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Here's a late silent to be reckoned with: THE WOMAN HE SCORNED starring Pola Negri, directed by Paul Czinner. I can't quite pin down what country it is from.

Pola has never been one of my favorites. She doesn't have any kind of endearing qualities that I find in other performers of the time. But I find this particular film of interest because it is right on the cusp of the talkie revolution.

First of all, it seems to have a synchronized soundtrack. The opening scenes are jarring and irritating to my ears. Loud, drunken voices, screaming and laughing, and even some very LOUD COUGHING! My copy came from Grapevine. Does anyone know If this is the way the film was originally released? I wonder how the audience received it.

Besides the auditory novelty, we have way too much bar smoke. Pola looks like a live chimney. And I don't know what to think of the closeup of her cleavage in one scene. (Oh, it must be a European film). This torrid tale is of a "prostie" who chases after a man who defended her in a brawl, and practically BEGS him to take her home to his lighthouse, where she can do light-house-keeping for him. What happens after that is predictable, but just how it happens makes this film unique and unusual.

I don't mean for this post to turn into Pola Negri trashing, but does anyone else get a creepy feeling watching her? Any thoughts on this particular film?

Danny

Creepy? Not so much, relative at least to Peter Lorre, Buddy Ebson...Rosie O'Donnell. But not endearing, either. Sympathetic, I thought, in Barbed Wire. Certainly acceptable for light-housekeeping!

Love seeing this picture--cleavage always trumps coughs.

Wasn't this a UK production?

And Pola sort of out creeped herself in The Moon Spinners with Hayley Mills.

Intimidating is the word I would use for PN in much the same way as I would use it for Gloria Swanson at least from the late silents onwards.

Barbed Wire is definitely PN's best available film but then that film is a minor classic in its own right. Forbidden Paradise is the film of hers that I have always wanted to see but judging from the jumbled print I had the "luck" to view recently it was not worth waiting for.

Swanson intimidating? Where do you see that? Have you seen her early talkies? Norma may have been intimidating, but what other character like that did she play?

I agree most of the characters don't bear it out. It's more an impression (perhaps unfair) of the actress herself. Just as when I am watching a Mary Pickford movie I can never quite set aside the idea of the calculating businesswoman, with Swanson , especially when she flashes that alabaster grin, she seems to be the stereotype of the predatory female, which I am sure many men found part of the attraction.

alistairw wrote: with Swanson , especially when she flashes that alabaster grin, she seems to be the stereotype of the predatory female

That pose sometimes manifests itself (esp. in still photos), but merely watching her sing "You Have to Have Love" in Indiscreet ought to expunge that stereotype from your grey cells...if you wish it dislodged. Many other scenes from other films could of course do the same.

I found the film thin and predictable, but i thought Pola's performance amazing.

greta

greta de groat wrote:I found the film thin and predictable, but i thought Pola's performance amazing.

greta

Same here- I thought she was remarkably down to earth, compared to her usually somewhat florid image. If you want to see another fine performance try to find The Yellow Ticket.

aside from Barbed Wire, my favorite of her Paramount films is Woman of the World, where she nicely parodies her own image.

FrankFay wrote:aside from Barbed Wire, my favorite of her Paramount films is Woman of the World, where she nicely parodies her own image.

A Woman of the World happened to be my first encounter with PN in a feature film, and I really enjoyed the self-parody element; she was in every way the "Pola Negri" I expected to find. But the second time I saw her was in Hotel Imperial, a very different sort of project, and she seemed to be an entirely different actress: sincere, direct, and sympathetic. I've seen her in several other films since, and have come to believe that she was a lot more versatile than her reputation suggests.

Wm. Charles Morrow wrote:But the second time I saw her was in Hotel Imperial, a very different sort of project, and she seemed to be an entirely different actress: sincere, direct, and sympathetic.

Not only was she ALL this, but James Hall was so magnetic a personality that I was sure he couldn't possibly be the same James Hall of Hell's Angels; surprized me, later, to find they were indeed one & the same.

entredeuxguerres wrote:

Wm. Charles Morrow wrote:But the second time I saw her was in Hotel Imperial, a very different sort of project, and she seemed to be an entirely different actress: sincere, direct, and sympathetic.

Not only was she ALL this, but James Hall was so magnetic a personality that I was sure he couldn't possibly be the same James Hall of Hell's Angels; surprized me, later, to find they were indeed one & the same.

Hotel Imperial is the ONLY James Hall film where he shows any personality at all- and I think it is largely due to his being thinner than usual and sporting a dashing mustache.

His quick decline and early death in the talkie era are sad enough for a Laura Wagner biography.

This was a British production originally released there as a silent in 1929, sound was added for a subsequent release
in May 1930.
A side to Negri none of you mention is her vitality as a comedienne, especially in Lubitsch's Die Bergkatze (The Mountain Cat) She also does some worthy emoting in Mazurka ,the Nazi era melodrama that was closely remade for
Kay Francis in Hollywood as Confession.

Pola also cut a number of records in the 30's - in Germany even after her films were forgotten she was remembered as a vocalist.

alistairw wrote:Intimidating is the word I would use for PN in much the same way as I would use it for Gloria Swanson at least from the late silents onwards.

Barbed Wire is definitely PN's best available film but then that film is a minor classic in its own right. Forbidden Paradise is the film of hers that I have always wanted to see but judging from the jumbled print I had the "luck" to view recently it was not worth waiting for.

FORBIDDEN PARADISE is impossible to judge based on the bad fragmentary copy with the Czech title-cards that has been floating around. However, I saw allot to like in Paola's performance, and even more so a short blonde haired Pauline Starke, looking remarkably like Bessie Love. It would be great to see this in a complete restored print with English titles. Isn't this really the film that made Rod La Rocque a top Star? And of course BARBED WIRE is one of my favorite Silent films. The Grapevine transfer is OK, but it deserves a genuine studio release from Paramount.

silentfilm wrote:

What! Pola singing Nacio Brown music? That might indeed be "paradise." The picture I've heard of, but nothing about the songs or her singing.

Here's one of Pola's recordings from Youtube - and others are on there. It looks as if all of them are songs from her films. I think she's a bit like Marlene Dietrich, but I like her better.

FrankFay wrote:Here's one of Pola's recordings from Youtube - and others are on there. It looks as if all of them are songs from her films. I think she's a bit like Marlene Dietrich, but I like her better.

Does sound like Dietrich. Really not my favorite vocal timbre (though it fits perfectly her cinematic persona), but I'd still like to hear what she can do with a lively Brown number.

Paradise is hardly a "lively" number but she does it well- here she is in the movie:

and here she is on a record from the next year- singing it in French:

Here's a good one: Pola sings from the movie MAZURKA, and then Kay Francis (dubbed?) sings the same song from CONFESSION

FrankFay wrote:Here's a good one: Pola sings from the movie MAZURKA, and then Kay Francis (dubbed?) sings the same song from CONFESSION

It is a good one...and Confession is one of my favorite Kay Francis pictures; had no idea, however, it was a remake of anything done by Pola. Kay had a similar alto voice, & could certainly sing as well, so it would have been crazy to have her dubbed...though crazyness (particularly in their treatment of Kay) was not unknown at Warners.

"Paradise" is quite a pretty tune, though not exactly what I'd have expected from Brown. French version sounded VERY familiar, but can't recall who else might have recorded it.

I think that Kay's singing been post synched - which is sort of like dubbing herself. There's a definite change in quality between the singing and speaking sections.

You can see MAZURKA on Youtube. The version I saw has no subtitles but if you know CONFESSION you can follow it.
Two big differences: 1. Kay passes out at the party and is carried off to the bed (and rape) unconscious. Pola is tipsy and a bit more conscious. 2. When Kay visits her daughter the mother has no idea who she is. When Pola visits the mother realizes who she is and pleads with her not to let the daughter know.

My favorite difference: When she confronts the villain and shoots him, Pola shouts "Gregory!" In CONFESSION they changed it to "Michael", probably so Kay wouldn't have to shout "Gwegowy!"

Otherwise the American version is a shot for shot remake, even casting the parts with actors who resemble the German actors.

I'm a little late to this party, but I'm new to the I really enjoyed Pola in a movie camp. That being The Spanish Dancer screened at the SF Silent Film Fest last year. She was really marvelous in it, good fun. Showed plenty of humor and lightness, not what I was expecting. I've got Woman of the World on the back burner, I am looking forward to more.

I feel like I'd not given her a fair shale all these years. I'm looking forward to seeing more.