Une nuit à Londres

A KNIGHT IN LONDON (1928/29) seems to exist in an incomplete print that runs abut 45 minutes (originally 6,700 ft).

This Anglo-German film was directed by Lupu Pick in Germany and stars Lilian Harvey (German father, British mother) as Aline Morland ,traveling with her mother (Ivy Duke), who arrives at a hotel late one night. After taking a shower (down the hall) she goes back to her room but enters the wrong one. Next morning she meets snarky Prince Zalnoff (Bernard Nedell) in the hallway and assumes it was his room she slept in. But it was another man's (Robin Irvine) who was amused by the error.

After a few rough jumps in the story we settle into a house party. Irvine discovers that the Prince and Aline are wearing matching pinky rings (no idea what this signifies). But after he and Aline do a big dance number and he catches the Prince trying to kiss Aline, he thrashes him and throws him out. The prince leaves the ring and exits. End of film.

Harvey and Irvine were stars of the day but this was Ivy Duke's final film appearance. She's barely in what survives. Nedell was born in New York. The surviving print is from a Spanish archive and there are no intertitles of any kind. The BFI archive says it holds only reel 1, 694 ft. My guess is that two reels are missing from the Spanish print.

This film was co produced by Blattner Films in 1928.They bought the Neptune Studios in Elstree with the view of producing sound films using the new magnetic tape process.However the company experienced many problems and eventually went into liquidation in the early thirties.The copy of the film comes from a Spanish film archive.It has no opening credits,it is silent with no intertitles,it has a music track and lasts just 45 minutes.One therefore wonders if this was originally a sound film where the soundtrack has been lost.If it is silent why are there no intertitles.The fact that the actors are mouthing words is not conclusive as this was the norm for films of that period.Whilst it is possible to follow the plot the lack of intertitles makes it a bit heavy going,albeit well photographed.So mainly interesting as a historical curiosity.

The Rumanian by birth but German by adoption film director Herr Lupu Pick is particularly well-known in certain selected film circles for two excellent works, "Scherben" (1921) und "Sylvester" (1924) ( and, to a lesser extent 1929's"Napoleon auf St. Helena" ). "Scherben" and "Sylvester" were the first "Kammerspieles" ( films set in closed spaces ), both featured prominently in silent film encyclopedias. Similar films followed of course though there were variations of artistic style.

"Eine Nacht In London" (1928) is precisely the opposite of these early works both in style and artistic intentions. Sadly, so few of Herr Pick's films have survived that we can't be sure if "Eine Nacht In London" is just a one of a kind for the director or typical of most of his films.

Because "Eine Nacht In London" is a more stylized and light-hearted film, there is no trace of "Kammerspiele" here except perhaps that a good part of the film is set in one place (the elegant hotel "Majestic"); There is also the wicked portrait of Prince Zalinoff ( Herr Bernard Nedell ) in counterpoint to the merry youngsters Harry Erskine and Aline Morland ( Herr Robin Irvine und Frau Lilian Harvey respectively ). As usually happens, Frau Aline will be temporarily attracted to the suave and seductive aristocrat but will end up with the well mannered but boring good guy.

The film was a German-Anglo co production (appropriate as Frau Lilian Harvey had an English mother and a German father) and is set in luxurious surroundings (the work of Herr Hermann Warm) where the main characters of the picture behave themselves accordingly in working out their troubled relationships. The film is directed by Pick in a conventional way -no weird camera angles, trick photography or strange atmosphere. Herr Karl Freund was one of the cinematographers and his work is suitable. All in all, "Eine Nacht In London" is a good vehicle for Frau Lilian Harvey, the Weimar bride, and is not meant to be anything more.

The only available copy of "Eine Nacht In London" lacks any credits and intertitles and is from the "Spanish Film Archive." And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must spend one night in Berlin.