Alraune

Alraune is the German name for the mandrake, a human-shaped root that, as legend has it, grows underneath a hanged man when he ejaculates onto the ground as he dies (bet they didn't mention THAT in Harry Potter!). It is this root that inspires Professor Jakob ten Brinken (Albert Bassermann) to create a woman by impregnating a prostitute (called Alma Raune) with the semen from an executed criminal.

Seventeen years after the experiment, and Alraune (Brigitte Helm), as the girl is named, is living with her 'uncle' Jakob, unaware of her origins. Her beauty attracts attention from a variety of men, but to show interest in Alraune is to seal one's own fate: a chauffeur who takes her on a joy ride is killed in a crash; a young man who goes to pick lilies for the girl accidentally drowns; and naughty Professor ten Brinken, who can't resist showing his desire for his lovely 'niece', winds up committing suicide.

Eventually Alraune learns the truth about her creation and takes revenge on her guardian Frank Braun (Harald Paulsen), the man who helped ten Brinken carry out his experiment.

A sound remake of the 1928 silent movie Alraune, which also starred Helm in the title role, this film is delightfully perverse and also tragic, with a happy ending for absolutely no-one. Director Richard Oswald occasionally displays poor judgement, such as with the speeding car/crash scene, which is edited in such a rapid manner that even Michael Bay would consider it overkill, but for the most part the film is thoroughly engaging, largely thanks to the beguiling beauty of its star.

N. B., I watched a really poor-quality copy with English subs running at just over 80 minutes. Apparently, there's a 103-minute version somewhere -- it would be great to see the longer version, preferably remastered.

THE STORY & GENRE -- Imagine a consortium of the rich manipulating the human genome to see what would happen if we mix this with that. Yes, that's what's happening today, and this movie lets you know it's been going on a LONG time.

Here, a smug scientist creates a "wicked woman" from artificial insemination (combining hanged man & prostitute) who seduces men and gets them killed. The girl-child grows up to be not only a vamp, but the type of supernatural vamp whose charms cannot be resisted. They've produced a vampire who feeds not on blood but on human misery. What is the purpose for doing this? Apparently, her creators have some remorse for the outcome, but this means they were working in the dark the whole time, and had no particular goal. This is less menacing than the reality of today, where "they" have definite goals, of which we are largely unaware.

THE VERDICT -- It's a meaty subject, and the team of director Richard Oswald and lead Brigitte Helm should be overpowering, but this is a very slow, talky and creaky exhibit. I watched it first without subtitles, and there was almost no dynamism in the action. My second viewing with the subtitles was a little better, but everything had to be inferred from dialogue. The ending is pretty good, with a moral lesson learned, so it's not like they're glorifying Science but rather warning mankind to beware of the arrogance that falls on such men, that is, the mad scientists. I'm giving this a 6.5 for that punchline.

FREE ONLINE -- Yes. An 81-minute Danish print with English subtitles is currently on YouTube. The 103-minute version may be in archives.

With the exception of Brigitte Helm in the title role, this sound remake of the classic 1928 silent has an entirely different cast and crew, and is a pretty impressive piece of work in its own right.

Helm this time doubles up as both Alraune and as her drunken mother Alma singing in a bar in chiaroscuro close-up and a wet-look pencil skirt in a prologue set in 1913. The supporting cast is full of familiar faces from both German silents (Bernhard Goetzke) and Hollywood talkies (Martin Kosleck as a young admirer named Wolfgang Petersen), and the bulk of the action is this time explicitly identified with late Weimar Germany, with the year specifically stated as 1930, complete with a chassis-hugging dress of the period for Miss Helm in one scene, and imposing sets by Otto Erdmann & Hans Sohnle noirishly lit by Günther Krampf. All in all a film crying out for a decent restoration.

It had been made as a silent film two years earlier, with Brigitte Helm playing the title character, so its remake as an early sound film demonstrates that the folks involved thought it was a sure-fire moneymaker. Albert Basserman is respected, a member of the Privy Council, and given the management of enormous sums of money by royalty, all of which he pours into a eugenics experiment, involving getting two low individuals -- a prostitute and a man about to be hanged for murder -- to produce a child. After a prologue, we take up the story, with Miss Helm at age 16, back from boarding school, and a wild woman -- at a party, women break off engagements when their fiances want to dance with her. As matters progress, people begin to die, often in disgrace.

So, is this supposed to be a variation of FRANKENSTEIN, a warning that science without morality leads to disaster? An expression of the Erda, the soulless female sexual entity who leads men to their destruction? A eugenics lesson, and thus part of the zeitgeist that led to the rise of Nazism? A warning that girls, if allowed to run free, will not do well?

Well, I see no reason it cannot be mined for these issues and others. Good art appeals to many people, and people are moved by a variety of subjects and symbols. I am bemused by Basserman's choice of material for his eugenics experiment. Given the length of time needed to get anything out of it, why select for the lowest of the low? Perhaps that is better covered in Hanns Heinz Ewers; earlier versions of the film suggest that the child was got with a mandrake root, suitable for a fantastic subject.

Alraune is a 1930 German film with elements of science fiction and drama. The story follows a scientist, Privy Councillor ten Brinken, who discovers how to create artificial life, which is basically artificial insemination. After successfully creating dozens of "artificial rats", ten Brinken's ambition drives him to attempt to create an "artificial human". The Privy Councillor then raises his creation under the guise of an adopted niece.

Alraune has a fascinating plot and is a great example of an early science fiction film. The first act will draw you in as your imagination runs wild wondering could possibly happen next. The words used to send ten Brinken to conduct such an experiment, "Do you want someone else to beat you to it?" is an excellent motivation for the character. This removes some of the malice from his deeds and adds a tragic element to the whole affair. Wanting to be the best is a motivation anyone can relate to, especially when it is related to work or academia. But how far will you go to achieve such heights?

Despite how interesting the first act is, the film slows to a boring halt afterward. By the end of the movie, it is unclear exactly what the conflict of the story was. You would think that the bulk of the premise would be the main character's conflict with her identity, or something related. Or perhaps diving further into the Privy Councillor's other "expensive experiments". Instead, something intriguing happens in the beginning of the story, and that's really all there is to it. The film starts very strong but begins to atrophy after the first few scenes. There are a few spots of bad acting, but not enough to ruin a scene. For example, you may see the "stink- eye" or "hands-on- hips" type of overacting from a few of the supporting characters. Lastly, I found it difficult to keep track of which character was which. There is little character development before the film leaps forward seventeen years, leaving the viewer somewhat confused in the new setting.

Despite some of these flaws, Alraune is an intriguing film. The first act is fantastic, not to mention how interesting some of the scientific ideas are. There are many fun directions the film can go after the third act, leaving you with plenty of thriller/science fiction ideas of your own. Anyone interested in these genres will find plenty to like in this film.