Variety (1925 film)
Variety (German: Varieté [ˌvaʀi̯eˈte], also known by the alternative titles Jealousy or Vaudeville) is a 1925 silent drama film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont based on the 1912 novel The Oath of Stephan Huller by Felix Hollaender.[1]
Variety | |
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Directed by | Ewald Andre Dupont |
Produced by | Erich Pommer |
Written by | Screenwriter:
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Based on | The Oath of Stephan Huller by Felix Hollaender |
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In the film, Jannings portrays "Boss Huller", a former trapeze artist who was badly injured in a fall from the high wire and who now runs a seedy carnival with his wife (Maly Delschaft) and their child. Huller insists that the family take in a beautiful stranger (Lya De Putti) as a new sideshow dancer, with whom he develops a new trapeze number. He falls in love with the new star, and the story ends in tragedy.
The film was heavily censored when it was released in America (except New York), by excising the entire first reel, "thus destroying the motivation of the tragedy, implying that the acrobat was married to his Eurasian temptress."[2]
The trapeze scenes are set in the Berlin Wintergarten theatre. The camera swings from long shot to close-up, like the acrobats.[3]
The story was loosely remade by Dupont as the 1931 sound film Salto Mortale.
Cast
- Emil Jannings as Boss Huller
- Maly Delschaft as wife of Boss
- Lya De Putti as Bertha
- Warwick Ward as Artinelli
- Georg John
Influence
The German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck cites being unexpectedly exposed to the film as a child of four as the start of his interest in the medium.[4]
This film is believed to contain the first documentation of unicycle hockey – it features a short sequence showing two people playing the game.
See also
- The House That Shadows Built (1931 promotional film by Paramount which excerpts this film)
References
- Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek listing. Retrieved 2010-12-08.
- Morris Ernst and Pare Lorentz, (1930). Censored: The Private Life of the Movie, New York: Jonathan Cape. p. 12.
- Eric, Rhode (1985). A History of the Cinema: from its origins to 1970. New York, USA: Da Capo Press. pp. 184–185. ISBN 978-0-306-80233-1.
- Rohter, Larry, "German Director Plunges Beyond His Comfort Zone", The New York Times, December 8, 2010 (December 9, 2010 p. C1 NY ed.). Retrieved 2010-12-08.