Spooktaober 27: The Head of Janus (1920)

 

I know... this is two Conrad Veidt films in as many days, but this lost gem is so much more.  It has connections to so many other really famous horror and near horror films (Karl Freund was the chief cinematographer), many of them amongst the most well known silents films out there. The most recognizable connection is that it's a Murnau film from 1920. Murnau needs no introduction; he was famous in his native Germany and later in his adopted United States. Veidt would follow a similar path, via the U.K. But, it is yet another player in this silent German adaptation of Stevenson's Jekyll And Hyde, who became a much bigger fixture the American psyche than Veidt or Murnau combined who is of interest here: Bela Lugosi. Lugosi who was famously Hungarian, born in what is now Romania and a World War I veteran, made his way to Germany after the war (he had already appeared in a Hungarian production directed by future Casablanca director Michael Curtiz), where he appeared in a handful of films, including this one. The film is lost, but stills do survive. We are fortunate that one of them contains Lugosi in his role as Dr. Warren's Diener. 

 

 

Born Today January 22: Conrad Veidt

1893-1943

The "man with the face," probably one of the most recognizable of silent actors (though in roles only, not necessarily by his "street looks"), Hans Walter Conrad Veidt--known professionally by Conrad--was born on this day in Berlin.  It's hard to tell when Veidt became interested in acting, or even if he got into acting because of an actual interest, as opposed to not having many other career paths.  It is known that an early girlfriend from pre-World War I Germany was an actress.  The relationship ended when he was conscripted into the army in 1915, and sent to the German front.  It was not long before he became violently ill, which necessitated his evacuation to a secure hospital for recuperation. While in the hospital, he recieved a communication from his girlfriend informing him that she had been offered acting work in a theater away from Berlin. Upon his release, Veidt followed her, after applying for work at the same theater that had offered her a contract (that actress, by the way, was Lucie Mannheim, who probably best known to audiences by her appearance in Hitchcock's adaptation of The 39 Steps in 1935--though her career was a long one!).  He definitely worked for a time on the stage in what is now a city in Latvia along side Mannheim in 1916, but not for long. In late 1916, he was sent back into army service and ended his relationship with her for good. In early 1917, however, the army quickly determined that he was not fit enough for service, and quickly discharged him in full (it is entirely possible that this massive infection, which left him weakened by the age of 23, contributed to his premature death). By this time, he had little in the way of a career path to follow other than acting (not to say that he didn't have a passion for it, it just seems that contrary to some of the misleading biographical materials Veidt offered that are now known to have been "embellished" later on--under the circumstances, it seems his life was a bit "a drift" and acting offered a definite path).  What is sure, is that after this point he poured all of his energy into his acting career, which would result in some the most iconic appearances in films during the silent era (and, of course, in Casablanca)!  It would not take long for Veidt to make his first film appearance--he had such a face--and no film director would leave that go for long!! His debut came in a Robert Reinert crime film released in July of 1917: Wenn Tote sprechen (or When the Dead Speak).  Viedt of course has become synonymous with early/silent horror films, with at least two of them becoming two of the most well known silent films today, but his first horror feature was in a little known film that Veidt both directed and produced, as well as starred in. The film, Wahnsinn, which is sadly lost to us today, was produced under his own Veidt Films company (he and his company made one other film--Die Nacht auf Goldenhall (1920)--which is also lost). Of course, his earliest famous film performance was as Cesare in the super famous German expressionist film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari directed by Robert Wiene and released in late February of 1920.  The film would seem to be the mark of his films career at first glance, but appearances are decieving here.  He actually appeared in over 30 films between his film debut and his role in Cabinet, including about half a dozen horror films (see: Eerie Tales, Satanas a Murnau film in which he plays the devil/Lucifer amongst other characters & was written by Wiene, Der Graf von Cagliostro, Nachtgestalten in which he foreshadowingly played a clown and Der nicht vom Weibe Geborene (1917) where is actually played Satan for the first time).  Viedt also appeared in another famous silent horror in 1920--another Murnau production:  The Head of Janus, a film almost as famous for being lost as it is being an "uncredited" version of Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde story. Veidt, having gained a much deserved reputation as a moody actor, managed to branch out from such roles into crime films and even comedic roles (in playing Manolescu in Manolescus Memoiren, he managed to combine the two, and add historical acting into the mix to boot--since the film was based on the memoirs of George Manoluescu--which were presented with more than a little bit of humor).  Veidt was in another two Murnau films in 1921, the most famous of which is Journey into the Night--both men would later become much more famous in their adopted home town of Hollywood in the later half of the 1920's.  Though, aside from his role in Caligari, his most famous roles came in American films, but he didn't actually make his U.S. film debut until 1927 in the George Melford melodrama A Man's Past (though his appearance in the German production Gesetze der Liebe--co-directed by Richard Oswald probably Veidt's most prolific director during his career--came out after he left for California).  Viedt next film is probably his most famous full stop--especially now that . That of Gwynplaine/Lord Chancharlie in Paul Leni's The Man Who Laughs in 1928. The film was a production out of Universal and some prints were released as "sound films"--what we often call "partial silents" today. It's wider release was fully silent. The film is so much more than a "silent horror"--and it's cultural reach has been far and wide--the most enduring cultural connection that we continue to have even now coming up on 100 years later is that of The Joker from the Batman comics (it is worth pointing out that the most recent iteration of the character was in Todd Philips' Joker, released in October 2019, which garnered the largest number of 2020 Oscar nominations).  Gwynplaine is a "clownish" figure with a "fixed grin"--more like a horrifying "death sneer." This was a powerful enough visage as to completely insipire The Joker character in artistic the mind of Bob Kane & the literary mind of Bill Finger.  The film, along with Murnau's Nosferatu (1922), might be the most culturally continuous images from silent era (I am specifically using the term "images" because film, like no other medium, brought us images that were mass produced like no other--even the works of literature upon which they were based merely had the ability to "invoke" images--film instead projected the image...no need for the imagination [pun intended]--it's powerful stuff). In regards to other influences of The Man Who Laughs, I would be remiss if I didn't also mention William Castle's 1961 cheap thrills Mr. Sardonicus (the film was based on a novella that can only be called a knock off by Ray Russell, who also wrote the screenplay and became an in-house screen writer for Castle). With all of that aside, one of Veidt's best performances of his silent Hollywood career came in The Last Performance--it's a somewhat short feature, with relatively unremarkable performances by the other actors; it's basically a romantic melodrama with horror elements. The film employs a number German expressionist styled visuals, many (if not most) of which feature Veidt. Again, this performance inspired a number of visual images that have been reused much later on (I am not kidding that the late 1960's animated series Scooby Doo, Where Are You? drew famously from this film both in visuals and plots). The film was a partial silent with talking sequences (bit of trivia: Bela Lugosi dubbed Veidt's voice for the Hungarian version f the film).  During his time in Hollywood in the late 1920's, Veidt also worked as an acting tutor. Veidt returned to Germany and it's film industry with coming of the talkies, as he had such a heavy German accent that it did not "translate" well in English speaking roles.  He appeared in the German production The Last Company (Die letzte Kompagnie), a film a in series of films based on Prussian war exploits of the nineteenth century; to my knowledge it was his first speaking role in a German film. In 1930, he also appeared in the German language version of the British film The Love Storm, Menschen im Käfig, in which he appeared with Fritz Kortner and Tala Birell. During this time, Veidt also got the chance to play Rasputin in the Adolf Trotz directed Rasputin, Demon with Women (1932).  He did not stay there long however. Veidt's second marriage had been to a woman who both of aristocratic German and Jewish heritage; they had a daughter that was born in 1925. Though they divorced in 1932, the Nazi regime coming to power in 1933 was more than Veidt could stand; and he also married a Hungarian Jewish woman in 1933, that was more than the Nazi's would stand for. Veidt further inflamed the situation by filling out a questionnaire written up by Goebbels and imposed on the German film industry by listing his "race" as "Jew." He and his third wife fled the country for Britain, and then fled there for California at the start of World War II. He had spent the rest of the 1930's in the British film industry.  In 1940, he took the lead in The Thief of Bagdad, a joint U.K. and U.S. production with filming locations in both countries. He then settled back into life in California in 1941, including a return to the American film industry, where he had a contract stipulation that if he were offered Nazi roles, they must be completely villainous. He made an appearance in the Joan Crawford/Melvyn Douglas film A Woman's Face (1941) directed by George Cukor; and in the Humphrey Bogart comedic crime vehicle All Through the Night (1942).  He took the lead as identical twins in Nazi Agent in 1942, and his appearance in the Loretta Young film The Men in Her Life (1941) eerily matched his death just a few years later. My favorite from this period his career is the rather wacky comedy mystery Whistling in the Dark (1941) starring Ann Rutherford and Red Skelton. Of course, his turn as Major Heinrich Strasser in Michael Curtiz's Casablanca is the role everyone knows him for. Of the film, he remarked that thought it was a sad irony that his performance in the film was praised, when he was portraying the sort of character that had forced him from his homeland. It would also turn out to be his next to last film.  In the 1930's Veidt had discovered that he had inherited his mother's heart condition, combining that with possible damage done by massive illness during the first World War and his constant chain smoking, it was only a matter of time before the condition caught up with him, despite his taking nitroglycerin to lessen the strain in his heart. One afternoon in the spring of 1943, Veidt collapsed on the golf course while playing with, among others, his own personal physician. His doctor pronounced him dead at the scene; it was the 3rd of April and his was only 50 years of age. His last film, Above Suspicion, another Joan Crawford film, was released the same year.  He was cremated at Westwood Memorial and his ashes were originally interred at Ferncliff in New York, later moved (along with the ashes of his third wife) to the Columbarium at Golders Green in England in 1997.

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Former niche at Ferncliff.

Current location at Golders Green

Born Today October 20: Bela Lugosi

1882-1956

Béla Ferenc Dezsö Blaskó was born on this date in Lugos, Kingdom of Hungary (part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire)--now part of Romania as Lugoj and not far from the real Transylvansia [Note: in the original placing of his name, his surname would have come first as par the norm with Hungarian names].  He was born into a Hungarian speaking family with 3 older siblings; his father István was a banker; his mother was of Serbian ancestry.  He was raised in the Roman Catholic tradition.  At the age of 12 he dropped out of school to work.  He would find work in the town of Resita, where traveling performers would frequent.  He said that her became enamored with acting through watching them there.  He started his acting career around the age of 20 in 1901 or 1902--he acted in smallish parts in all types of performances in regional or provincial theaters.  By 1903 and 1904 he had steady performance work.  By 1911 he had graduated to larger, even starring, roles and had even taken on Shakespeare.  In that same year, he relocated to Budapest on joined the National Theater.  He was there from 1914 through 1919 in mostly supporting roles (though he would later claim that he was a top billed actor to bolster his acting bonafides).  These years were interrupted by active military service from 1914 through 1916 in World War I, fighting in the Austro-Hungarian Army, where he ultimately rose to the rank of L.  He was a leader of ski patrol and his outfit was sent to the Russian Front, where, as he recounted they were nearly all slaughtered.  He, himself wounded twice before, was wounded a third time, surviving amongst the dead of his unit; for his service at the Front he was awarded the Wound Metal; but his wounds would leave him with lasting sciatica (and possible, at least for a time, PTSD).  Despite his war injuries, he returned to theater but left in 1919, fleeing the country during the revolution in Hungary that year. He first made his way to Vienna, and then on to Berlin, were he settled for a short time and attempted to continue his acting career. He eventually immigrated to the United States via a merchant ship as a working crewman that docked in port at New Orleans. He made his film debut in his native Hungary in 1917 under the acting name of Olt Arisztid, despite that he had been using the name "Lugosi" both privately and professionally for well over a decade (a name that was derived from his birthplace Lugos and meant to honor it).  The film was title Álarcosbál, translated into English it is Masked Ball and was directed by fellow Romanian born Hungarian: Alfréd Deésy. Bela, or rather "Olt," appeared in the male lead opposite Annie Góth. Lugosi actually appeared in nearly 15 films in Hungary before fleeing, one--the Michael Curtiz film 99 in 1918--under the name "Albert Lugesi." His last Hungarian film was another Deésy film entitled Casanova in which Bela played the title character. He also made a large number of films while living in Germany; the first of which was Nachenschnur des tot.  It was in Germany that he appeared in his first horror film and it a famous one--famously lost. Billed as Bela Lugosi he assayed the role Dr. Warren's Diener in F. W. Munau's The Head of Janus in 1920.  A complex psychological horror, the leading roles were occupied by Conrad Viedt and Margarete Schlegel; it was Murnau's Jekyll and Hyde.  His last German film was Ihre Hoheit die Tänzerin starring Lee Parry and directed by Richard Eichberg in 1922.  His first American film was a Fox spy melodrama with a Panama Canal plot; The Silent Command was directed by J. Gordon Edwards. Bela, being an actual foreigner, of course was cast as the terrorist Hisston (and credited, due to a mistake, as Belo Lugosi), the film was released in August of 1923.  His movie appearances over the next few years were scant due his working in live theater in New York, eventually making it all the way to Broadway.  He would not appear in a great number of fully silent films after this in fully credited roles. He appeared in only one credited film in 1924--the very small budgeted The Rejected Woman  and just two films in 1925. He did make an uncredited appearance (in two places in the film) in Victor Sjöström's very famous He Who Gets Slapped starring Lon Chaney in 1924 (only very recently verified actually). Probably his two most well known silents came in 1925. The Midnight Girl is definitely the better known of the two, due it's wide availability and inclusion in several "Bela box sets" (I have two copies of it in such box sets, and a further 2 more from budget horror sets, though the film is a melodrama; so it is AVAILABLE!). The other is the George Terwilliger directed spy melodrama (yes, another one) in which Bela plays a Russian agent Daughters Who Pay.  Both appearances are rather famous for on-screen kisses that Bela's characters have; the one in Daughters Who Pay has been remarked on due to it's blood content...his character kisses a dancing woman with a rose in her mouth and it sticks his character Romonsky, who then is seen with blood running down his lips...something that we are deprived of in his role as Count Dracula.  He did not appear again in a feature until 1929, which came in the now lost Fox melodrama The Veiled Woman, a film that was released in one sound version and one silent version, and barley worth the mention in Lugosi's career as the "murdered suitor" if it were not for the fact that film also features Lupita Tovar in an equally small role. It is notable because Tovar would appear in the "Spanish Dracula" Drácula in the "Mina" character place of "Eva" in 1931. That the two appeared in a film together just two years prior is certainly worth the note (the film was Tovar's debut). He had just three more performances in 1929. His first talking sequence film was as a night club owner in the partial silent Prisoners, a Warner's crime film. He did not act in the Conrad Veidt film The Last Performance, but rather provided the Hungarian dub for Veidt's main character for release back in his home country. It is ironic that, to my knowledge, this is his only Hungarian speaking role in a horror film (he did provide Hungarian dub for at least one other film in 1930's that we know of, there may have been more).  One might be tempted to think that this was one of the reasons he got cast in Dracula, if it were not for his performance as Inspector Delzante in Tod Browning's full sound The Thirteenth Chair--released on the 19th of October, just one day prior to Lugosi's 47th birthday.  It also his last film of the decade. He appeared in six films in 1930, the first of which was Such Men Are Dangerous--a film directed by Kenneth Hawks, Howard Hawks' ill-fated brother.  His seventh film appearance of the 1930's is the big one: Count Dracula in Tod Browning's Universal classic Dracula.  I would say "the rest is history"--especially in regards to Lugosi's typecasting in horror, but his career has one final silent film connection. In 1935, Lugosi appeared in another Tod Browning film Mark of the Vampire.   The film was close to being a scene by scene--but all talking--remake of Browning's now famously lost silent horror of 1927 London After Midnight, which is equally famous for starring Lon Chaney.  Lugosi struggled with the burden of typecasting; he also struggled with drug addiction after getting hooked on pain killers legally prescribed for his massively painful sciatica. Bela Lugosi passed away of a heart attack on the 16th of August in 1956 at the age of 73.  His last acting role came in in the  scifi/horror film The Black Sheep in 1956; he appeared along side Basil Rathbone, John Carradine and Lon Chaney Jr. He also did two guest appearances on television shows; his debut on the small screen came in the anthology  series Suspense (A Cask of Amontillado) and he made an appearance on variety show The Paul Winchell Show in October of 1950 (this is the appearance that has become infamous when it was included in the Tim Burton film Ed Wood--as the version seen in the film is pure fiction--Lugosi did not have trouble with his lines and the appearance came years before collaborations with Wood). He is buried at the Catholic Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City in California.  He was buried in his famous cape. Though he is a huge horror icon now, that is not what he envisioned his acting career would be--quite the opposite actually, as he wanted to play romantic leads and greatly enjoyed classical drama. None the less, us horror hounds are eternally grateful!! Happy Birthday Bela! 

 

 

(source: AJM (Find a Grave)]

(source: Charlie (Find a Grave)]

 

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(still from The Midnight Girl)