Pandora's Box, starring Louise Brooks, will be shown on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) on Sunday, January 30. The screening is part of “Sunday Silent Nights,” the cable network’s weekly series of classic silent films.
Pandora’s Box tells the story of Lulu, a lovely and somewhat petulant show-girl whose flirtations have devastating results. The film was based on two turn-of-the-last-century plays by the German writer Frank Wedekind.
Lulu has been described as vamp and femme fatale, but in fact, she is a kind of singular innocent. As one writer put it, her “sinless sexuality hypnotizes and destroys the weak, lustful men around her.” And not just men. Lulu’s sexual magnetism knows no bounds, and this once controversial German film features what may be the screen’s first evident lesbian character.
At times, the G.W. Pabst directed film - heavily censored in its day and still incomplete - can come off like melodrama. In Pandora’s Box, Brooks’ nevertheless reveals her considerable gifts as an actress through an individualized interpretation of her otherwise archetypical character. Largely due to Brooks’ sensational performance, this more than 80 year old film still enjoys a large reputation. Today, Pandora’s Box is considered not only Brooks’ best work, but one of the masterpieces of the silent film era.
The film made its world premiere February 9, 1929 at the Gloria–Palast in Berlin. German reviews of the time were mixed. When Pandora’s Box opened at a small art house in New York City in December of that same year, American newspaper and magazine critics were also ambivalent.
Photoplay, one of the leading fan magazines of the time, noted “When the censors got through with this German-made picture featuring Louise Brooks, there was little left but a faint, musty odor. It is the story, both spicy and sordid, of a little dancing girl who spread evil everywhere without being too naughty herself. Interesting to American fans because it shows Louise, formerly an American ingénue in silent films, doing grand work as the evil-spreader.”
Mordaunt Hall, critic for the New York Times, famously wrote “Miss Brooks is attractive and she moves her head and eyes at the proper moment, but whether she is endeavoring to express joy, woe, anger or satisfaction it is often difficult to decide.” Quinn Martin, critic at the New York World, echoed Hall’s remarks when he stated “It does occur to me that Miss Brooks, while one of the handsomest of all the screen girls I have seen, is still one of the most eloquently terrible actresses who ever looked a camera in the eye.”
Variety put the nail in the coffin when its critic opined “Better for Louise Brooks had she contented exhibiting that supple form in two-reel comedies or Paramount features. Pandora’s Box, a rambling thing that doesn’t help her, nevertheless proves that Miss Brooks is not a dramatic lead.”
What is it that continues to attract contemporary viewers to Pandora’s Box, and to Louise Brooks? Perhaps, the answer lies in our post-modern ability to see beyond the film’s melodramatic trapping and sometimes dated appearance, and to appreciate qualities found beneath the celluloid skin.
Lottie Eisner, the great German film critic, once described Brooks as “An astonishing actress endowed with an intelligence beyond compare.” Kevin Brownlow, the British film historian, described Brooks as “One of the most remarkable personalities to be associated with films.” Louise Brooks is certainly both of these things, and more.
Turner Classic Movies has a page on the film at http://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article.jsp?cid=354711&mainArticleId=355239. It contains some useful information on the film, as well as a handful of errors.
For more info: The IMDb page on Pandora's Box can be found at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0018737/.
Thomas Gladysz is a longtime fan of Louise Brooks, so much so that in 1995 he founded the Louise Brooks Society, an internet-based archive and international fan club devoted to the legendary silent film star. Gladysz has contributed to books on the actress, organized exhibits, appeared on television and radio, and introduced her films around the world. Recently, he edited and wrote the introduction to a new “Louise Brooks edition” of Margarete Bohme’s The Diary of a Lost Girl.
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