Alfred Hitchcock's silent films

Polish-Czech-Austrian-German-French actress Anny Ondra.
In 1931, she appeared with  Fritz Kortner, Francis Lederer,
and Fritz Rasp in the film Die Grosse Sehnsucht.

In a career spanning more than half a century, Hitchcock fashioned a distinct directorial style which helped redefine the act of film. Above all, Hitchcock told stories visually. He employed innovative camera angles and editing techniques, and reveled in shots framed to heighten a scene's sense of trepidation. At times, his use of the camera could border on voyeurism.

Recognized as a master of suspense, many of Hitchcock's films have suprise endings, and employ decoys or "MacGuffins" that serve the film's themes and allow for examination of character psychology. Frustration, criminal behavior, muted violence, and murder run throughout -- as do individuals on the run from the law alongside alluring, icy blonde women, the latter being a Hitchcock obsession.

A somewhat quiet Catholic boy from London's East End, Hitchcock (1899 - 1980) began as a production designer during the silent era. He moved up the ranks, and eventually became Britain's leading director before heading to Hollywood in 1939. Hitchcock completed ten films in England before the talkies took over. Nine of those silent films still exist.

Recently, the British Film Institute set about restoring Hitchcock's surviving silents. Missing footage was restored, and decades of damage and dirt removed in what is being described as the largest restoration project ever undertaken by the BFI, which holds some of the earliest surviving copies of the director's silent work.

These little-seen films, which have come to be known as the "Hitchcock 9," reveal the seeds of genius. They show an artist starting to work with the themes, motifs and obsessions which were the hallmark of his best movies. The "Hitchcock 9" includes the director's first completed film, The Pleasure Garden (1925), about chorus girls in London, as well as such rarities as Downhill (1927), Easy Virtue (1928), Champagne (1928), and The Farmer's Wife (1928).

The now familiar Hitchcock style is already evident in four of the films, Blackmail (1929), The Ring (1927), The Manxman** (1929), and The Lodger (1927). The director himself dubbed the latter film "the first true Hitchcock picture." It also features his first cameo appearance, and shows the influence of German directors like Fritz Lang and G.W. Pabst. In fact, prior to making The Lodger, Hitchcock had visited Germany to study its film industry.

Hitchcock once said, "The silent pictures were the purest form of cinema." These early works, starring the likes of handsome Ivor Novello and the gorgeous European actress Anny Ondra, shouldn't be missed. Notably, The Pleasure Garden stars Virginia Valli, one of the stars of the 1927 Louise Brooks' film, Evening Clothes. It also stars Carmelita Geraghty, the daughter of screenwriter Tom Geraghty, who wrote another 1927 Louise Brooks film, Now We're in the Air.

A national tour for the "Hitchcock 9" begins at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco (June 14-16) in an event sponsored by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. Hats off to them for debuting these historic works. The films then make their way to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (June 18, featuring only the silent and sound versions of Blackmail), and BAMcinématek in Brooklyn (June 29- July 5).

Additional screenings are also in the works for Washington D.C., Berkeley, Chicago, Seattle, Houston, Boston, and other American cities. Both the San Francisco and Brooklyn events will feature live music performed by the renown Colorado-based Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, acclaimed British composer-pianist Stephen Horne, and other musical accompanists.

** The Manxman was based on a popular novel by Hall Caine, a well known writer of the day. Caine was also a literary critic who publicly praised Margarete Bohme's The Diary of a Lost One (the English title for The Diary of a Lost Girl) when it was first published in England.

Silent version of Prix de Beauté with Louise Brooks screens July 18th

On Thursday, July 18th, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival will screen a new restoration of the silent version of Prix de Beauté (1930), with musical accompaniment by Stephen Horne. This special  screening opens this year's annual festival, and, it is a very rare opportunity to see the least seen version of one of Louise Brooks' finest films.

Here is what the San Francisco Silent Film Festival website has to say:

Prix de Beauté marks Louise Brooks’s last starring role in a feature. Less known than her work with G.W. Pabst (Pandora’s Box, Diary of a Lost Girl), Prix de Beauté was marred by its foray into early sound (Brooks’s voice was dubbed). Our presentation is the superior silent version recently restored by the Cineteca di Bologna. Brooks is stunning as Lucienne, the “everygirl” typist who enters a beauty contest and is introduced to a shiny world of fame and modernity. But Prix’s script, a collaboration between René Clair and G.W. Pabst, doesn’t leave Lucienne in a fairy tale bubble but leads to a powerful, moving denouement. Cinematographers Rudolph Maté and Louis Née make beautiful use of Brooks’s glorious face. Approximately 108 minutes.

Buy Tickets & Passes Here! General $20 / Member $18

The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty chosen by national book group

Book Movement, a website that provides web pages to 35,000 book clubs and tracks their selections, has chosen The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty as its Book of the Month for June. As well, they've posted a drink for a cocktail called 'The Lulu.' It looks good. That and more at http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=8c40de26506ca0f9b22d5c6a0&id=18e9a411d1

Want to know more: check out this story, "The Chaperone Tells Story of Jazz Age, Social Morality"  on Kansas Public Radio. 

And here is another review of The Chaperone on Wichita public radio station KMUW. Give it a listen.

Another rare early image of Louise Brooks

Yesterday's Louise Brooks Society blog depicted a rare early image of Louise Brooks. Here is another. This is Louise Brooks' photo from her 1924 passport application. Notably, this was the passport that got her to London, where she would later find work as a dancer at the city's Cafe de Paris, and become the first person to perform the Charleston in the English capital (see yesterday's blog).

Apparently, Brooks applied for her passport at the last minute, on September 18th, 1924, in order to travel to England aboard the Homeric, which was scheduled to depart on September 20th. Her application request was granted over the telephone by a Miss Baukhages. Brooks went to London in the company of Barbara Bennett, the younger sister of the soon-to-be famous Bennett sisters. Bennett was Brooks' witness, and stated that they had known one another for 10 years (not true). On her application, Brooks stated that she was going to England and France to study and travel."Study and travel" was crossed out, and replaced by "visit relative & travel."

Both Louise and Barbara were only 17 years old at the time. Brooks' youth likely explains why a series of telegrams then flew back and forth between New York City and Wichita, Kansas and between the Department of State and Brooks' parents, who granted her permission to travel abroad.

A rare early image of Louise Brooks

This magazine clipping depicts Louise Brooks. It is a rare image of the yet-to-be actress which I would guess was taken sometime in 1924. Brooks was either 17 or 18 years old at the time. The clipping sold for a modest price on eBay. The seller, based in Germany, said it came from a 1925 German newspaper or magazine. 

Little else is known about the clipping. The number 55 in the upper right hand corner suggests it came from a magazine, and not a newspaper. (Or it could have come from the photo supplement that newspapers at the time often ran on weekends.) The caption below the portrait tells us this image was a publicity photo tied to Brooks' December, 1924 appearance at the Cafe de Paris in London, where she famously became the first person to dance the Charleston in the British capital. The image could have been taken in London, or it could be a left-over publicity photo from Brooks' brief tenure with the George White Scandals in New York City earlier in the year. Whatever the case, it is a rare bit of publicity from Brooks' time in London.

Speaking of little seen material related to Brooks' time in London, I recently came across this passenger list which shows Brooks left England to return the United States on January 14th, 1925. Brooks is the last person listed on the form. She traveled aboard the Homeric, and gave her age as 19 - though she only 18. Her occupation is listed as dancer. And interestingly, she listed her London residence as 49 Pall Mall. 

Here is a look at 49 Pall Mall, London S.W., as it appears today. This apartment building is not far from Piccadilly. Perhaps these are the very same doors that a young Louise Brooks went in and out of in 1924 and 1925.

Update: Of course, I will try and track down the source of this clip. To me, it's especially interesting that this brief appearance in London by the then little known Louise Brooks received coverage on the Continent.... If you want to see what the Cafe de Paris looked like on the inside, be sure and track down Anna May Wong's wonderful film, Piccadilly (1929). It was filmed partly inside the famous nightclub.[And be sure and check out the June 10th blog for Another related rare early image of Louise Brooks.]

Louise Brooks and the Vampire of Dusseldorf

Recently, I wrote about a new novel coming out in softcover in the UK which features Louise Brooks on the cover. That book is The Killing of Emma Gross, by Damien Seaman; it has been published in the UK as a paperback and as an ebook in June 2013. The book is also available in the United States.

This new novel is based on the true story of notorious serial killer Peter Kürten and the unsolved murder of Düsseldorf prostitute Emma Gross. The Killing of Emma Gross is a historical thriller, a police procedural set in Weimar Republic-era Germany. Here is the publisher description:

"Dusseldorf prostitute Emma Gross has been murdered and the police have charged Peter Kurten, the 'Vampire of Dusseldorf', the first man ever to be called a serial killer. Murderer, yes, but did he commit this particular crime? The arresting officer, Thomas Klein, thinks not, even though Kurten has confessed. These are the dying days of Weimar Germany, the police force is increasingly divided between right and left. It is a dangerous time. Klein thinks that the real killer is somewhat closer to home. Yet the only people who can help him include a Communist journalist, Gross's friends, and others in the underworld who hate the police. This is a novel of obsession set in the wild days of Weimar, doomed to end with the Nazi takeover."

Peter Kürten was a notorious figure in his day. So much so he was nicknamed the Vampire of Dusseldorf. Kürten, reportedly, inspired the murderer played by Peter Lorre in Fritz Lang's M.

Reading up on Kürten, I discovered he has also been the subject of a handful of books, as well as songs (of the heavy metal / goth rock variety), and inspired characters in other works of fiction. There was also a 1965 movie made about his life called The Vampire of Dusseldorf. Directed, written, and starring Robert Hossein, the film is alternately titled The Secret Killer.

I haven't yet seen the film, but the other day I came across a still of one of the actresses in the 1965 film. It may be Marie-France Pisier. Whoever she is, she has striking resemblance to Louise Brooks.

It's just a strange, kinda creepy, coincidence which also makes me wonder what is it about this feminine type and serial killers? Has it something to do with lustmord? The character of Lulu, played by Brooks, was killed by Jack the Ripper in Frank Wedekind's play and G.W. Pabst film of Pandora's Box. [Thanks to Mark Hodgson and his blog, Black Hole Reviews, for calling attention to the Vampire of Dusseldorf film. UPDATE: the actress pictured above is not Marie-France Pisier. Perhaps it is Tanya Lopert? If anyone knows, please post in the comments field.]