Das alte Gesetz

E.A. Dupont is one of the UFA crowd who, in a long career, turned out numerous works in many genres. Only one is remembered: VARIETY -- and, as an aside, what is it with German directors and the circus? On the basis of this single movie Dupont is acclaimed a great director. Not a single one of his other movies is remembered, except by the diligent -- not even the sprightly work he did in Hollywood in the 1930s. I look out for them, and this is only the seventh I have been able to find. I have enjoyed them all, and this one in particular.

This is the movie that THE JAZZ SINGER was based on: a young man wants to be an actor in Vienna, but his father the rabbi.... well, you know the story. It's very well told, with some nicely broad acting, and a wonderful turn by Hermann Valentin as the theater manager Heinrich Laube. This movie is based in large part on Laube's memoirs. There is also a typically fine performance by Henny Porten as an aging archduchess who yearns for a handsome young lover.

It is not, however, the performances, excellent though they are, that make this movie work. It is the sense of separate worlds that interact to their mutual confusion and grief: the poor shtetl that the man grows up in, dominated by his father and the richly adorned shul; the tawdry traveling show that he initially joins; the Habsburg court; the Royal theater.... each is a little kingdom with its own laws and each interacts poorly with the others... only Robert Garrison as the wandering cantor is uneasily welcome in more than one realm.

For me, this is summed up in one brief shot, when the rabbi, desperate to know what has drawn his son away, opens up a copy of HAMLET to read.... and opens it the wrong way, as if it were a book in Yiddish or Hebrew, from right to left, instead of the other way around. Suddenly the rules of his world no longer work.

All these factors add up for me and make it better than its American remake, THE JAZZ SINGER is. Even though no one in it sings as well as Jolson.

For many years the name of E. A. Dupont was associated with one film made during the Weimar Republic years (1919-1933) and that was VARIETY (1925) with Emil Jannings and Lya De Puti. The renewed interest in silent movies around the turn of the century due to improved restoration techniques led to the rediscovery of the British Anna May Wong vehicle PICCADILLY (1929) and now THE ANCIENT LAW (1923). I have been an admirer and follower of silent movies for over 50 years and had never heard of this film until now. The only time I had ever come across Dupont's name before discovering his silent output was as director of such low budget 1950s American fare like THE NEANDERTHAL MAN and RETURN TO TREASURE ISLAND.

THE ANCIENT LAW is a remarkable film on many levels. The story concerns the son of a rabbi living in a small Jewish village in 1860 Austria who dreams of becoming an actor. He goes to Vienna and becomes a celebrated performer who even captures the heart of the Austrian Archduchess. Despite his success he remains true to his religious beliefs even though he had been disowned by his rabbi father (shades of THE JAZZ SINGER which would come 4 years later). The sets of the Eastern European shtetl as well as those of 1860 Imperial Vienna are beautifully rendered with incredible attention to detail. The costumes are magnificent and the cinematography is remarkable for its depth and clarity. Ernst Deutsch (who would turn up in THE THIRD MAN 25 years later) plays the son turned actor. He carries the bulk of the film and is compelling and believable in his various transformations. Henny Portman, a celebrated German actress of the time, is credible and touching as the royal aristocrat who could never marry a Jewish commoner.

The background on how THE ANCIENT LAW came to be restored is no less remarkable. No original German prints survive so this version is a conflation of 5 different prints from Sweden, Russia, France, Italy, and the U. S. The restored color toning comes from the Swedish and American prints of the film and is beautifully done. You get to choose from 2 different scores to accompany the film: a traditional one from Donald Sosin & Alicia Svingals and a modern one from French composer Phillipe Schoeller.

If you are interested in the cinema of the Weimar Republic or want to see a fascinating example of German-Jewish collaboration before the rise of Hitler, then the THE ANCIENT LAW is a must see. This collaboration from Flicker Alley and the Deutsche Kinemathek is a prime example of how a rarely seen silent film classic should be properly treated and then made available to the general public. In addition to the film on both Blu-Ray and DVD, there are bonus features including examples of the restoration, part of a documentary on German silent filmmakers, and a multi-page booklet...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

The films of the 1920s often depict the everyday anti-Semitism of the time, which is disturbing from today's perspective. Negative characteristics are attributed to Jewish characters or they are ridiculed, especially the so-called Eastern Jews, who had fled Galicia at the end of the 19th century under the pressure of Russian pogroms, and their descendants. These people are often portrayed as backward and trapped in the narrowness of their religious rules.

However, there are also a handful of German and Austrian films that oppose this anti-Semitism and convey a positive image of Judaism in Eastern Europe. These include E. A. Dupont's film 'The Old Law' from 1923.

The film begins in the middle of the 19th century in a Galician shtetl. Baruch (Ernst Deutsch), the rabbi's son, wants to become an actor against the wishes of his father (Avrom Morewsky). So he has to leave his home, family and childhood sweetheart and go to Vienna. On the way, he joins a small theatre company and gains his first stage experience. He is lucky that Archduchess Elisabeth (Henny Porten) happens to attend one of the troupe's performances. She falls in love with Baruch and becomes his powerful patron. Her patronage first gets him an engagement at the Burgtheater and later even the role of Hamlet.

Baruch has to make repeated sacrifices for his success, as orthodox Jewish life is incompatible with his acting career. At least he manages to bring his beloved Esther (Margarete Schlegel) to Vienna and marry her. But his father remains unforgiving until his friend Ruben Pick (Robert Garrison) introduces him to the works of Shakespeare and finally takes him to Vienna, where the rabbi sees his son on stage at the Burgtheater.

'The Old Law' is a lavish, attractive film that combines comedic and sentimental elements in an entertaining way and conveys positive messages on several levels. It shows understanding for the difficult assimilation of the deeply religious immigrants by allowing the audience to experience how difficult it is for Baruch to part with his ringlets and perform on high Jewish holidays. Overall, the film paints an optimistic picture of the compatibility of both worlds. The parallel montage of the Yom Kippur service in the synagogue and the Hamlet premiere at the Burgtheater emphasises cultural similarities instead of highlighting the differences.

The film juxtaposes the world of the shtetl and the Austrian capital on an equal footing. Both have attractive sides, but also their own limitations. This becomes particularly clear when the Viennese court forbids the archduchess to have any further dealings with the actor. As they say goodbye, she explains to Baruch that it is not only in his world that there is an 'ancient law' that restricts people's freedom of action.

Henny Porten, who plays the Archduchess, was one of the biggest stars of German film. Her obvious commitment to 'The Old Law' may be linked to her marriage to a Jewish doctor two years earlier. This marriage, which Henny Porten stuck to even under great pressure during the Third Reich, in contrast to many other German actors, led to her exclusion from the German film industry, which was brought into line by Goebbels.

Film fans will find the plot of 'The Old Law' quite familiar in places. Parts of the story are reminiscent of 'The Jazz Singer' with Al Jolson, the film that helped the sound film to make its breakthrough in 1927.

Four years before 'The Jazz Singer', the same conflict between a young man yearning for the stage and his stern rabbi father was played out in its natural shtetl environment in this German super-production set in the 1860s.

At first resembling one of Edgar Ulmer's late 30's Yiddish films, the action relocates to Viennese high society with Henny Porten wandering in and out of the action as the Empress Elisabeth. This middle section drags terribly as it keeps pausing to shows off the sumptuouness of its décor and photography (the work of Alfred Junge and Theodor Sparkuhl who later fled to Britain and Hollywood respectively as part of Hitler's gift to the English-speaking cinema), before finally remembering the Rabbi still simmering back at home and reuniting him with his prodigal son for a conclusion that comes very abruptly after a build-up of over two hours.

I saw 'This Ancient Law' (subtitled 'Baruch') in October 2007 at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone, Italy; they screened a print from the Deutsche Kinemathek in Berlin. The print had a running time of 107 minutes; I could have cut out 15 minutes without losing any of the plot.

IMDb's detailed synopsis of this film is accurate. However, for some reason IMDb's cast list identifies two different actors (Fritz Richard and the great Werner Krauss) as playing Nathan, the professor. Herr Richard does indeed portray that role in this film; Werner Krauss is not listed in the film print's credits, and I did not spot him anywhere in this movie.

This film is apparently based on the memoirs of Heinrich Laube, who was director of Vienna's Burgtheater in the 1870s. I haven't read those memoirs, but it's not uncommon for a showman to 'improve' his autobiography. Several events in this film seemed rather contrived to me, and the assertion that they were ostensibly based on a true story only annoyed me further.

A major problem with 'This Ancient Law', at least for modern viewers, is that the movie's basic conflict is very similar to the one in a movie made four years later, and now much better known than this one: 'The Jazz Singer'. Baruch Mayr is a rabbi's son with greasepaint in his blood: will he forsake the ancient Jewish ways for the glamour of showbiz, or will he find some way to exist in both worlds?

I was intrigued by the depictions of 19th-century German circus life, which I assume are accurate. Character actor Julius Brandt gives a poignant performance as an elderly performer who is aware that his big break will never come; his only option is to carry on performing in small-time venues until he dies. The photography by the great Theodor Sparkuhl is up to his high standard.

Henny Porten is very pretty in a role which I found contrived and implausible. At this point in her career, Porten often produced her own films. That may explain why some sequences in this movie seem to be placing Porten's character at the centre of the plot when it's clear that Baruch Mayr is really the focal character. Mayr is played by the bland Ernst Deutsch; I wonder if Porten intentionally chose such a bland actor so that her own performance would not be upstaged.

Since I'm not Jewish and I wasn't raised in a Jewish environment, I don't have an instinctive feel for the Judaic traditions and duties which are so crucial to this story. I tried to empathise with the young Jewish hero of this film, and I was able to do so intellectually but unable to do so emotionally. Perhaps if I had never seen 'The Jazz Singer', I might have been more impressed by this movie. As it is, my rating for this one is barely 5 out of 10. It could have used Werner Krauss.