Pandora's Box opened

By Thomas Gladysz
San Francisco Silent Film Examiner

Yesterday was a notable though little noticed day in San Francisco film history. Pandora’s Box, the great German silent film, had an anniversary.

It was 81 years ago yesterday when the expressionist melodrama had its world premiere in Berlin. The G.W. Pabst-directed film, based on two plays by Frank Wedekind and starring Louise Brooks as Lulu, debuted at the Gloria–Palast theatre on February 9, 1929.

A short history: After a flurry of interest in Europe, the film made its way to the United States where in December, 1929 it opened in New York City to generally negative reviews. Its story of a femme fatale, heavily censored and considered dreary and oh so German, fared poorly. It was also a silent film at the dawn of the sound era. After a two week run in New York, it quickly fell into obscurity and was seldom screened in the United States.

However, it’s not a stretch to claim Pandora’s Box has long been a Bay Area favorite. One of the last times it screened locally – at the 2006 San Francisco Silent Film Festival – it sold out in advance. To date, Pandora’s Box is the only film to have sold out in advance in the almost 15 year history of that popular local event.

Over the last few decades and more often than most other silent films, Pandora’s Box has been revived time and again in the Bay Area. The film also has a few unexpected connections to this place we call home.

Its first known area showing - at Monterey Peninsula College in 1962, took place at a historic film seminar only now coming to light. James Card, the famous curator of films at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York was in attendance and supplied the print for the then little seen film. Also in attendance was everyone from film critic Pauline Kael to San Francisco’s last Poet Laureate, Jack Hirschman. The seminar had been organized by Philip Chamberlin, who would go on to make his mark in Los Angeles and on the southern California film scene.

Pandora’s Box was next known to have been shown at the old Surf Theater in San Francisco in 1974. From then on, it was revived consistently. Pandora’s Box was screened at least nine times at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, while the Castro Theatre in San Francisco showed it at least eight times. Remember the Clubfoot Orchestra and their live musical accompaniment of the film? Or how about organist Robert Vaughn? He was an avowed Pandora’s Box partisan.

Pandora’s Box was also screened at Wheeler Auditorium in Berkeley, the Towne Theatre in San Jose, Stanford Theater in Palo Alto, U.C. Theater in Berkeley, Jezebel’s Joint in San Francisco, the Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, and the California Theater in San Jose. There must have been something in the air. In the late 1970’s, Pandora’s Box was even shown on local television a handful of times over KTEH and KQEC.

So what’s the local connection? Believe it or not, the once controversial German dramatist whose work served as the basis for the film (as well as for the popular stage play, Spring Awakening) was quite nearly born in San Francisco. Wedekind’s parents were both German immigrants living in The City in the years following the Gold Rush. His father was a respected physician, and his mother a saloon entertainer twenty-three years her husband's junior (and, as some have speculated, a possible model for the character of Lulu).

Wedekind’s mother, Emilie Kammerer, was pregnant when the couple decided to visit their native Germany. And there the future author was born. The child was christened with a decidedly American name of Benjamin Franklin Wedekind. Or Frank, for short.

And the rest, as they say, is history – a chain of events criss-crossing through time and place.

For more info: Here is a Louise Brooks Society blog on the the anniversary of the film. Wikipedia also has informative pages on both Frank Wedekind and Pandora’s Box.