E.A. Dupont

[Danny]

Here is a director that gets little attention, when discussing the creative talent that emerged from Europe in the 20's. E.A.Dupont began as a screenwriter, then went on to direct some very stylish films.

I've only seen three of them: Variete (1925), Moulin Rouge (1925), and Piccadilly (1929). And all of them had a special look.

Ephraim Katz wrote in The Film Encyclopedia: "Dupont's work remains on the whole undistinguished. Most of his silent productions were considered routine, and his talkies heavy and ponderous".

Well, I've not seen any of this talkies, although I admit I'd love to see the Science Fiction cheapie, "The Neanderthal Man" (1953) made at the end of his career. But those three silents I mentioned were not "undistinguished". His camera, his mood, his pacing are all remarkable. It is sad that he seems to be so neglected.

Does anyone have any suggestions for his other films that may be of interest to this list?

Danny

[Richard M Roberts]

Here is a director that gets little attention, when discussing the creative talent that emerged from Europe in the 20's. E.A.Dupont began as a screenwriter, then went on to direct some very stylish films.

I've only seen three of them: Variete (1925), Moulin Rouge (1925), and Piccadilly (1929). And all of them had a special look.

Ephraim Katz wrote in The Film Encyclopedia: "Dupont's work remains on the whole undistinguished. Most of his silent productions were considered routine, and his talkies heavy and ponderous".

Well, I've not seen any of this talkies, although I admit I'd love to see the Science Fiction cheapie, "The Neanderthal Man" (1953) made at the end of his career. But those three silents I mentioned were not "undistinguished". His camera, his mood, his pacing are all remarkable. It is sad that he seems to be so neglected.

Does anyone have any suggestions for his other films that may be of interest to this list?

Danny

Well, one delightful talkie he made was THE BISHOP MISBEHAVES (1935), a fun British-set comic murder mystery which he did for MGM. It is far from ponderous, had a great performance by Edmund Gwenn, but is not expressionist in any way. ATLANTIC (1929) is very creaky for an early talkie, but I've always wanted to see his other early talkies, especially the German version of THE LOVE STORM (1931) with Conrad Veidt. Dupont's career never seemed to take off, he came to America once the Nazis came to power, kept sorta busy making programmers through the thirties,though he seemed to bounce around the major studios, then didn't make a film again until the fifties. I saw THE SCARF (1951) years ago, but don't recall it being particularly memorable or awful, just a somewhat wordy film-noir.

RICHARD M ROBERTS

[Danny Burk]

A friend has told me for years that he really likes LOVE ON TOAST (Paramount 1937), but I've never run across it. Has anyone here seen it?

[Brooksie]

I wrote a piece on Dupont's `Variety' for my website a while ago (http://brooksiescollection.tumblr.com/day/2010/4/21 - and note there are spoilers in the video so turn the sound down) - I'd be really interested to do more research on him.

At the time, it seems that critical acclaim for Dupont was absolutely up there with the better known German Expressionists like Murnau, and it's supposed to have been massively successful in America, even in a censored version. Certainly, the cinematography is up there with the best things Karl Freund did. I've never seen any of his sound films, so I don't know how they compare, but I'm curious as to why he seems to have been forgotten.

Perhaps it was simple bad timing. Who knows, if he'd arrived in America a decade earlier, perhaps he'd have made a `Sunrise' of his own.

[Mike Gebert]

Variety is one of the lost classics, not in the sense of not existing, but in the sense of a film of huge influence at the time that has fallen out of the film history mainstream due to unavailability. All kinds of movies owe something to it, from Chaney's circus melodramas to things like The Informer which are influenced by Jannings' performance, to outright rehashings such as Sawdust and Tinsel and La Strada (and, in turn, Woody Allen's Shadows and Fog).

I've heard that the problem is that the US version is edited heavily, but the full version, which exists, seems ponderous next to the shorter one. All the same, it has to rank high on the list of remaining major German silent films we haven't gotten on DVD yet.

[Einar the Lonely]

In older film histories, Dupont's reputation was quite high, especially beacuse of VARIETE. It is odd that this important film is so forgotten today and the film never got a proper DVD or VHS release.

Ingmar Bergman repeatedly claimed that VARIETE was a major influence on his work.

Dupont also directed an early version of the perennial German mountain melodrama DIE GEIERWALLY (1921) feat. Henny Porten, which I have yet to see.

Years ago, I saw another film of his with a Jewish theme, DAS ALTE GESETZ (The Old Law, 1923) with Ernst Deutsch leaving the 18th century shtetl and the old traditions for good to become an actor, while fighting with his father, an orthodox rabbi; Henny Porten and Werner Krauss (after NATHAN DER WEISE in another philosemitic part) were in it as well. I remember it as a good, but not outstanding movie.

He made another circus themed movie called SALTO MORTALE in 1930. I haven't seen it either but it has a reputation of including exciting camera work.

Some information in German on this page:

http://www.cinegraph.de/cgbuch/cgbuch4.html

Trivia:

As early as 1911 he wrote an ongoing column for a Berlin newspaper titled "Cinema and Variety".

In 1919 he published one of the first "How to"-books on cinema ever: "How to write and promote a movie".

When he died in 1956, his estate was being sold to passers-by straight out from his garage.

[Einar the Lonely]

Also mentioned should be his 1932 talkie PETER VOß, DER MILLIONENDIEB, a crime comedy, which has been filmed several times. Starring Willi Forst, who later became Austria's foremost film director.

[Brooksie]

I've heard that the problem is that the US version is edited heavily, but the full version, which exists, seems ponderous next to the shorter one. All the same, it has to rank high on the list of remaining major German silent films we haven't gotten on DVD yet.

Are you certain about the original version? I've never been able to track it down, and I've only ever found one modern reviewer that claims to have seen it.

The censored version is still dramatically coherent and also quite risque, so I would believe the claim that the main change was lopping off the first two reels in order to establish Lya and Jannings as husband and wife rather than an unfaithful husband and his mistress.

I have the Grapevine video from around fifteen years ago (which I see they've since released on DVD). The picture quality wasn't great. It would definitely deserve the same sort of treatment as the Milestone version of `Picadilly'.

[Big Silent Fan]

Here is a director that gets little attention, when discussing the creative talent that emerged from Europe in the 20's.... I've only seen three of them: Variete (1925), Moulin Rouge (1925), and Piccadilly (1929). And all of them had a special look.
Danny

I've also enjoyed his "Moulin Rouge" (I beleive it was 1928), and I haven't seen any of his later sound work, but the way that "Piccadilly" is being mistreated today doesn't help to highlght his work for today's audiences.
Having had a copy of the original "Piccadilly" film for years and (more recently), the censored version (with the interracial dance scene removed and titles changed), I can tell you that the music was perfectly matched to the story. Both early copies had the same orchestra score (complete with 'live' sound effects), so I assume this was the original recording available when the film was released.

The film has since been restored and when seen on TCM, I was disappointed in the score. The often redundant music doesn't even include oriental music for it's most important scene.

Even worse; when the film is shown live, it's often accompanied by music that has absolutely nothing to do with what's on the screen. How could anyone understand the silent film experience? Proper music is an important part.

That's no way to honor E. A. Dupont's work.

[Mike Gebert]

Here's a 2000 post from alt.movies.silent by TJNORT that references both versions of Variety as if they'd been seen:

Her performance in VARIETY (directed by E. A. Dupont) is tremendous, right up there with the likes of Asta Nielsen and Louise Brooks at their best. However the version that is generally available in this country is about 30 minutes shorter than that which has been shown on television in Europe. If possible, try to see the European version. (I would add that the direction by Dupont and the acting of Emil Jannings in this film are also remarkable. Dupont's 20's films should be made more available in better copies in this country--I'd particularly like to see the German version of ATLANTIC with Fritz Kortner and Franz Lederer released here. KINO, perhaps?) The European version of VARIETY has tremendous cumulative impact, and the portions of the film that were deleted from the American release are some of the most remarkable (and racy) scenes in the film.

As I recall, Jessica Rosner or someone said the Murnau Foundation has a full version, but made the comment about the longer version being a tougher sit. Still looking for that one...

[FrankFay]

I read someplace that some of the editing was a matter of cutting repetitive shots: if Dupont used two or three reaction shots of Jannings the editors left only one. I find this plausible, there are many directors who have an eye for visuals but a sluggish sense of pace (cough Dreyer! Dreyer! cough)

[Mike Gebert]

Here's another, more tantalizing comment that suggests Variety might be in our future.

[FrankFay]

I'd like to see a proper edition of either version of Variety, having to make do with my Grapevine tape.

The description of the European cut as ponderous, coupled with seeing Piccadilly, gives me the impression of Dupont as a flawed genius. Piccadilly is a treat for the eyes and the first few reels are great but once the story really begins to unfold it gets sluggish. It's not helped by Arnold Bennet's story which kills off the most interesting character too early.

The DVD isn't helped by Neil Brand's score.

[Brooksie]

Here's another, more tantalizing comment that suggests Variety might be in our future.

I hope so - I'm really looking forward to having a better-informed look at his work.

[Jim Roots]

Once again, coincidence raises its beautiful head: last night I read George Pratt's pages on Variety in his book Spellbound in Darkness. He reprints Evelyn Gerstein's original review from 1926 in which she describes the sleazy opening sequence, done in flashback, which was entirely cut out of the American release. He also notes in his own commentary that the intact version has never been shown in America.

Like other posters here, I got the Grapevine VHS version 20 or so years ago and was not impressed because the quality was quite poor and the excisions were too noticeable and made the story incoherent.

It is one of those German films, like Metropolis and the Nibbleyerlungsout saga, that needs to be fully restored and have as many cuts as possible put back in. It happened for Metropolis and for Nibble, why not for Variety?

I didn't think Picaddilly was all that impressive, either, but once again, only a butchered version is really available on this side of the Atlantic (and yes, my copy does include some interracial scenes, but it's still clearly incomplete).

Jim[/i]

[Brooksie]

Once again, coincidence raises its beautiful head: last night I read George Pratt's pages on Variety in his book Spellbound in Darkness. He reprints Evelyn Gerstein's original review from 1926 in which she describes the sleazy opening sequence, done in flashback, which was entirely cut out of the American release. He also notes in his own commentary that the intact version has never been shown in America.

The first reviews suggest that the complete version was shown at least initially (spoilers trimmed out - both of the below are available in full at http://www.uow.edu.au/~morgan/variety.htm):

Mordaunt Hall in the New York Times (1926):

The first scenes depict a convict [...] suddenly unfolding the tale to the warden of the prison. He is impelled to do so by the mention of his wife, whom he had deserted for a girl with a comely face. This girl at first enjoys the life with the man, who is much older than she, but when a handsome English trapeze performer appears she falls in love with him.

Motion Picture Magazine (1926):

The brutish cavalier of the carnival renounces his marital vows. A woman, soft and sensuous, with big, limpid eyes comes into his life. She is the Eve who destroys his Eden.

[Elif]

My feeling is that a number of German directors like EA Dupont and Richard Eichberg, who seem to have been big names in Germany back then, are today completely forgotten. Perhaps it would have been different if Kracauer or Eisner had given them more attention in their books?

[azjazzman]

I'd like to see a proper edition of either version of Variety, having to make do with my Grapevine tape.

The description of the European cut as ponderous, coupled with seeing Piccadilly, gives me the impression of Dupont as a flawed genius. Piccadilly is a treat for the eyes and the first few reels are great but once the story really begins to unfold it gets sluggish. It's not helped by Arnold Bennet's story which kills off the most interesting character too early.

The DVD isn't helped by Neil Brand's score.

I'm really glad to see that I am not the only one that thinks VARIETY is a really important silent film and that it is a shame there isn't a DVD release of the restoration.

I've asked Jessica why Kino hasn't done it, and she mumbled something that led me to believe that I best not hold my breath. It's great to hear the Flicker Alley at least has it on their radar screen.

Meanwhile, it is worth mentioning that Mark Roth of ReelClassicDVD has put out a really nice DVD of the American version, with a nice piano score by Stuart Oderman. It definitely is worth getting...and vastly superior to the Grapevine VHS.

[boblipton]

For those unfamiliar with his talkie work, Dupont's lively THE BISHOP MISBEHAVES airs on TCM, September 1 at 6AM. Set your recorders.

Bob

[Harlett O'Dowd]

For those unfamiliar with his talkie work, Dupont's lively THE BISHOP MISBEHAVES airs on TCM, September 1 at 6AM. Set your recorders.

Bob

I had the misfortune to once be in a production of The Bishop Misbehaves. *Lively* is not a word I would use to describe it.

[Richard Finegan]

A friend has told me for years that he really likes LOVE ON TOAST (Paramount 1937), but I've never run across it. Has anyone here seen it?

------------
No, but I've always wanted to.
I have a lot of stills from it.