October 19: The Mysterious Mirror [Der geheimnisvolle Spiegel] (1928)

 

Der geheimnisvolle Spiegel (or The Mysterious Mirror/Mystic Mirror) was a 1928 German silent fantasy set in a Bavarian schloss (castle). It was principally directed by Carl Hoffmann, who had been a prolific cinematographer since 1913 (Richard Tescher is credited as a co-director, it is his only known direction credit). Though the story is based on recognizable from fairy tales--such as magic mirrors found in tales from the Brothers Grimm--the script is credited solely to writer Robert Reinert, who had previously been a script writer for fantasy serials in German cinema. The story revolves around a mirror that is supposed to allow the gazer to see their future if they stare into on nights of a full moon (or, alternatively, when the moon is up).  Usually what they see drives them into insanity and some into self-destruction. The protagonist of the film--a man who wishes to know his future for romantic reasons--is played by Fritz Rasp.  Released the year after Fritz Lang's Metropolis, where Rasp was "The Thin Man;" there is little doubt that the film makers thought they could capitalize on casting Rasp and using his name for promotion.  The story is rather simple, Rasp's "mann" steals into the old edifice where the mirror "resides" on a bright moonlit night, gazes into it, hates what he sees, smashes the mirror and then kills himself. After his death, the mirror reassembles itself, like it has likely done on countless occasions before. The description would lead one to believe that the film was a short, but it was in fact a feature and ran for nearly an hour and ten minutes. It was padded out with a story of gothic romance, featuring actress Fay Wall (aka Felicitas "Fee" Malten) in the part of Anna, the love interest. 

October 11: J. Searle Dawley's Snow White (Highly Recommended!)

 

J. Searle Dawley is one of cinema's earliest and most prolific directors. In his directing career, that spanned almost twenty years, he helmed almost 200 films, many of them shorts, but he also made an impressive number of films that ran for an hour or more. More impressive still, was his embrace of a wide range of genres. He started his career in 1907 at Edison. From the start he distinguished himself at the company as the go-to man for any film subject and for his efficiency and speed of production; something that he excelled at, and yet, the end product did not suffer from it (Dawley had been in the directing business so long that he even directed D.W. Griffith in a role before Griffith himself became a director). His films included horror and, in fact, today his most famous film is Frankenstein dating from 1910 (the first known film adaptation of Mary Shelley's novella). As for genre's, he seemed to have a special flare for more fanciful stories (as the special effects in Frankenstein prove) and in 1916 he tackled the Grimm brothers' Snow White for Famous Players (as the contemporary poster above indicates, it was distributed by Paramount). The film starred Marguerite Clark as Snow White, Dorothy Cumming as the queen and Alice Washburn as a very impressive Witch Hex.  Running a little over an hour, it is feature length and was a big success at the box office (there is story that it was the first film Walt Disney ever saw, I have no idea if that was apocryphal or not, but it does demonstrate how wide and popular the release of the film was).  Part of that success may lie in that it was adapted from a popular Broadway production of the tale, but certainly Dawley's direction prowess was also key (Disney did admire the film enough that it inspired the inspiration for his own animated version in 1937).  The film is also one of Dawley's earlier feature length films that still survives intact and his been released in many editions for home viewing. It is one Dawley's finest and is a great edition to any silent Halloween film lineup.

Born Today January 4: Jacob Grimm

1785-1863

One half of the famed Brothers Grimm Jacob Ludwig Carl (sometimes spelled Karl) Grimm, older brother of Wilhelm Grimm, was born on this day in Hanau, Hesse-Kassel (then a co-ruled province of the Holy Roman Empire), it is now Hesse district in Germany (this is the region that gives it's name to "Hessian," and the Hessian dialect of German is still spoken there).  Jacob was a name he used in study and publication only, he was known to his familiars as Ludwig Karl.  Apart from the famous works that he and his brother collected and published together, he is the brother known (and was much more famous during their lifetimes) for solo works and publications not based on fiction or folktales.   Father Philip Grimm was a prominent lawyer, that obviously left in impression on Ludwig Karl, despite that he died when he was only a child.  Grimm entered the University of Marburg in 1802, after having been in public school with younger brother Wilhelm.  He studied the law in University and became intensely interested in the history of the subject (unlike his younger brother, who followed him a year later to study the same subject).  After attending numerous lectures by the German law historian Friedrich Carl von Savigny (Karl), he became one of his students, and later joined him in Paris as a kind of literary secretary.  It was his year in France that solidified his intense curiosity concerning the languages and literature of the Middle Ages.  Jacob Grimm is credited, as a result of this interest, with more or less founding the study of linguistics; including an attempt at a comprehensive study of the origins of the Germanic languages particularly Middle German.  His work with language along with his historical research and writing are generally regarded as a bigger contribution to scientific literature, than is his work on Grimm's Fairy Tales, but, of course, it is the later that he is most famous for.  And, it is that material that has been used exclusively as source material in motion pictures.  Of course, the credits for the Tales earliest use in film mirror exactly those of his younger brother, written up here last February.  And, their work constitutes some of the earliest use of literature for film, used twice in 1897 at the dawn of the narrative film itself.  Both also represent some of the earliest films made in Germany.  One was based on Rapunzal and the other on Hansel and Gretel, both were made by Messter Film.  In all around 20 films (some animated shorts) were produced from source material provided by Jacob and Wilhelm in the silent era (some of them do not give the Grimms direct credit).  The last of these, with credit, was Hansel and Gretel  in 1923 starring little Peggy-Jean Montgomery aka Baby Peggy (who as of this writing is still with us).  [Her appearance the year before Little Red Riding Hood is a good example of a film that doesn't credit with Grimm's; neither for that matter does the recently defunct television series Grimm that was clearly inspired by the tales.]  Sleeping Beauty, in the form of Tchaikovsky's ballet, was produced as an episode of Producer's Showcase in 1955, the first time one of Brother's tales was used in a television series (unfortunately, the original color print that was produced is missing and presumed lost).  Both of the productions mentioned last year in the post of Wilhelm are still listed as announced; since then two more productions have been added.  The first of these is a little 4 minute animation from Croatia, Bremenski gradski sviraci, which curiously only credits Jacob and features late Croatian actor Zlatko Crnkovic.  The second is the live action short Snow White and the Wicked Mirror.  Jacob, along with his brother, became a member of the seven members of the important Göttingen Seven.  Both he and his brother were deeply involved in academics; but Jacob also went into politics with very mixed results; he was a constitutionalist in both philosophy and practice--in the end, however, his efforts to draft and ratify a constitution for a unified Germany while a member of the Frankfurt National Parliament were ultimately in vain.  Grimm left politics, but continued to write on the subjects of national law and government until he died.  He worked full days, in fact, up to his dying day.  He died in Berlin at the age of 78 on the 20th of September in 1863, 4 years after his younger brother.  They are buried in Berlin in a family plot.

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Born Today February 24: Wilhelm Grimm

1786-1859

Wilhelm Carl (sometimes Karl) Grimm was born on the day in Hanau, Hesse-Kassel, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. He is famous for being the younger of "The Brothers Grimm" of fairytale fame.  He and his older brother Jacob had been constantly in each other's company since school days, where they shared a bed and desk in a boarding situation.  Wilhelm entered the University of Marburg in 1803, one year after his brother; where again they shared a room.  There, he studied the law.  From then on, the two always lived under one roof and their library was common property.  Though the two were constantly together, they reportedly had opposite personalities.  Wilhelm had been a vivacious child, but suffered some type of long and severe illness while growing up--an ordeal that he never quite recovered from.  He had a deep love of music, an interest that his brother did not really share.  And while he had no interest in pursuing any wide range of investigations in life, he was a keen literary scholar and a consummate story teller.  He was also familiar with the various German dialects of the time.  He married at the age of 39 and he and his wife went on to have 4 children together. The collection that is so famous today as Grimm's Fairy Tales first appeared in 1812.  It was a book a collected tales from various parts of what is now Germany. The tales appeared very early in film, soon after to notion that actual narratives could be told through moving pictures.  Two films appeared in 1897.  Both were extremely early German films:  Rapunzel and Hänsel und Gretel.  In all 14 films utilizing the Tales as source material were produced in the silent era with formal credit in the films themselves.  The Grimm's tales entered into the world of animation in 1922 with Puss In Boots, an early Disney cartoon.  The first full sound live-action film to feature their work came in 1936 with the German produced Hans im Glück.  The most recent released production to feature their tales was from last year, which came in the form of a made-for-television film in Germany with Das singende, klingende Bäumchen, which aired on Christmas Day.  Two other films have been announced, with no release dates attached.  The first is a musical version of Snow White; and the second is Rose Red, also another take on the Snow White story.  Later in life, both he and his brother Jacob become professors at the University of Göttingen; they were part of the Göttingen Seven.  The group protested Ernst August, King Of Hanover, whom they claimed had violated the constitution.  As a consequence, all seven were fired.  Wilhelm passed away at the age of 73 on December 16 from a infection Berlin.  He preceded his older brother in death. The two are buried together (with other family members) in Alter Sankt-Matthäus-Kirchhof in Berlin.

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