L'abîme

Ernst Lubitsch is remembered today as "the man with the golden touch". His droll and witty comedies of the sexes from the 30's and 40's such as THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER and TO BE OR NOT TO BE certainly deserve their place in movie history. So do his silent films which thanks to present day technology are being made available to new generations of film lovers. MGM released one of his best known silent films THE STUDENT PRINCE IN OLD HEIDELBERG (1927) back in 1991. Image Entertainment released THE MARRIAGE CIRCLE (1924) in 2000. Now Milestone Films have released ETERNAL LOVE on DVD.

Made at the end of the silent era (1929) with music and sound effects discs, the film has been beautifully restored with original materials by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. I was surprised not only at its beauty but also by the power of its simple story. Ill-fated love stories have been around forever but here I found it unexpectedly moving. It takes place in a village in Switzerland (it was filmed in the Canadian Rockies) and deals with love, individuality, honor, and small town morality. The ending, though expected, was still very effective.

John Barrymore, while giving power and dignity to his character, is guilty of chewing the scenery from time to time. I was also quite surprised by the heavy makeup he used in the first half of the film. Camilla Horn, who was Gretchen in F. W. Murnau's FAUST, makes a beautiful and believable heroine. The supporting roles were well acted with Mexican actress Mona Rico as the "bad girl" a real standout. While ETERNAL LOVE is no masterpiece, it is well made by master craftsman Lubitsch who says farewell to the silent era in style...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

I saw this screened at the Bay City/Saginaw show, and although I was skeptical and even jaded about it while I was watching it, the imagery, the atmosphere, and the intensity of the subject (not to mention of the performances) provided me with my most powerful memories of the festival. Barrymore is not a dapper figure here, but his appeal and his talent for projecting smoldering fire is 100% intact. He is ably abetted by the angelic blonde, Camilla Horn, and the fiery, wildly uninhibited Mona Rico (a late silent discovery quickly forgotten, but who does turn up dancing a bit in John Carroll's ZORRO serial.) Horn is a delicate beauty suspiciously strung together with steel wire, while Rico goes some lengths to out-spitfire Lupe Velez, and does she ever wear a jacket? Rico's character is sooooo hot, that she is hardly ever seen wearing costuming that can contain her writhing, lusting, scheming torso. That she is supported in her efforts every step of the way by her mother is no vote for quality parenting, not by any stretch of the imagination, and Heaven help poor John. Poor, poor John. There is something about physical attraction in silent cinema, it can be obvious, nostril-flaring, eye-popping (or, as in the case of Miss Rico, breast-heaving) but when it's subtle, as with Barrymore and Horn, it can scorch the screen along with your eyes and imaginations. They are met subtlety for subtlety by the second male lead, handsome Victor Varconi, a fine actor often underused in the talking era, and are matched in color by Hobart Bosworth as Horn's Reverend father, and Bodil Rosing as their housekeeper. Evelyn Selbie, who portrays Mona Rico's horrible hag of a mother, seems to have had quite a career playing mothers in the Silents, and parlayed such roles into lesser talking picture assignments such as "Screaming woman" or "Immigrant woman," or "Tenement Woman."

Firstly, although Lubitsch had a pretty broad repertoire when it came to genres, there was nothing much he could bring to this particular one. The whole thing was already laid out for him, with the great settings (very convincing Swiss village and mountain scenery), and the whole story in place. Perhaps the one most significant thing one could attribute to Lubitsch was the shot of a lusting Barrymore panning slowly to the pile of clothes (I'll say no more so as not to spoil it). But the other odd thing was Barrymore, for me miscast as a pining young Swiss mountaineer. I think Lubitsch would have done better to cast Ramon Novarro, whom he had already used so beautifully in "The Student Prince." In short, the film is just a bit off kilter. Also contributing to the oddness is the film score of Hugo Riesenfeld, who contented himself with endless repetitions of two Brahms pieces, a piano intermezzo and the song "Von ewiger Liebe" (appropriately "About eternal love"), both rescored for orchestra. Were these at Lubitsch's suggestion? In the end, I'm wondering if the studio was trying to emulate some of those Heimatfilme being made in Austria and Germany by the likes of Leni Riefensthal.

Eternal Love (1929)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A strong cast saves this melodrama from pretty much killing itself. Set in Switzerland, the rebel Marcus (John Barrymore) would do anything for the woman (Camilla Horn) he loves but in a drunken state he sleeps with another. The Reverend makes Marcus marry this woman, which might be the end of his relationship with his true love but soon fate steps in. This later day silent isn't nearly as bad as one might think but there's no question that the screenplay goes overboard on the melodrama and the questionable ending almost kills things. I think fans of the stars as well as the director will want to check this film out but it's questionable what impact it will have on them. We'll start with Barrymore but he once again turns in a very strong performance and you can't help but feel that he is this character. I thought he handled the more athletic aspects of the film quite well and he certainly knows how to milk every ounce of drama out of a scene. Just check out his eyes during the scene where he's forced to marry the woman he doesn't love. Horn is also very good in her role as she perfectly captures the innocence of her character and Mona Rico is pitch-perfect as the "other" woman with the more sexual nature. Speaking of sex, this film offers quite a bit of stuff that would certainly not be film-able in upcoming years including the sexual act while Barrymore is drunk off his mind. We even have the two married people coming together towards the end, which is yet another act that would have been looked down on. Lubitsch's direction handles everything fairly well but what really impressed me were the visuals. There are several tracking shots that look incredibly good including one where we follow Barrymore walking through the mountains. The performances and direction make this worth sitting through but I'm sure many will be howling at the ending. The silent film was released with a Movie Tone track, which includes the music as well as several sound effects including wind gusts, knocking, gun shots and a few other things.

Ernst Lubitsch had directed his last silent movie earlier in 1929, his May 1929's "Eternal Love." John Barrymore stars as a Swiss mountain man who lives off the land by hunting prey with his trusty rifle. He finds himself in trouble when the French army demands everyone in the city turn in their firearms. He refuses, sending its entire city's residents against him. The Hans Kraly script, adapted from Jakob Christoph Heer's novel, 'Der Korig der Bemina,' involves a love-triangle. German actress Camilla Horn pays Ciglia, who loves Marcus (Barrymore). However, the lusty Pia (Mona Rico) literally throws her body at Marcus. In a weak moment, he succumbs to her advances. This was Mona Rico's cinematic debut. The Mexican-born actress was in ten films before leaving the industry in 1941.

The storyline, despite not being a typical Lubitsch rom-com, had its advantages in production. The German director got to film in the stunning mountains of Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada, bringing home memories of his days in the Alps. As with most directors in the last year of silent movies, Lubitsch showed an extreme comfort level by photographing one of his most visually stunning features he ever made. "Eternal Love" demonstrated that cameras without the hindrance of early cumbersome sound equipment could be transported to any geographical setting to achieve eye-popping results.