Lulu
About Lulu
Lulu, a circus dancer, still loves Alfredo, the clown who once saved her, and takes up with the nobleman Henri von Reithofen. His spending on her ruins him and he kills himself. She moves on to the much older Baron Waldheim. His son, who already knows her, warns the baron she will do the same to him. The baron gives in to her and punishes the son.
Cast & crew
More about Lulu
Alexander von Antalffy directed for producer Paul Davidson at PAGU. Frederik Fuglsang photographed. Kurt Richter was art director. Erna Morena plays Lulu, Emil Jannings the clown Alfredo, Rolf Brunner Henri, Adolf Klein the baron Robert von Waldheim, and Harry Liedtke the son Rudolf. It runs 76 minutes. The story comes from Frank Wedekind.
Themes
Making
Antalffy’s Lulu keeps Wedekind’s pattern of a woman who costs one man his life and starts on the next, with the clown still in the circus background. Richter’s sets and Fuglsang’s camera are the production credits attached to that.
Look
Frederik Fuglsang shot Morena, Jannings, and the Waldheim household. Kurt Richter designed the sets.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
A 76-minute print survives.
Notes
- Jannings, later a star of The Last Laugh and The Blue Angel, is the clown, not the baron.
- On release the film was called highly provocative.
- Liedtke’s Rudolf is the son who warns Waldheim and is punished for it.
- The Internet Archive copy is filed as silent-lulu.
Scenes
- Henri von Reithofen, cleaned out by what he spends on Lulu, kills himself.
- The baron’s son tells him what she did to the last man.
- Waldheim takes her side and punishes the son.
Influenced by
- Frank Wedekind
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-lulu)