Sessue Hayakawa

Sessue Hayakawa, originally uploaded by punalippu.

The Japanese-born Hollywood star in the silent film His Birthright from 1918.

The Finnish Valentino

Theodor Tugai alias Teuvo Tulio, originally uploaded by punalippu.

This is a tinted version of a photo found in an article by Anu Koivunen on the concepts of stardom and women as consumers of film and filmstars in the 1920's, which features our favourite Finnish Tatar in a major role.

Under the name Teuvo Tulio, Theodor Tugai became an influential film director who put a passionate stamp on the Finnish film industry in the 1930's and 1940's. His early career as "the Finnish Valentino" is less well known. In Mustalaishurmaaja ("Gypsy Casanova", 1929), the 16-year-old Tugai plays Gypsy leader Manjardo. Koivunen describes how the camera focuses on him as on a beautiful object, with closeups of his half-shut eyes. His makeup and costume are chosen to accentuate this - dark skin, enhanced lips, jewellery, accentuated waist, occasionally shirtless... You get the picture.

But to be a desirable object for women - paradoxically put his masculinity into question. Watching and looking is an act of power, to be looked at is to become passive, traditionally feminine. But Manjardo does both. In the movie plot, he is a fiery character who is forced to accept an arranged marriage. He is an ethnic other who is both attracive and repellent (although his love interests in the movie are all "Gypsies", too - Koivunen hints that it would have been less acceptable to show "Finnish" women openly desiring a man). Two women, Glafira and Akris, fight for his attention, but the film finds a more conventional solution - Manjardo ends up with the motherly and caring Esmeralda, who tends to his wounds.

Next time, I will write more about the reception of Tugai's film persona among film critics, and the decline of the "Valentino" type.

Source:
Anu Koivunen: "Näkyvä nainen ja 'suloinen pyörrytys'", Vampyyrinainen ja Kenkkuniemen sauna - Suomalainen kaksikymmenluku ja modernin mahdollisuus ["Vampire Woman and the Sauna of Kenkkuniemi - The Finnish 1920's and the Possibility of Modernity"] Ed. Tapio Onnela, SKS, Helsinki 1992

Cross-posted at Chirayliq

Sverige på 1920-talet

The website of Swedish national television has an archive of historical film clips, among them a lovely collection of fashion shows and programs from the 1920's to the 1960's. That's what I call public service.

Journalfilmer från Småland i SVT:s arkiv! Se bl.a. när Värnamo blir stad 1920, köp grisen i säcken på Jönköpings marknad 1908, och bevittna ungdomens förfall på folkdansläger i Tranås 1925...

(från historia.ainurin.net)

Brideshead Revisited

I find it sad, but also somewhat amusing, that contemporary Hollywood producers are more conservative than British upperclass Catholic converts in the 1940's; compare the current film version of Brideshead Revisited with Evelyn Vaugh's novel from 1945.

In the original, Charles is fascinated by the aristocratic Marchmain family, especially the younger son Sebastian. In the movie, focus is shifted from their ambiguous relationship to a kind of triangle drama between Charles, Sebastian and the latter's sister Julia, who enters Charles' life much later in the novel. According to the producer, this was done because "the theme of love across a religious and aristocratic divide has contemporary relevance".

Poppycock, I say. It is threatening to mainstream Hollywood that a relationship between two men (regardless of the sexual content) could be of equal worth to a relationship between a man and a woman; the heterosexual romance has been elevated to the highest possible fulfillment of a plot (a relatively modern development; see Jonathan Ned Katz's brilliant The Invention of Heterosexuality).

The novelist himself, with a deeply religious message to boot, lets Charles state: "Charles's romantic affection for Sebastian is part due to the glitter of the new world Sebastian represents, part to the protective feeling of a strong towards a weak character, and part a foreshadowing of the love for Julia which is to be the consuming passion of his mature years." Thus, I see his view of love between men as rather pre-modern; an introduction to love, a rite of passage perhaps, but not the ultimate fulfillment. However, in contrast to the hegemonic narrative of modern Hollywood, heterosexual love does not bring this ultimate fulfillment either. Vaughn's goal is love divine, in the selfless act of forgiving and letting go, not in the selfish act of possessing another human being.

Even though I cannot call myself a theist, I don't think much of this current idolizing of romantic love as the magical cure of all evils; as anyone who is or has been in a relationship knows, dreaming of love is easy, living with it is hard work.

Luckily I discovered the ITV series from 1981 first, with a young Jeremy Irons as Charles. Just as you think it cannot possibly get any campier, enter Anthony! (I wish I could be there.)

Berlin & Paris

***


Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt, 1927 (see DrMabuseDerSpieler for more)


A rather more conservative travel film of Paris in the 1920's (part 2; see travelfilmarchive for more).

I've been to Paris once; to Berlin, at least 5 times. Some people claim that you have to choose between France and Germany, you can't keep both (as lovers??), but it would be lovely if Paris could give me a chance again. I'm sure Berlin won't mind, she loves Paris, too.
***

The Pomeranian Menace

It is a little-known fact that humanity was entirely at the mercy of small fluffy canines after the disastrous First World War. Weakened and disillusioned, mankind was an easy prey to the fuzzy but lethal persuasive powers of the Pomeranian. Jean Harlow, above, happily accepted her fate.


The Pomeranian takeover did not proceed as smoothly as their silky little ears between cuddling fingers. Here, brainwashed Pomeranian slave Harold Lloyd is trying to smuggle a secret agent of the conspiracy into the United States. Do not fear - no uniform, no mustache makes a man immune to the hypnotic skills of the cunning canine.


Now who's the femme fatale? As we can see from her smug smirk, this Pommie has Pola Negri completely under her spell.


"Now repeat after me, Norma sweetie; liver paté for breakfast, then walkies, a pig ear to nibble on, then chicken breast for lunch, a siesta before afternoon walkies... do I need to write it down for you?"

Norma's sister Constance Talmadge awaiting orders.

La Siréne des tropiques

From Josephine Baker's first movie, La Siréne des Tropiques (1927). Josephine played a native girl on a generic tropical island, who falls in love with the young French engineer played by Pierre Batcheff.
Found in an interesting article by Ylva Habel, film historian: To Stockholm, with Love: The Critical Reception of Josephine Baker, 1927-35

"If we adjust our tastes to those of the lower races, it will be the downfall of our culture," thundered an anonymous "letter to the Editor" in Stockholms Dagblad (23 July 1928), when Josephine Baker appeared in person on a Swedish stage for the first time in history. Another preached: "Don't we have enough leg-shows and flirtation in [Ernst] Rolf's and Karl Gerhard's revues [...]? … is there no longer any prohibition in Sweden against showing a woman's entire torso?" They did not stand unchallenged:

Why should our delight over the encounter with this deeply natural human being be interpreted as a sign of the depravation of our times?
[...] those who have the capacity to live in the present and to love its art forms, and in the best cases, its deep sense of decorum, should be glad to have known Josephine Baker, the international stage revue's most loveable child of nature.
(Signed 'Unbiased Theologian' - sounds like Falco, doesn't it!)

The confused but intrigued Stockholmers imagined Josephine as an unspoiled child of nature, although there were years of hard work behind her stage persona and performance. In the 30's, when she developed her look in a more divalike, chansonette-singer direction, some critics accused her of being crafty and manipulative (and indirectly admitted that she was an intelligent adult!). It is sad to note that even her most ardent admirers were affected by exotism that overlaps racism. It is difficult to find articles that gave a "human" image of her as an independent person capable of rational decisions and smart career moves without condemning her for crossing some invisible limit of acceptability.
What I find most interesting is how some reviewers depicted her as a messenger of continental European civilization to a peripheral, puritanical North. For these reviewers, she was not just a charming "primitive" - she was a symbol of Paris, city of lights. And that is exactly what she would become during her long career.

Un poco di carità

Not related to the 1920's - but still fun from a Goldenbird perspective. No less than THREE of my favourite Italians of all time, in the same film clip, all dressed up as monks, too!
Il monaco di Monza (1963) was an Italian comedy, apparently not a very memorable work from any angle except this novelty scene, inspired by the new trends in pop music. In order of appearance: Don Backy, Adriano Celentano, and later, the great Totò himself, uncharacteristically the voice of order and reason. "Basta! Basta!"

On the Antonio de Curtis (aka Totò) website, there are a lot of stills and some quotes about the movie. It was a parody of "La monaca di Monza", the story of a nun featured in the Italian classic novel The Betrothed (I promessi sposi). The story of the noblewoman turned nun and her secret love affair with a dangerous nobleman has been filmed at least 5 times (once for TV), turned into a play, a fumetto, and much more. (Here's some info about the real monastery in Monza.)

What a turn of events - from 17th century tragedy to 1960's silliness. (Italy in a nutshell?) Not to lose the thread, I end by recommending my favourite YouTube videos with the three gentlemen separately.
Don Backy sings "Poesia" in 1966
Adriano Celentano sings "Azzurro" and "Preghero" (Stand By Me) in the 1960's
Totò playing a rather d'Annunzian type in 1962

***

Alfred Abel

I first encountered him in Metropolis (1926, good article at cyranos.ch). Abel played the future industrialist Joh. Fredersen, father of the young hero, who orders the creation of an artificial woman in order to provoke the oppressed workers into a fatal uprising. (I've always wondered why the robot woman is supposed to subvert the peaceful preaching of Maria, although the real Maria keeps the workers lulled in a state of passive hope, most useful to the rulers.)
Abel's gaunt look was very impressive, and his acting was wonderfully tactful (compared to the rest of the cast). Turns out that he was rather cute in real life, although the eyebrows were part of the mask. Behold:

What a striking difference!

Abel (1879–1937) was not only a successful and well liked actor in film and theatre (as early as 1914, he had performed in every theatre in Berlin), he was also a director and producer. His first film part was under the direction of theatre wizard Max Reinhardt (I found a book about him in Berlin last December). Besides Fritz Lang (Dr. Mabuse, Metropolis) he also worked with F. W. Murnau and Ernst Lubitsch - names that really should make your modern little hearts beat faster. Interestingly, he began his career by studying gardening and artistic drawing... and his own production company was called Artifex Film (something interesting for my mother!). He also had a well-kept wardrobe:
As usual in this blog, he died far too young, after a longer illness in 1937. He just escaped the claws of the Third Reich; his daughter Ursula, who was also pursuing a career in acting, could not produce proof that he was "Aryan", and she had to give up her dream. Without the proper pedigree, an actor was not accepted. Abel's father was a peddler, Louis Abel, married to Anna Maria Selma in Leipzig. Their names and trades would make them suspicious in the eyes of later generations. All clues pointed to a Jewish origin.



Sources: Wikipedia
Filmportal.de
film.virtual-history.com

I suppose that accusation was a sign of posthumous anti-Chirayliqism (as experienced by certain Russian actors, who, being too handsome, were accused of belonging to various politically incorrect ethnicities).

On Mustaches

A mustache-themed post at the lovely film star blog Allure inspired me to scan these images of silent film star David Powell, from an article about him in the Swedish photoplay magazine Filmen (1920, No.5), which included some musings on the subject of mustaches. Since many of Goldenbird's male characters have mustaches, I have given the subject a lot of thought. Mustaches are historical phenomena of great social and political import.

The 19th century could be considered the golden age of facial grooming. Looking at the 20th century, we see a continued interest in mustaches during the first decades, but gradually, mustaches fall out of favour. In the latter half of the century, the beardless mustache is more and more associated with subcultures or "others", non-Europeans. Why did it happen? I can speculate on several reasons. The mustache has always been a symbol of privilege. In many European armies of the 18th century, only officers were allowed to wear a mustache. With the democratization of Western culture, the mustache acquired a taint of aristocracy and backwardness (one might ask why the moderniser Kemal Atatürk, for example, shaved off his mustache). On the other hand, mustache-wearing has been seen as obligatory for men in many Southern European countries - as well as Arab, Turkish, and South Asian cultures. For example, in Italian regional proverbs, the mustache is a symbol of sexual prowess, and it is not surprising that the celibate priests were not expected to sport them (full beards are a different story - with a full beard, you're a patriarch, a revolutionary, a mystic, larger than life!). Perhaps the decline of the mustache was a new phase in the development of the Western bourgeois masculine ideal, as it became a trait of villains, often foreigners.

One thing is sure: The mustache had a rocky career in the dream world of Hollywood, often opposite to its popularity in the "real" world. Behold mild-eyed, Scottish-born Welshman David Powell (below, with Billie Burke).

"- Well, a mustachioed gentleman never looks quite correct, according to many. 'That's no good,' I once heard a couple of ladies utter when my likeness appeared on the screen. My acting was obviously of less importance. Due to the mustache, I was impossible from the very beginning. - On another occasion, I heard an older gentleman make the assumption that I surely was the villain of the drama - 'look at the whiskers'. The comment was incorrect, since my act at that occasion did not include any rascality or roguishness. - However, in a few of my latest films, The Firing Line and The Teeth of the Tiger - the latter currently in production - I believe that my mustache will be in harmony with the characters that I will play. In the first, I have to fall nobly in action; it is the prerequisite for the happiness of the heroine, Irene Castle, with Vernon Steele. And in the latter one I am very cruel; according to the script, I have to look like I had seven human lives on my conscience."

- David Powell, Filmen 1920 No5 (my translation)

NB: In both of the films that Mr Powell mentions, he played characters with French names - in the latter, the great Arsène Lupin himself!

Yumeji

Trailer for the movie Yumeji by Seijun Suzuki (1991).
Takehisa Yumeji (竹久夢二, 1884–1934) was an artist of the Taisho era (大正時代, 1912-1926) in Japan. His paintings are very popular today; they are easy to find as prints and on postcards, stationery and apparel in almost any well-stocked department store or book shop. The last time I was in Japan, I bought several little sets of postcards and pens decorated with his melancholy, slender lady portraits.
There are at least four museums devoted to his works, in Okayama (his hometown), Tokyo (which also exhibits other artists such as Kasho Takabatake), Gunma (link goes to gallery) and Kanazawa.