Mad Love
About Mad Love
The socialite Sappho has driven Andreas de la Croix into an asylum. His brother Richard meets her at the Odeon without knowing that, and she leaves her lover Bertink for him. Bertink tells Richard the truth. Richard goes back to his fiancée Maria, then hunts for Sappho again. Andreas breaks out, locks Richard away, and kills Sappho.
Cast & crew
More about Mad Love
Dimitri Buchowetzki directed. Norbert Falk and Hanns Kräly wrote it. Paul Davidson produced it for PAGU, and UFA released it in Germany on 9 September 1921. Arpad Viragh was the cinematographer.
Themes
Background
A 1921 German silent drama sold in America two years later as a Pola Negri vehicle.
Making
The American release was shortened and retitled. UCLA later restored a tinted 35mm print with Turner Entertainment, from material traced to the MGM library.
Reviews
On the 1923 American release, The New York Times treated the plot as familiar and wrote that Negri made the woman she was playing distinct from anyone else.
Look
Arpad Viragh photographed it, including the Odeon meeting and the ball where Andreas breaks in.
Music
Silent film.
Preservation
UCLA holds a restored tinted 35mm print, made with Turner Entertainment.
Notes
- Pola Negri plays Sappho. Johannes Riemann plays Richard. Alfred Abel plays Andreas. Helga Molander plays Maria Garden.
- Metro released a cut version in the United States on 4 March 1923 under the title Mad Love.
- The New York Times, reviewing the American cut, called the story a stock French Victorian plot and credited Negri with making the role specific.
- Grapevine Video issued it on 3 September 2009 in the DVD Ladies of the German Cinema.
Scenes
- Teddy takes Richard to the Odeon to meet Sappho.
- Andreas dreams of her inside the asylum and then escapes.
- He locks Richard out and kills Sappho at the ball.
Also available
- Grapevine Video DVD Ladies of the German Cinema (2009)
