Anna Boleyn
About Anna Boleyn
Anne Boleyn returns from France and meets Henry Norris, a knight she knew as a girl. King Henry VIII, tired of Catherine, notices Anne when her dress catches in a door, breaks with the Pope, and marries her. She bears Elizabeth, not a son, and he turns to Jane Seymour. Mark Smeaton's poem names Norris as her lover. Anne is tried on a confession tortured out of Smeaton, and Henry has her beheaded.
Cast & crew
More about Anna Boleyn
Ernst Lubitsch directed this six-act historical film for Paul Davidson's Union-Film, a PAGU company inside UFA. Hanns Kräly and Norbert Falk wrote it. Theodor Sparkuhl photographed it. Emil Jannings plays Henry VIII and Henny Porten plays Anne. It was released on 3 December 1920. The American title is Deception. The American rights sold for $200,000, then worth about 14 million marks.
Themes
Background
Lubitsch made it in Germany in 1920, two years before he left for Hollywood, as one of UFA's large costume productions.
Making
UFA's subsidiary spent an estimated 8 million marks. Davidson covered that from the American sale alone.
Look
Theodor Sparkuhl shot the court scenes. The restored print keeps the original tinting.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
A restored print survives and is tinted in the manner of the 1920 release.
Notes
- Paul Hartmann plays Henry Norris. Ludwig Hartau is in the court. Aud Egede-Nissen and Hedwig Pauly-Winterstein are billed.
- Anne's dress catching on a door is the moment Henry notices her.
- She refuses Norris twice, once in a forest during a spring festival, after Henry has left the party.
- The birth of Elizabeth, a girl, is the turn where Henry loses interest.
- A restored print is tinted, as the original was.
Scenes
- Anne's skirt catches in the door and Henry stops to look.
- She gives birth to Elizabeth, and Henry turns away.
- She is sentenced after Smeaton's confession and taken to be beheaded.
