A Woman of the World

She was the biggest international film star in cinema. Pola Negri, who made red-painted toe nails, fur boots and turbans the rage of the fashions designers, brought her European culture over to the United States. But after several movies Paramount Pictures was concerned her Continental luster was wearing thin. Negri's arrival in September 1922 in New York was greeted with a fanfare previously saved for royalty. She was the first overseas performer to be signed by Hollywood studios. Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich among others soon followed.

After some reasonably successful Hollywood movies, Pola Negri fans were becoming bored with her on-screen continental luxurious airs. So Paramount decided to capitalize on this perception by giving her a role where her highfalutin attitude clashed with America's more conservative Midwestern attitudes. Paramount selected a Mack Sennett prodigy, Mal St. Clair, for the director's assignment to give Negri a lesson or two in the comic arena. And he succeeded with the hilarious December 1925 "A Woman of the World." Negri's films have always been a bit provocative with its sexual innuendoes, especially her European movies. With censorship in America much stricter, Paramount walked a tightrope when it came to her repeated bedroom suggestions. There was no better opportunity for the studio to poke fun at the moralist values of Middle America than to have the actress be placed there. To heighten the hypocrisy of the region's citizens, Negri is put in the middle of a local district attorney's crusade to wipe out the evil the town's leaders feel is running rampant in the area's undisciplined young folk. Women especially were in the crosshairs of the DA (Holmes Herbert). These wild younguns were caught wearing short-hemmed dresses, smoking in public, and cutting their hair short with the radical bobbed style. Such behavior revolted the prudish town's power clique.

Enter Negri, the European countess who's visiting her cousin after she broke up with a cheating boyfriend. The DA first spies her in a taxi with the "Buster Brown" bobbed hair style and smoking a cigarette in public. He goes ballistic. But deep down inside he's rather attracted to her exotic looks and behavior. So begins the cat and mouse game between the two of them, resulting in one of the most famous whipping scenes caught on film.

Despite showing a knack for comedy, Paramount Studios decided to change her on-screen persona in her future films once again by having her appear in period-piece history films or, in an effort to diminish her perceived upper-crust snobbishness, cast her in poor peasant roles. No matter what typecast she played, Negri films overseas were a big hit; in America, not so much. "It is difficult for a foreigner coming to America," Negri later reminisced. "I had been told so much what not to do. It was particularly difficult for me, a Slav. My emotion seemed exaggerated to Americans. I cannot help that I haven't the Anglo-Saxon restraint and tact."

Negri, however, was one of the very few silent movie stars to successfully make the transition to talkies. She was in a string of movies well into the late-1930's, and appeared on screen as late as the 1964 Disney/Haley Mills' "The Moon-Spinners."

Whoa, this movie was something else. Pola Negri certainly had a way with the camera; her performance as the Italian Countess with the tattoo who is sexually desired by almost every male she meets was kind of over the top, but who cares? This was the 1920's, before censorship of the Hays Office, and almost any topic could be explored on film, even blatant sexuality. The more silent films I see the more I am convinced their filmmakers braved topics that would be considered taboo even in our own day. And they explored those topics with rare honesty and depth. This is such a film. And that whip scene, goodness me, I've never seen anything like it.

My favorite scene however was where Chester Conklin, trying to make the Countess feel better about the tattoo on her arm, starts to remove his shirt and show her the long train tattoos on both HIS arms. Pola starts laughing hysterically and you can tell she wasn't acting.

Dressed to the nines in a truly stunning wardrobe by Howard Greer, the ultra-charismatic Pola Negri shines like a beacon through this amusing comedy of manners which pokes delightful fun not only at the "good" citizens of rustic America but even at the countess herself. However, even in the most ludicrous situations, Pola Negri plays so realistically and yet with such engrossing sympathy and charisma, we never once lose our whole-hearted involvement in her destiny.

True, I would have enjoyed a slightly different conclusion, but it must be admitted that staid old Holmes Herbert (see "Through the Breakers" for a good example of his usual characterization) contributes a far more lively performance here.

I was also not 100% happy with Chester Conklin (in my opinion, a clumsy, mechanical clown with an unlikable personality), but the rest of the players hit the spot both pleasurably and with precision.

I particularly liked young Charles Emmett Mack, a most engaging youth who had quickly advanced through the ranks and finally achieved stardom in his previous film, "Down Upon the Suwannee River". (He was tragically killed in a car accident just 2 years later).

Always beautifully photographed by Bert Glennon and often stylishly directed by Mal St Clair, "A Woman of the World" represents silent cinema at its very best.

In Sunset Blvd., Norma Desmond says "Those idiot producers. Those imbeciles. Haven't they got any eyes? Have they forgotten what a star looks like?". While watching A Woman of the World (1925), those words kept running through my head as I saw the magnificent Pola Negri playing the world-weary European countess.

Though numerous scenes, Pola wears gorgeous clothes, beautiful hats, spectacular jewels and a fantastic hair do (rather reminiscent of Louise Brooks). She looks every inch a star as the camera catches her in stunning close-ups, often through the hazy smoke of her ever-present cigarette holder.

The story was an amusing fish out of water story when the supremely sophisticated Pola flees a broken love affair in Europe to visit a distant relative (by marriage) in middle America. Most of the comedy derives from the hick locals clashing with the old world Negri.

The climatic scene (SPOILER) where a furious Pola takes a bullwhip to the crusading DA (who is secretly in love with her) is shocking and fantastic and should be better known than it is.

All in all, much of the film is a stunning still photo come to life and A Woman of the world is a perfect opportunity to sit back and enjoy the exotic hothouse glamour of an almost forgotten superstar of another era. They certainly had faces then.

"Woman Of The World" is billed as a comedy but is more of a romantic drama. It's a good chance to see Pola Negri, who was thought to be very glamorous and exotic in the 20's but seems dated and old-fashioned now. To be fair, she was not photographed in a flattering manner in this film, but she has a tattoo, which would put her in the 21st century trendwise.

The plot is far-fetched. She is a European Countess who comes to live with her cousin in small town, USA. The local DA (Holmes Herbert) is on a crusade to rid the town of vice and spots a likely suspect in Negri - who is smoking in public! He confronts her and is smitten. The story becomes a battle of wits and he is challenged by a young buck (Charles Emmett Mack) for her affections. The DA is then alternately imperious and abject in her presence as the story progresses, confusing the issue.

'Woman Of The World" is outdated and overacted and prone to melodramatics. Comedy relief is supplied by Chester Conklin as her cousin with whom she is staying. Unless you have never seen Pola Negri this picture is worth missing. The actions of all concerned do not ring true and ultimately is too fanciful and does not cast Ms. Negri in a favorable light. Shown at Cinevent, Columbus, O., 5/13.