In America when one thinks about early movie "vamps", the vampire woman, Theda Bara, Louise Glaum, and Valeska Suratt could possibly immediately come to mind. There were others, too, in early American films, but of all those named above, less than a handful of examples of their works in "vampirism" have survived the ravages of time. Europe responded to the "vamp" call, too, however, and though the world had been presented "A Fool There Was" (1915) with Theda Bara and "Sex" (1920) with Glaum and "She" and others with Suratt, Germany, in a somewhat successful attempt to top all these, in the directorial hands of Dimitri Buchowetzki, took a literary work of [Père] Alexandre Dumas and turned it into a film called "Sappho" (1921). Starring Pola Negri, Johannes Riemann, Alfred Abel, Albert Steinrück, Helga Molander, Otto Treptow, and others, the only thing missing from this campy stylized silent is the music of Wagner's "Parzifal" and watching the actors and actresses not mouth their parts, but operatically sing them! It's acted exactly as if it were an opera. Every silent non-sound can be heard in the fifth row of the balcony. Stylized, stylized, stylized - and I couldn't help but watch and be glued to the set, attached at the umbilical! The fluffy, absolute nonsense is so wonderful to watch I can't even begin to explain why. By the way, Otto Preminger HAD to have watched this before he directed Lee Remick in "Anatomy of a Murder" (1959). Pola Negri in several scenes and at certain camera angles looks EXACTLY like Lee Remick, or should I say that in exactly the opposite way? Remick's the same character in many ways, only modernized nearly 40 years later. And the guy playing Teddy, Otto Treptow, has moments when you'll swear Edward G. Robinson is playing the part. Alfred Abel, playing the mad brother, is so over-the-top you'll wish he really could crush the throats of those he chokes. You don't need me to tell you the story. It's one of those where people go crazy - literally crazy - lunatic crazy - all because of what they imagine is LOVE. Grapevine Video edition is beautifully tinted and the complete (just missing a few frames) five act (yes, it's shown in acts) film, not the old cut-down version re-named "Mad Love". This "Sappho"'s a wowzer!
