May 11, 1925. This was Samuel A. Eliot, Jr.’s translation of Erdgeist known as The Loves of Lulu. The German play, written in 1894, was first produced in Leipzig in 1898; its first successful staging was Max Reinhardts 1902 presentation in Berlin. It was Erdgeist and its sequel, Die Biichse der Pandora (Pandora s Box), not granted a permit to be performed in Germany until 1919, that earned for Wedekind his notorious reputation: that of being nothing more than the prophet of a cult which maintained that all human action was the product of tyrannical sex drives, and that in the face of this pressure, man cannot have both happiness and dignity. The reputation was undeserved, for despite Wedekind’s insistence on the power of glandular forces, this is certainly an oversimplification of his motives, and he seldom dealt with sex naturalistically."

All of this got me to wondering, how familiar with Wedekind's original German play could all of these critical critics have been? About the only middling review the play received was in The New Leader, a socialist weekly newspaper. Here is their review.

As I mentioned in the last blog, all this is interesting to me as background on the way Louise Brooks role as Lulu was received in the United States just four years later.

This blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2022. Further use prohibited.

The Loves of Lulu - the First American Lulu (not Louise Brooks) part 1

Recently, while doing some research on Louise Brooks' first film, The Street of Forgotten Men, I came across a 1925 magazine clipping mentioning the The Loves of Lulu, which reportedly was the first American stage presentation of Frank Wedekind's Lulu plays. Notably, the play opened in New York City in May of 1925 - at the same time as Brooks was dancing in the Ziegfeld Follies and The Street of Forgotten Men was in production just across town. How's that for historical overlap?

I was intrigued to find out more, and to learn more about Margot Kelly, the actress who first played Lulu in America. She has a few film credits, but seems primarily to have been a stage actress. Below, is a rather striking photo of Kelly as Lulu. Notably, this photo was taken by Edward Thayer Monroe, who also photographed Brooks. How's that for coincidence?

Interestingly, I also came across a 1924 letter from the Nobel Prize winning playwright Eugene O'Neill to Kenneth Macgowan in which O'Neill mentions Margot Kelly and his interest in the Lulu plays. O'Neill writes, "I've been going over, with the English translations of the separate plays as a trot, the combination made by Wedekind himself of Erdgeist & Pandora's Box which he called Lulu. Margot Kelly dug up a copy of it in Library of Congress. It looks good. I'm strong for it, provided we can get a good translator. I'll even promise to help on the dialogue. This Erd-Pandora work of Wedekind's ought to be done somehow. It's the best thing of its kind ever written and we ought to do it at the P.P." [Provincetown Playhouse] Ah, what might have been.

Kenneth Macgowan, to whom the letter was addressed, ran the Provincetown Playhouse as its producer, and with Eugene O'Neill as a business partners. In the 1930s, Macgowan went into film as a producer, and even won an Academy Award. Later, he authored a notably early history of film titled Behind the Screen (1965). While it briefly discusses G. W. Pabst, it does not mention Louise Brooks. 

Well, anyways, here is another striking portrait of Margot Kelly. While looking her up online, I came across another portrait, which looks like it was taken ship-board. Kelly, it seems, had been to England, where she played Lulu. The caption on the back of the photo reads, "American actress too daring for London stage Margot Kelly returns from London where she received the "cold shoulder" in the play Loves of Lulu which was a big hit in this country but too risky for Englishmen." She seems like quite a personality.

I have dug up some more on Margot Kelly and her role as Lulu which I will post in the next blog. All this is interesting to me as background on the way Louise Brooks role as Lulu was received just four years later.

This blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society (www.pandorasbox.com). Original contents copyright © 2022. Further use prohibited.

Pandora's Box for sale, belonged to producer of Louise Brooks film

Here is something you don't see every day.... An early edition copy of Frank Wedekind's Pandora's Box has come up for sale. What makes it unusual is not its age, though vintage copies of the classic play are uncommon. Rather, what makes this copy special is that it once belonged to Seymour Nebenzal, the producer of the 1929 G.W. Pabst directed film Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks. Not surprisingly, the seller is asking a premium. The book is for sale on eBay.

This likely second printing of the play also has Seymour Nebenzal's bookplate.

Seymour Nebenzal got into film production through his father Heinrich Nebenzahl. In 1926, Heinrich Nebenzahl and director-producer Richard Oswald founded the company Nero-Film. (That was the company that released Pandora's Box.) As head of this company, Seymour Nebenzal became one of the most important producers during the German transition from silent to sound film. Besides Pabst, he worked with the directors Douglas Sirk, Edgar G. Ulmer, and Fritz Lang among others. His European credits include People on Sunday (1930), Westfront 1918 (1930), Threepenny Opera (1931), M (1931), Kameradschaft (1931), L'Atlantide (1932), and Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (1933). Four of the aforementioned films were directed by Pabst.

In 1933, the Nazis forced him into exile. In Paris, he produced films by other German exiles such as Robert Siodmak (his cousin), as well as Max Ophüls and Anatole Litvak. In 1939, he went on to Hollywood where he became one of the first independent producers and worked with some of the same directors he worked with in Europe, namely Edgar G. Ulmer, Douglas Sirk, Léonide Moguy, Arthur Ripley, and Albert S. Rogell.

Speaking of Pandora's Box.... I own a number of copies of the Wedekind play, from early German editions to a first edition of the first American translation (both in softcover and hardback) to later translations and reprints to Eric Bentley's recent Monster Tragedy. Each feature something a little different - a translation, an introduction, or illustrations. (I especially treasure editions which depict or discuss Louise Brooks.) Earlier today I received in the mail the latest volume which I will add to my small collection. This hardcover volume, Five Tragedies of Sex, features translations of Wedekind's plays by Frances Fawcett and Stephen Spender (the noted English poet). Here is a picture of my new treasure, which I purchased through eBay.

A ballet of Frank Wedekind's Lulu

If you are near the Oper Halle (Saale), Germany on December 4, 2015 you might want to check out the premiere of Lulu, a ballet enacted by Jochen Ulrich & the Tanzfonds Erbe, based on Frank  Wedekind's Büchse der Pandora and Erdgeist.

There are performances on Dec. 30th 2015; Jan. 23rd & 31st, Feb. 26th, March 4th and June 25th 2016. For more information see http://buehnen-halle.de/lulu

Gefördert von TANZFONDS ERBE – eine Initiative der Kulturstiftung des Bundes
Mit der Premiere des Balletts »Lulu« des 2012 verstorbenen Choreografen Jochen Ulrich, einem der entscheidendsten Wegbereiter des Modernen Tanzes in Deutschland, knüpft das Ballett Rossa an die erfolgreiche Vertanzung von dessen »Anna Karenina« an. Auch bei diesem Handlungsballett nach der gesellschaftskritischen Doppeltragödie »Erdgeist« und »Die Büchse der Pandora« des deutschen Schriftstellers und Dramatikers Frank Wedekind steht eine der faszinierendsten Frauenfiguren der Weltliteratur im Mittelpunkt. Als musikalische Grundlage dienen Kompositionen des Italieners Nino Rota zu den zwischen 1952 und 1970 entstandenen Filmen »Rocco und seine Brüder« und »Der Leopard« von Visconti sowie »Der weiße Scheich«, »La Strada«, »8 ½« und »Die Clowns« von Fellini, die sowohl groteske als auch dekadent neo-roman- tische Züge tragen. Hierzu erzählt Jochen Ulrich seine »Lulu« mit seinem unverwechselbaren ausdrucksstarken Tanzstil als Geschichte einer selbstbewusst mit ihrer erotischen Anziehungskraft spielenden Frau aus einfachsten Verhältnissen. Alle Männer, die ihr begegnen, erliegen ihren Verführungs- künsten. Indem Lulu deren Fantasien befriedigt, bringt sie ihre Liebhaber um den Verstand und treibt sie in den Tod. Auf der Flucht vor der Polizei landet sie in London, wo sie sich – inzwischen selbst emotional ausgebeutet – im finstersten Milieu prostituiert und die Begegnung mit dem Freier Jack the Ripper tragisch endet.

Musikalische Leitung Hilary Griffiths

Musikalische Leitung Robbert van Steijn

Inszenierung und Choreografie Jochen Ulrich †

Inszenierung und Choroegrafie Darie Cardyn

Bühne Katrin Kegler-Fritsch

Kostüme Marie-Therese Cramer

Dramaturgie Manfred Weber

Dr. Schön Michal Sedláček

Eduard Schwarz Johan Plaitano

Lulu Yuliya Gerbyna

Dr. Goll Martin Zanotti

Schigolch Dalier Burchanow

Ballett Rossa

Statisterie der Oper Halle

Staatskapelle Halle

Another new Lulu production

If you are near the Oper Halle (Saale), Germany on December 4, 2015 you might want to check out the premiere of Lulu, a ballet enacted by Jochen Ulrich & the Tanzfonds Erbe, based on Frank  Wedekind's Büchse der Pandora and Erdgeist.

There are performances on Dec. 30th 2015; Jan. 23rd & 31st, Feb. 26th, March 4th and June 25th 2016. For more information see http://buehnen-halle.de/lulu

Gefördert von TANZFONDS ERBE – eine Initiative der Kulturstiftung des Bundes
Mit der Premiere des Balletts »Lulu« des 2012 verstorbenen Choreografen Jochen Ulrich, einem der entscheidendsten Wegbereiter des Modernen Tanzes in Deutschland, knüpft das Ballett Rossa an die erfolgreiche Vertanzung von dessen »Anna Karenina« an. Auch bei diesem Handlungsballett nach der gesellschaftskritischen Doppeltragödie »Erdgeist« und »Die Büchse der Pandora« des deutschen Schriftstellers und Dramatikers Frank Wedekind steht eine der faszinierendsten Frauenfiguren der Weltliteratur im Mittelpunkt. Als musikalische Grundlage dienen Kompositionen des Italieners Nino Rota zu den zwischen 1952 und 1970 entstandenen Filmen »Rocco und seine Brüder« und »Der Leopard« von Visconti sowie »Der weiße Scheich«, »La Strada«, »8 ½« und »Die Clowns« von Fellini, die sowohl groteske als auch dekadent neo-roman- tische Züge tragen. Hierzu erzählt Jochen Ulrich seine »Lulu« mit seinem unverwechselbaren ausdrucksstarken Tanzstil als Geschichte einer selbstbewusst mit ihrer erotischen Anziehungskraft spielenden Frau aus einfachsten Verhältnissen. Alle Männer, die ihr begegnen, erliegen ihren Verführungs- künsten. Indem Lulu deren Fantasien befriedigt, bringt sie ihre Liebhaber um den Verstand und treibt sie in den Tod. Auf der Flucht vor der Polizei landet sie in London, wo sie sich – inzwischen selbst emotional ausgebeutet – im finstersten Milieu prostituiert und die Begegnung mit dem Freier Jack the Ripper tragisch endet.

Musikalische Leitung Hilary Griffiths

Musikalische Leitung Robbert van Steijn

Inszenierung und Choreografie Jochen Ulrich †

Inszenierung und Choroegrafie Darie Cardyn

Bühne Katrin Kegler-Fritsch

Kostüme Marie-Therese Cramer

Dramaturgie Manfred Weber

Dr. Schön Michal Sedláček

Eduard Schwarz Johan Plaitano

Lulu Yuliya Gerbyna

Dr. Goll Martin Zanotti

Schigolch Dalier Burchanow

Ballett Rossa

Statisterie der Oper Halle

Staatskapelle Halle

Lulu's debut. . . on this day in 1905

On this day in history, Lulu made her debut in Vienna.

The premiere of Frank Wedekind’s Die Büchse der Pandora (Pandora’s Box), a restricted performance due to difficulties with the censor, had already taken place in Nuremberg  in 1904. A second staging, in Vienna, was arranged at the instigation of the critic and satirist Karl Kraus. This second stage production took place at the Trianon Theater in Vienna, Austria on May 29, 1905.

The production was notable, as was the cast. It featured dramatist Frank Wedekind as Jack the Ripper, Tilly Newes (Franks Wedekin's wife, Tilly Wedekind) as Lulu, Arnold Korff as Dr. Hilti (Korff also played the Elder Count Osdorff in the 1929 film, Diary of a Lost Girl), and Irma Karczewska as “Bob.” The play’s producer, Karl Kraus, played Kungu Poti.

Who was Irma Karczewska? She was a striking personality and noted beauty who was involved in an erotic triangle with Kraus and Sigmund Freud's first biographer, the pioneering psychologist Fritz Wittels. Read all about it in Freud and the Child Woman: The Memoirs of Fritz Wittels, edited by Edward Timms, published by Yale University Press in 1995.

According to the publisher, Yale University Press, "In his memoirs, Wittels writes frankly and vividly about the erotic subculture of fin-de-siècle Vienna, early controversies within the Psychoanalytic Society, and the interactions between the two. Freud himself plays a crucial role in the story, and the erotic triangle in which Kraus, Wittels, and Irma Karczewska were involved is shown to have impinged directly on the activities of the famous Society."

One wonders who might have been in the audience on that historic day. Perhaps Sigmund Freud? If not, was he aware of or had he read Frank Wedekind's Lulu plays?

On a not unrelated note, it is known that members of Freud's circle had read and written about Margarete Bohme's famous book, The Diary of a Lost Girl.

Also, on this day in 1967, G.W. Pabst, who directed Louise Brooks in Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl, died in Austria.