Mandragore

Hanns Ewers wrote the original screenplay for 'The Student of Prague', the finest version of which is generally considered to be that of 1926 directed by Henrik Galeen. Here Galeen directs this extremely loose adaptation of Ewer's novel 'Alraune' which reunites him with star and co-director of 'The Golem', Paul Wegener, who plays mad scientist Jakob ten Brinken. The role of the soulless femme fatale Alraune who drags men to their doom is tailor-made for Brigitte Helm, following her impact in Lang's 'Metropolis'.

By the time Ewer's novel was published, news of Russian experiments in artificial insemination involving animals had already reached the West and seemed the stuff of nightmares. Such a pity therefore that this film fails to fulfill expectations.

Although it contains some Expressionist flourishes it lacks the overall visual style and imaginative flair of Galeen's contemporaries, early scenes are victims of censorship cuts, the succession of men who fall under the spell of Alraune's sexual charisma are little more than ciphers and it is weakened by a lame, unsatisfactory ending.

The real fascination of the piece lies in the dynamic between Paul Wegener and Brigitte Helm whose scenes together are riveting.

Despite its weaknesses the influence on Hollywood's mad science/creation films is there for all to see although its depiction of destructive female sexuality would never be replicated.

There can't be a review giving this silent movie any proper judgement. One star is as possible as ten stars are since you are guessing anyway, because whatever version you watch, it is incomplete: The longest version up to date, being merged from Russian and Italian analog material, is still missing 400 m. Especially a dance performance of vanguard artist Valeska Geert is totally lost, among other scenes. And this might also explain why we don't see laboratory scenes of Alraune's making.

So this movie lacks coherence, though the acting of Wegener and Helm is superb and subtle, unlike common silent movies. Still, if you are not (yet) into silent movies or Brigitte Helm's eyes, better start with one that wasn't so much tampered with. But if you'll watch this one, then you are to enjoy a great allegory about humanity being proud of a creation of its own making, then falling for it which works on the destruction of its creator.

I've just seen the world theatrical premier of the Munich Filmmuseum's restoration of this classic, presented by University of Chicago's Documentary Film Group in cooperation with Chicago's Goethe Institute and Lufthansa. Live piano accompaniment was provided by the excellent Aljoshe Zimmerman with an introduction by Stefan Drößler, director of the Filmmuseum. Zimmerman composed the score for the Filmmuseum and additionally accompanied "Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens" (also restored and presented as a double feature). The restoration was pieced together largely from surviving reels from Russia and Denmark, which focused on Alraune's mother and father, respectively. The restoration sports quite a few intertitles, in German, some of which were present in the original. Absolutely remarkable, and a must for anyone who appreciates excellent cinema.

Two monsters meet in this second adaptation of Hanns Heinz Ewers' novel: Paul Weneger, actor and director of "Der Golem" (1920), and Brigitte Helm, diva of Fritz Lang's masterpiece "Metropolis" (1927).

Classified as science fiction and horror, the film was more of a fantasy to me. A scientist decides to inseminate a prostitute with a mandrake root that grew thanks to the semen of a murderer who was hanged on a tree. In the first scene, we learn that it is a full moon night and that someone will dig directly under the hanged man's body to remove the root. It will be used for the experiment. The result will be a living creature: Alraune.

The film (or the copy I saw) makes a discreet ellipsis when the prostitute enters the scientist's experiment room, and in the next scene, we see young Alraune (mandrake, in German) in a boarding school ruled by nuns, from which she will escape with the scientist's worthless nephew. In the story that continues, there is no science fiction or terror, but the drama of a woman who ignores her origin. Her attempts to love and live freely are frustrated every time her "father" intrudes. He is convinced that Alraune has inherited anti-social traits from her prostitute mother and murderous father. However, what Alraune really wants is to enjoy life: she escapes with a magician to a circus, flirts with the animal trainer and meets a good viscount who falls for her and proposes marriage. But papa scientist does not give up, so she decides to take revenge.

Brigitte Helm, who, as in "Metropolis", alternates between innocent sweetness and malicious eroticism, contributes to the fascination of the story. Director Henrik Galeen uses expressionist images, although the realistic approach predominates. It is a pity that the restored version is not available and what circulates is a vile copy of a VHS edition in English, with music often out of place and with the name of the protagonist changed to Mandrake. However, curiosity is curiosity and there is no one who can beat our archaeological passion for cinema.

An unscrupulous doctor (Paul Wegener) creates a living 'mandrake', the soulless offspring of a prostitute inseminated with the semen taken from an executed criminal. The unnatural progeny, Alraune (German for mandrake), is played by temptress extraordinaire Brigitte Helm, best known for playing the saintly Maria and her evil Maschinenmensch avatar in Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis' (1927). Although the film is sometimes classified as horror/science fiction, it is more of a romantic melodrama, as the doctor slowly becomes infatuated with his creation, who is beginning to aspire to human feelings. Human artificial insemination had been around since the late 1700s, so other than the choice of sperm donor, there is nothing particularly novel about the premise, which is essentially a test of the frequently overly-simplified 'nature/nurture' dichotomy (in reality, it is nature 'plus' nurture, not nature 'or' nurture). The eponymous 1911 novel by Hanns Heinz Ewers had been films twice before this version and several times afterwards but the 1928 silent is considered to be truest to the original story. The film has not aged well - not a lot happens and the silent acting comes off as a bit theatrical. There are several versions on-line, with and without music. The image quality in the one I watched was not great but the score, a mix of recognisable 'classics', helped pass the time spent watching the relatively boring film.