The Mysteries of a Hairdresser's Shop

1923 MysteryComedy 33 minutes Directed by Erich Engel

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About The Mysteries of a Hairdresser's Shop

Dr. Moras, played by Erwin Faber, sits down in Karl Valentin's chair. The barber shaves him until he looks Chinese, then cuts off the head of Moras's rival. The head is sewn back on. A sword fight follows, billed as The Duel. Faber wins only because the assistant, Blandine Ebinger, saves him. They embrace in a room called a Senegalese salon. Around the duel, bearded men wait while Valentin would rather stay in bed, and when he does work he takes boils off with a hammer, a chisel, and pincers.

Cast & crew

More about The Mysteries of a Hairdresser's Shop

Erich Engel directed. Bertolt Brecht and Karl Valentin are credited with the writing. Brecht did not finish a shooting script. Faber later said Brecht brought notes and pieces of a manuscript and expected the actors to improvise. They made it in February 1923, in a month's gap before rehearsals of Brecht's In the Jungle of Cities at the Munich National Theatre. It was not released as a commercial picture. Running time is given as 33 minutes.

Themes

  • A shave that changes a face
  • A head cut off and sewn on
  • A duel won by the assistant
  • barbershop
  • Karl Valentin
  • Dr. Moras
  • severed head
  • sword duel
  • Munich
  • Bertolt Brecht

Making

The company was the Munich stage circle around Brecht's early plays: Faber was leading Drums in the Night and would lead Edward II, and Engel was about to direct In the Jungle. The film was a side job in the rehearsal break, and the people who made it did not think it had worked.

Preservation

Never issued for profit in 1923. A print turned up in Moscow in the 1970s and was shown from 1972. An Internet Archive copy uses the English title.

Notes

  • The German title is Mysterien eines Frisiersalons.
  • Liesl Karlstadt, Valentin's cabaret partner, is in the cast, with Max Schreck, Otto Wernicke, Carola Neher, Kurt Horwitz, Hans Leibelt, Annemarie Hase, and Josef Eichheim.
  • Schreck had played Count Orlok in Nosferatu the year before.
  • Wikidata also lists Brecht as a co-director beside Engel.
  • A print was found in a Moscow archive in the 1970s. Wikipedia dates the first public showing after that find to 1972.

Scenes

  • Valentin shaves Moras into a Chinese face.
  • The rival's head comes off and is stitched back on.
  • Ebinger saves Faber in the duel, and they embrace in the Senegalese salon.

Also available

  • Internet Archive (silent-the-mysteries-of-a-hairdressers-shop)