Sumurun
About Sumurun
A troupe arrives in an oriental city: the dancer Yannaia, the hunchback Yeggar, who loves her, and an old woman who loves Yeggar. The slaver Achmed wants to sell Yannaia to the sheik. In the palace the sheik learns that his favorite, Sumurun, loves the cloth merchant Nur-al-Din. He orders her death. His son gets her spared. Yeggar takes a pill that makes him look dead and is packed in a chest. The harem women hide Nur-al-Din in another chest and bring him in. The old woman revives Yeggar. The sheik finds Yannaia with his son and kills them both. He finds Sumurun with Nur-al-Din. Yeggar stabs him in the back.
Cast & crew
More about Sumurun
Ernst Lubitsch directed and plays Yeggar. He and Hanns Kräly adapted a pantomime by Friedrich Freksa. Paul Davidson produced it for PAGU. Theodor Sparkuhl and Fritz Arno Wagner photographed it. It opened in Germany on September 1, 1920. Wikidata gives 103 minutes. The U.S. title is One Arabian Night. Pola Negri plays Yannaia. Paul Wegener plays the old sheik. Jenny Hasselqvist plays Sumurun. Harry Liedtke plays Nur-al-Din. Carl Clewing plays the young sheik. A copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Themes
Making
Lubitsch played the hunchback and directed Negri and Wegener in the palace plot.
Look
Theodor Sparkuhl and Fritz Arno Wagner shot the troupe's arrival and the palace rooms.
Preservation
A copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Yeggar's death is a pill. The old woman brings him back.
- Two chests enter the palace: one holds the clown, one holds the merchant.
- The sheik kills his own son with Yannaia before Yeggar kills him.
- A circulating copy runs 1 hour 42 minutes.
Scenes
- Yeggar swallows a pill and is shut in a chest.
- He stabs the sheik as the sheik is about to kill Sumurun and Nur-al-Din.
Influenced by
- Friedrich Freksa's pantomime
