OK --- this is what's been filling my thoughts for most of today, so here's a blog-type post on it by way of 'information sharing'.
===
One recent rediscovery of a lost movie that has scarcely been heralded at all, it seems to me, is the Munich Film Museum's uncovering of 31 minutes of the 1914 German Jekyll and Hyde picture EIN SELTSAMER FALL (literally: A Strange Case), starring Alwin Neuss. The feature originally ran around 50 minutes, but many of the key scenes (including the all-important transformation) are contained in the rediscovered print, which surfaced in early 2005, with the museum having arranged a few screenings of a partially restored version (projected on video) in Germany and Austria that summer, while still undertaking a full 35mm restoration of the movie.
EIN SELTSAMER FALL is significant not only on its own account, but also because it is part of a tangled web of interplay between various European Jekyll and Hyde adaptations during the period, which Im going to try to outline briefly below (brevity is not my strong point, though!!).
Please excuse the small size of the images and my ID being all over them, but this is fairly unique visual material which I will be using (along with much, much more) in a forthcoming book!
===
(1) JEKYLL AND HYDE (1910)
Berlin-born stage actor Alwin Neuss became one of the leading lights at Denmark's Nordisk film company from 1908 onwards. When he joined Germany's Vitascope film company in 1914, his first roles were essentially 'updated versions' of some of his successes from his Nordisk days, including both Sherlock Holmes and --- Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, a dual role he had first played in the (lost film) DEN SKÆBNESVANGRE OPFINDELSE (1910).
The two-reel DEN SKÆBNESVANGRE OPFINDELSE was a relative hit for Nordisk, who sold 44 copies outright in 1910 (slightly above their standard number of print sales at that time), so that it played in the USA as JEKYLL AND HYDE, in Britain as DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE, in Italy as L'INVENZIONE FATALE O IL DOTTORE JEKYLL E IL SIGNOR HYDE, in French-speaking countries as L'INVENTION FATALE, OU, LE DOCTEUR JEKYLL ET M. HYDE, in Spanish-speaking countries as LA INVENCIÓN FATAL O JEKYLL Y HYDE, and in Germany as --- EIN SELTSAMER FALL.
EIN SELTSAMER FALL (1914), in other words, was an extended, updated, new version of an earlier film starring the same actor, which audiences already knew under the same title, EIN SELTSAMER FALL (1910). As such, it is the first (and perhaps only?) direct remake of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in the cinema, and the only link we have to gauging what the lost 1910 film might perhaps have been like.
From production stills, the most obvious difference between the 1910 and 1914 Neuss Jekyll and Hydes seems to be a general change in cinematic modes of (re)presentation. While painted sets reminiscent of Méliès were used in the 1910 film, the 1914 sets are more realist in nature; and while Neuss's 1910 Hyde was a very broad caricature, with ape-like make-up, his 1914 Hyde was comparatively subtly played, with make-up that allowed remnants of humanity to come across more strongly.
A posed publicity still showing the painted laboratory from DEN SKÆBNESVANGRE OPFINDELSE (1910), with Neuss as both Jekyll and Hyde:
The more realist laboratory in EIN SELTSAMER FALL (1914), showing Neuss as Hyde:
Alwin Neuss's overtly simian make-up in DEN SKÆBNESVANGRE OPFINDELSE (1910):
===
(2) THE OTHER (1913)
Something rather more unanticipated about EIN SELTSAMER FALL (1914) is the similarity of some of its scenes to ones in DER ANDERE (The Other, 1913), another extant title.
DER ANDERE had been a major financial success for Vitascope in 1913, even though it was mauled by several contemporary critics for being utterly uncinematic; and if you've ever sat through the scene in which Albert Bassermann talks and talks (silently, of course) while smoking an entire cigarette in real time, or if you've witnessed the scene in which he falls from a horse (something crucial to the narrative) which isn't actually shown, but merely announced by way of an intertitle at the end of the scene you'd have to agree that the critics may have had a point!!
DER ANDERE was a dual-personality drama (based on an 1893 play by Paul Lindau) in which Albert Bassermann is transformed during nocturnal episodes from an upstanding lawyer, Dr. Hallers, into a lascivious (and nameless) underworld ne'er-do-well. The original 1913 Vitascope program even describes it as "Jekyll and Hyde in a stuffy bourgeois setting".
Its significance in European dual personality cinema shouldnt be underestimated; it was remade by Robert Wiene (of Caligari fame) as an early talkie in both German- and French-language versions, as DER ANDERE and LE PROCUREUR HALLERS (1930), and in Italy by Alessandro Blasetti as IL CASO HALLER (1933).
The rediscovered EIN SELTSAMER FALL (1914) in many ways plays like a re-treading of 1913's DER ANDERE only rendered 'more cinematic' through better pacing and more action. The similarity, to be sure, is not coincidental: both films were made by Vitascope, both were directed by Max Mack, and both feature the same leading lady, Hanni Weisse, as the 'Ivy' character.
Drawing on the 'pub' scene in both films by way of example, the connection between the two works can be gauged pretty clearly ---
Albert Bassermann (in his 'Hyde' state) and Hanni Weisse (as the 'Ivy' character) in DER ANDERE (1913):
Alwin Neuss (as Hyde) and Hanni Weisse (as the 'Ivy' character) in EIN SELTSAMER FALL (1914):
What EIN SELTSAMER FALL adds to this sequence are external shots which give a greater sense of realism and context to the pub location (placing it visibly in a low-rent area), in addition to making these sequences more visually interesting:
===
(3) DER JANUSKOPF (1920)
While first researching EIN SELTSAMER FALL (1914) at the Deutsche Kinemathek back in 1997, one of the more bizarre documents I came across was what appeared to be a program for the movie under a completely different title: SEIN EIGENER MÖRDER (His Own Murderer). This program would ultimately help lead, with no input from me whatsoever, I should add, to the locating of the rediscovered 31 minutes of footage.
And indeed, it turns out that EIN SELTSAMER FALL, after three months of heavy promotion under that title in the trade press, and after an initial Berlin release under that title in December 1914 --- was swiftly withdrawn, resubmitted to the censor with new intertitles as SEIN EIGENER MÖRDER, and re-released under the new title just one week after its premiere!!!
The precise events behind the playing-out of this hasty retitling --- can only be guessed at. Needless to say, Germany and Britain were at war by this point, and so there may well have been negative reaction to the known 'British' characters of Jekyll and Hyde (and even the title, which unambiguously alluded to Stevenson's original, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde). The new intertitles of SEIN EIGENER MÖRDER turned Jekyll and Hyde into Fred Siles and Frank Allan --- two names that were intended to sound American to German ears, and thus to eradicate the perceived 'Britishness' of the subject matter.
And at this point, I cannot help but think of that most celebrated lost German Jekyll and Hyde movie DER JANUSKOPF (1920) with its renamed Dr Warren and Mr O'Connor, themselves precursors to Murnau's renamed Graf Orlok, Hutter, and Knock. As such, EIN SELTSAMER FALL can also claim a position as the first in a string of German silent movie adaptations of classic horror tales in which the lead characters ended up being renamed.
That which seemed so certain on 6th December 1914 ---
--- already rendered obsolete by 13th December 1914:
===
One recent rediscovery of a lost movie that has scarcely been heralded at all, it seems to me, is the Munich Film Museum's uncovering of 31 minutes of the 1914 German Jekyll and Hyde picture EIN SELTSAMER FALL (literally: A Strange Case), starring Alwin Neuss. The feature originally ran around 50 minutes, but many of the key scenes (including the all-important transformation) are contained in the rediscovered print, which surfaced in early 2005, with the museum having arranged a few screenings of a partially restored version (projected on video) in Germany and Austria that summer, while still undertaking a full 35mm restoration of the movie.
EIN SELTSAMER FALL is significant not only on its own account, but also because it is part of a tangled web of interplay between various European Jekyll and Hyde adaptations during the period, which Im going to try to outline briefly below (brevity is not my strong point, though!!).
Please excuse the small size of the images and my ID being all over them, but this is fairly unique visual material which I will be using (along with much, much more) in a forthcoming book!
===
(1) JEKYLL AND HYDE (1910)
Berlin-born stage actor Alwin Neuss became one of the leading lights at Denmark's Nordisk film company from 1908 onwards. When he joined Germany's Vitascope film company in 1914, his first roles were essentially 'updated versions' of some of his successes from his Nordisk days, including both Sherlock Holmes and --- Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, a dual role he had first played in the (lost film) DEN SKÆBNESVANGRE OPFINDELSE (1910).
The two-reel DEN SKÆBNESVANGRE OPFINDELSE was a relative hit for Nordisk, who sold 44 copies outright in 1910 (slightly above their standard number of print sales at that time), so that it played in the USA as JEKYLL AND HYDE, in Britain as DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE, in Italy as L'INVENZIONE FATALE O IL DOTTORE JEKYLL E IL SIGNOR HYDE, in French-speaking countries as L'INVENTION FATALE, OU, LE DOCTEUR JEKYLL ET M. HYDE, in Spanish-speaking countries as LA INVENCIÓN FATAL O JEKYLL Y HYDE, and in Germany as --- EIN SELTSAMER FALL.
EIN SELTSAMER FALL (1914), in other words, was an extended, updated, new version of an earlier film starring the same actor, which audiences already knew under the same title, EIN SELTSAMER FALL (1910). As such, it is the first (and perhaps only?) direct remake of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in the cinema, and the only link we have to gauging what the lost 1910 film might perhaps have been like.
From production stills, the most obvious difference between the 1910 and 1914 Neuss Jekyll and Hydes seems to be a general change in cinematic modes of (re)presentation. While painted sets reminiscent of Méliès were used in the 1910 film, the 1914 sets are more realist in nature; and while Neuss's 1910 Hyde was a very broad caricature, with ape-like make-up, his 1914 Hyde was comparatively subtly played, with make-up that allowed remnants of humanity to come across more strongly.
A posed publicity still showing the painted laboratory from DEN SKÆBNESVANGRE OPFINDELSE (1910), with Neuss as both Jekyll and Hyde:
The more realist laboratory in EIN SELTSAMER FALL (1914), showing Neuss as Hyde:
Alwin Neuss's overtly simian make-up in DEN SKÆBNESVANGRE OPFINDELSE (1910):
===
(2) THE OTHER (1913)
Something rather more unanticipated about EIN SELTSAMER FALL (1914) is the similarity of some of its scenes to ones in DER ANDERE (The Other, 1913), another extant title.
DER ANDERE had been a major financial success for Vitascope in 1913, even though it was mauled by several contemporary critics for being utterly uncinematic; and if you've ever sat through the scene in which Albert Bassermann talks and talks (silently, of course) while smoking an entire cigarette in real time, or if you've witnessed the scene in which he falls from a horse (something crucial to the narrative) which isn't actually shown, but merely announced by way of an intertitle at the end of the scene you'd have to agree that the critics may have had a point!!
DER ANDERE was a dual-personality drama (based on an 1893 play by Paul Lindau) in which Albert Bassermann is transformed during nocturnal episodes from an upstanding lawyer, Dr. Hallers, into a lascivious (and nameless) underworld ne'er-do-well. The original 1913 Vitascope program even describes it as "Jekyll and Hyde in a stuffy bourgeois setting".
Its significance in European dual personality cinema shouldnt be underestimated; it was remade by Robert Wiene (of Caligari fame) as an early talkie in both German- and French-language versions, as DER ANDERE and LE PROCUREUR HALLERS (1930), and in Italy by Alessandro Blasetti as IL CASO HALLER (1933).
The rediscovered EIN SELTSAMER FALL (1914) in many ways plays like a re-treading of 1913's DER ANDERE only rendered 'more cinematic' through better pacing and more action. The similarity, to be sure, is not coincidental: both films were made by Vitascope, both were directed by Max Mack, and both feature the same leading lady, Hanni Weisse, as the 'Ivy' character.
Drawing on the 'pub' scene in both films by way of example, the connection between the two works can be gauged pretty clearly ---
Albert Bassermann (in his 'Hyde' state) and Hanni Weisse (as the 'Ivy' character) in DER ANDERE (1913):
Alwin Neuss (as Hyde) and Hanni Weisse (as the 'Ivy' character) in EIN SELTSAMER FALL (1914):
What EIN SELTSAMER FALL adds to this sequence are external shots which give a greater sense of realism and context to the pub location (placing it visibly in a low-rent area), in addition to making these sequences more visually interesting:
===
(3) DER JANUSKOPF (1920)
While first researching EIN SELTSAMER FALL (1914) at the Deutsche Kinemathek back in 1997, one of the more bizarre documents I came across was what appeared to be a program for the movie under a completely different title: SEIN EIGENER MÖRDER (His Own Murderer). This program would ultimately help lead, with no input from me whatsoever, I should add, to the locating of the rediscovered 31 minutes of footage.
And indeed, it turns out that EIN SELTSAMER FALL, after three months of heavy promotion under that title in the trade press, and after an initial Berlin release under that title in December 1914 --- was swiftly withdrawn, resubmitted to the censor with new intertitles as SEIN EIGENER MÖRDER, and re-released under the new title just one week after its premiere!!!
The precise events behind the playing-out of this hasty retitling --- can only be guessed at. Needless to say, Germany and Britain were at war by this point, and so there may well have been negative reaction to the known 'British' characters of Jekyll and Hyde (and even the title, which unambiguously alluded to Stevenson's original, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde). The new intertitles of SEIN EIGENER MÖRDER turned Jekyll and Hyde into Fred Siles and Frank Allan --- two names that were intended to sound American to German ears, and thus to eradicate the perceived 'Britishness' of the subject matter.
And at this point, I cannot help but think of that most celebrated lost German Jekyll and Hyde movie DER JANUSKOPF (1920) with its renamed Dr Warren and Mr O'Connor, themselves precursors to Murnau's renamed Graf Orlok, Hutter, and Knock. As such, EIN SELTSAMER FALL can also claim a position as the first in a string of German silent movie adaptations of classic horror tales in which the lead characters ended up being renamed.
That which seemed so certain on 6th December 1914 ---
--- already rendered obsolete by 13th December 1914:
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