Die beiden Gatten der Frau Ruth (1919)

Henny Porten starred in the silent comedy Die beiden Gatten der Frau Ruth/Ruth's Two Husbands (Rudolf Biebrach, 1919) produced by Oskar Messter for his company Messters Projektion GmbH and distributed by Universum Film (UFA). She is supported by Curt Goetz, who later became known as a comedy writer, and Erich Schönfelder in the leading male roles. Ross Verlag published a series of seven postcards for the film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 615/1. Photo: Messter-Film. Henny Porten and Curt Goetz in Die beiden Gatten der Frau Ruth (Rudolf Biebrach, 1919).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 615/2. Photo: Messter-Film. Henny Porten in Die beiden Gatten der Frau Ruth (Rudolf Biebrach, 1919).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 615/3. Photo: Messter-Film. Henny Porten in Die beiden Gatten der Frau Ruth (Rudolf Biebrach, 1919).

How two newlyweds reconcile

Die beiden Gatten der Frau Ruth/Ruth's Two Husbands (Rudolf Biebrach, 1919) was scripted by Henrik Galeen. For the screenwriter, a specialist in fantastic film material, this film was one of his very few forays into the comedy genre. Considering the Danish character names in the film, the plot was probably set in Denmark. The film sets were designed by Kurt Dürnhöfer and realised by Jack Winter. Die beiden Gatten der Frau Ruth was made in late spring 1919 in the Ufa-Messter studio in Berlin-Tempelhof, had four acts and was 1331 metres long at its premiere on 25 July 1919 in Berlin's Mozartsaal. After re-censorship on 13 January 1921, the film was shortened to 1143 metres. A youth ban was imposed.

The engineer and researcher Dr Robert Holversen (Curt Goetz) is asked in a letter to take over the guardianship of the daughter of a good friend. The ‘little girl’ (Henny Porten) is called Ruth Elvstedt and has been living in a boarding house, which she will now leave. Holversen is very busy with his work and therefore asks his sister, who lives in his flat, to make the necessary arrangements for the ‘child’, whose age nobody knows exactly, to move in. As a precaution, a room is first converted into a nursery and a doll is bought for the girl to play with.

Holversen and his sister are all the more surprised when a fully grown, charming young lady appears who has long since left her childhood behind her. The astonishment soon gives way to doubts as to whether it is proper for a woman of prime marriageable age and an unmarried gentleman of the highest social standing to live under the same roof. Unmarried! Not that there would suddenly be talk! Especially as engineer Holversen develops an interest in Ruth that goes far beyond mere guardianship...

The solution is obvious: the two should marry so that the lost customs and decency can be restored as quickly as possible. No sooner said than done. But Ruth soon realises that her husband is a researcher and scholar through and through. He soon has hardly any time left for his newlywed and is completely absorbed in his studies. So it's a good thing that Baron Alfred Alberg (Erich Schönfelder), a friend of the house, is visiting and Ruth, left alone, is only too happy to be distracted by the urbane bon vivant. This doesn't suit her husband at all, especially as Ruth takes a fancy to the baron and is already talking about divorce!

The only thing missing now is a reason for divorce. Ruth has a ‘brilliant’ idea: during a soirée, she asks her still-husband to slap her hard in the face, which he is more than happy to do. But now Ruth suddenly becomes jealous of Robert because he wants to take advantage of the situation to hook up with another lady. Ruth is not at all happy about this and goes to the agreed meeting place instead, where she meets her baffled husband hidden under a veil. In the end, everything turns out well and the two newlyweds reconcile. Holversen explains to Ruth that the date with the ominous other lady was faked, solely to win Ruth back.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 615/4. Photo: Messter-Film. Curt Goetz and Henny Porten in Die beiden Gatten der Frau Ruth (Rudolf Biebrach, 1919).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 615/5. Photo: Messter-Film. Curt Goetz and Henny Porten in Die beiden Gatten der Frau Ruth (Rudolf Biebrach, 1919).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 615/6. Photo: Messter-Film. Curt Goetz and Henny Porten in Die beiden Gatten der Frau Ruth (Rudolf Biebrach, 1919).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 615/7. Photo: Messter-Film. Curt Goetz and Henny Porten in Die beiden Gatten der Frau Ruth (Rudolf Biebrach, 1919).

Sources: Filmportal, The German Early Cinema Database, Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.

Let your hair hang down!

On 20-21 April 2023, Elisa Uffreduzzi (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow Université Libre de Bruxelles) organises the workshop 'Dance, Acting, Movement and Gestural Patterns in Silent Cinema' at Eye Collection Center, Amsterdam.

EFSP co-editor Ivo Blom will give the presentation 'Her/Hair Affairs', on conventions, personal vocabularies, and gestures in silent cinema related to hair. It involves such films as Malombra (1917) with Lyda Borelli, La storia di una donna (1920) with Pina Menichelli, Shoes (1916) by Lois Weber, and Grezy/Daydreams (1915) by Yevgeni Bauer. Other speakers will be e.g. Rachel Morley, Laurent Guido, Kristina Köhler, Marketa Uhrilova, Asli Özgen, Dominique Nasta, Vito Adriaensens, and Uffreduzzi herself.

Here at EFSP, Ivo gives you a preview of his presentation.


German postcard by GG, no. 2428/11. Henny Porten: ethereal girl, long hair and horse.

Sturdy and blond Henny Porten (1890-1960) was one of Germany's most essential and famous film actresses of silent cinema. She became the quintessence of German womanhood, ladylike yet kindhearted and a not a little petit bourgeois. She was also the producer of many of her own films.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 64/3. Photo: Messter-Film, no. 37. Henny Porten with hair pinned up.


Italian postcard, no. 471. Photo: Attilio Badodi. Lyda Borelli: what a profile, what an exquisite dress (Paul Poiret?), what long hair!

Lyda Borelli (1887-1959) was already an acclaimed stage actress before she became the first diva of Italian silent cinema. The fascinating film star caused a craze among female fans called 'Borellismo'.


Italian postcard by Photo Ed. Soc. Anon. It. Bettini, Roma, no. 118. Photo: Riccardo Bettini. Again, Lyda Borelli and long hair.


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 331. Photo: Fontana. Vera Vergani, long hair.

Vera Vergani (1894–1989) was an Italian stage and film actress. She not only performed in the first stagings of Luigi Pirandello’s plays but in 1916-1921 she also knew a career as an actress in Italian silent cinema.


Italian postcard by Photo Ed. Soc. Anon. It. Bettini, Roma, no. 117. Photo: Riccardo Bettini. Soava Gallone, long hair (Was it one of Bettini's fixations?)

Polish actress Soava Gallone (1880-1957) was one of the divas of Italian silent cinema.


Spanish cromo (collectors card) by Chocolate Imperiale, no. 6 of 6. Photo: Sabaudo Film / distr. J. Verdaguer. Diana Karenne in Lea (Diana Karenne, Salvatore Aversano, 1916). Diana Karenne, long hair.

Polish actress Diana Karenne (1888-1940) was one of the divas of Italian silent cinema. Between 1916 and 1920, Karenne fascinated European audiences with her eccentric dresses and make-up, and with her primadonna behaviour.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 86/4. Photo: National Film. Biblical long hair: Jacqueline Logan in The King of Kings (Cecil B. DeMille, 1927). Caption: Mary Magdalene dries Jesus' feet.

Jacqueline Logan (1901-1983) was an American actress on the silent screen. Her most famous part is that of Mary Magdalene in The King of Kings (1927) by Cecil B. DeMille.


French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 327. Mary Pickford's long hair.

Mary Pickford (1892-1972) was a legendary silent film actress and was known as 'America’s sweetheart.' She was a founder of United Artists and helped establish the Academy.


British postcard in the 'Pictures' Portrait Gallery, London. The girly look, Goldilocks: Mary Miles Minter.

Mary Miles Minter (1902-1984) was an American silent screen actress who grew into a rival of Mary Pickford. In 1919 she made her most famous film, Anne of Green Gables (presumably a lost film), with director William Desmond Taylor. The film became a huge success, as a result of which Taylor started to promote the actress.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1531. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin. Backfisch and braids: Rita Clermont.

Rita Clermont (1894-1969) was a German film actress of the silent era. She received her first contract from Messter Film. Franz Hofer directed her in a series of similar cheerful stories, in which she mimed flappers, 'backfisches' and cheerful, rebellious girls. Until 1924, she appeared in 60 silent films.


German postcard by Verlag Hans Dursthoff, Berlin, no. 997. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin / Oliver Film. Backfisch and locks: Dorrit Weixler.

German silent film actress Dorrit Weixler (1892-1916) anticipated such better-known comedy stars of the German cinema as Ossi Oswalda and Anny Ondra. Her popular roles were the temperamental teenager or the tomboy in a sailor suit who is tamed by the 'right man'. The career of the bright and light comedienne was like a candle burning on both sides.


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci Editore, Milano, no. 614. Olive Borden, from long black curly hair to a bob cut.

Stunning Olive Borden (1906-1947) was considered one of the most beautiful actresses of the silent era. At 15, she started as a Mack Sennett bathing beauty and reached the peak of her career in 1926 when she made 11 films for Fox Studios and was earning $1,500 a week. She was nicknamed "the Joy Girl", after playing the lead in the 1927 film of that same title, but soon her career waned.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1665/3, 1927-1928. Photo: FaNaMet (or ParUfaMet). Pola Negri bob cut.

Polish film actress Pola Negri (1897-1987) achieved notoriety as a femme fatale in German and American silent films between the 1910s and 1930s. In the late 1910s and the 1920s, she achieved notoriety as a femme fatale in silent films in Poland, Berlin, and Hollywood. Negri was an overnight sensation in Ernst Lubitsch's Madame du Barry/Passion (1919). Her vamp roles were so popular that she was a direct rival of Theda Bara, and lived in a Hollywood palace, modelled after the White House.


Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 566/2. Photo: First-National-Film. Publicity still for The Desert Flower (Irving Cummings, 1925). Flapper & bob cut: Colleen Moore.

American actress Colleen Moore (1899-1988) was a star of the silent screen who appeared in about 100 films beginning in 1917. During the 1920s, she put her stamp on American social history, creating in dozens of films the image of the wide-eyed, insouciant flapper with her bobbed hair and short skirts.


Italian postcard for Malombra (Carmine Gallone 1917), adapted from the novel by Antonio Fogazzaro, and starring Lyda Borelli and Amleto Novelli. IPA CT Duplex. Film Cines. Caption: ...at that moment she felt her waist held by the powerful hands of Silla, who lifted her back up the stairs. Hairs signals. Letting her hair down: Lyda Borelli in Malombra.


Spanish minicard (collectors card) by Reclam Films, Mallorca, no. 5 of 6 cards. Photo: Cines. Lyda Borelli in La donna nuda (Carmine Gallone, 1914). Letting her hair down: Borelli in La donna nuda.


Spanish postcard by Amattler Marca Luna chocolate, series 7, no. 19. Lyda Borelli as Queen Maria Teresa in Carnevalesca (Amleto Palermi, 1918). Queen Maria Teresa, flees the castle after having unjustly killed her husband. Letting her hair down: Lyda Borelli in Carnevalesca (1918).


Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Imperiale, no. 6 of 6. Photo: Rinascimento Film. Pina Menichelli in Il giardino incantato/The Stronger Sex (Eugenio Perego, 1918). The film was originally entitled 'Il giardino della voluttà', a title which the Spanish cards on the film kept, but which became forbidden by the Italian censor. Pina Menichelli & touching hair.

Fascinating and enigmatic Pina Menichelli (1890-1984) was the most bizarre Italian diva of the silent era. With her contorted postures and disdainful expression, she impersonated the striking femme fatale.


Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Imperiale, no. 5 of 6. Photo: Rinascimento Film. Pina Menichelli and Luigi Serventi in Il giardino incantato/The Stronger Sex (Eugenio Perego, 1918). Pina Menichelli & touching hair.


Italian postcard. Pina Menichelli with her hair unbound (danger ahead!).


Spanish collectors card by Chocolate Amattler, Marca Luna, series 4, no. 17. Photo: Caesar Film. Francesca Bertini in Malìa (Alfredo De Antoni, 1917). The Spanish title for this film was Liliana. The portrait photos in this series were by Pinto, Rome. Francesca Bertini, unwinded long hair, after being raped and tattooed against her will, in Malía (a ripoff of The Cheat).


British postcard by Cinema Chat. Photo: Transatlantic (Universal's European distribution branch). Pinning up her hair: Mary MacLaren in Shoes (1918). The card is not from Shoes, sadly.

Mary MacLaren (1896–1985) was an American film actress. Mary was launched in 1916 in the lead of Shoes which tells about the desperate measures of a girl, selling her body for shoes. A successful film career, including a role as Anne of Austria, Queen of France, in Fred Niblo's The Three Musketeers (1921), starring Douglas Fairbanks.


Italian postcard by Ed. A. Traldi, Milano, no. 663. Elena Sangro as the Empress Poppea in the epic film Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924/1925), a production of UCI (Unione Cinematografica Italiana). Wigs: Elena Sangro in Quo vadis? (1924).

Elena Sangro (1896-1969) was one of the main actresses of the Italian cinema of the 1920s. In spite of the general film crisis then, she made one film after another. She was also one of the first female directors and she had a famous affair with the 64-year-old poet Gabriele D'Annunzio.

Notes

For Grezy/Daydreams (1915) see Silents Please and this gif.

For La moglie di Claudio with Menichelli, see Silents Please and this gif.

For the scene in Malombra with the metamorphosis, see YouTube, from 19:17 to 21:22.

See Shoes on the Eye Player. From 37:10: Mary binds her hair when she is going to prostitute herself. Her look in the mirror tells all: she knows what's coming. Till 37:55.

The white horse

The white horse is an archetype that holds cultural and symbolic significance. It can mean heroism, spiritual enlightenment, and the triumph of good over evil. I found several postcards of female stars of the early German silent cinema, such as Henny Porten and Fern Andra, who were portrayed with a beautiful white horse. These dreamy portraits were made just before the First World War and they symbolise purity and innocence, which were soon lost at the front. And after the lost war, the cinema remembered the Germans of their heroic past when Siegfried rode his iconic white horse in the grand epic of the German silent cinema, Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen (1924).

Fern Andra

German postcard by Verlag Photochemie, Berlin / GGCo, no. 1885/4. Photo: Fern Andra Atelier.


German postcard by Verlag Photochemie, Berlin / GGCo, no. 2909/3. Photo: Fern Andra Atelier.

'Modern' American Fern Andra (1893-1974) became one of the most popular film stars of German cinema in the 1910s and early 1920s. In her films she mastered tightropes, riding horses without a saddle, driving cars and motorcycles, bobsleighing, and even boxing.


German postcard by Verlag Photochemie, Berlin / GGCo, no. 2920/3. Photo: Fern Andra Atelier.


German postcard by Verlag Photochemie, Berlin / GGCo, no. 2920/4. Photo: Fern Andra Atelier.

Henny Porten

German postcard by GG co., no. 2428/11.

Sturdy and blond Henny Porten (1890-1960) was one of Germany's most important and popular film actresses of the silent cinema. She became the quintessence of German womanhood, ladylike yet kindhearted and a not a little petit bourgeois. She was also the producer of many of her own films.


German postcard by GG co., no. 2442/6. With a black horse!

Die Nibelungen (1924)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 673/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Decla-Ufa-Film. Publicity still for Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (Fritz Lang, 1924). Siegfried (Paul Richter) in the forest.

Austrian actor Paul Richter (1895-1961) is best known as Siegfried, the hero who rides a shining white horse in the classic fantasy film Die Nibelungen (1924), situated in pre-Christian Germany. Die Nibelungen, directed by Fritz Lang, is one of the masterpieces of German silent cinema.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 675/1, 1924. Photo: Decla-Ufa-Film. Paul Richter in Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (Fritz Lang, 1924).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 675/2, ca. 1924. Photo: Decla-Ufa-Film. Paul Richter in Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (Fritz Lang, 1924). Siegfried and Alberich in the fog meadow. The meadow Siegfried has to cross is clouded in mist and framed by the dark branches of a leafless tree. Then slowly, very slowly, the white horse emerges through the mist, ridden by Siegfried dressed in white.

Sources: Richard Blank (Film & Light: The History of Filmlighting is the History of Film), Kristen M. Stanton (UniGuide), and IMDb.

Three Henny Porten films (2)

Last month, EFSP had a post with three films by Henny Porten, one of the three most popular stars of German silent cinema. For this post, Ivo Blom selected three more Porten films for which Ross Verlag published a series of postcards with film scenes. Ivo chose this time the drama Die Flammen lügen/The flames lie (1926), the romantic comedy Liebe im Kuhstall/Love in the Cowshed (1928), and the early sound film Skandal um Eva/Scandalous Eva (1930).

Die Flammen lügen (1926)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 59/1. Photo: Henny Porten-Froehlich Produktion. Henny Porten and Ferdinand von Alten in Die Flammen lügen/The flames lie (Carl Froehlich, 1926).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 59/2. Photo: Henny Porten-Froehlich Produktion. Henny Porten in Die Flammen lügen/The flames lie (Carl Froehlich, 1926). The men may be Paul Bildt and Gerd Briese as Porten's father and brother in the film.

Die Flammen lügen/The flames lie (Carl Froehlich, 1926) is a German silent melodrama, written by Friedrich Raff. Henny Porten played the lead role as Gertrud von Gehr. Gertrud is the daughter of the retired officer Major von Gehr (Paul Bildt), who is annoyed by the new house of his neighbour, the wealthy factory owner Conrad Birkinger (Hans Adalbert Schlettow).

To make matters worse, Gehr's daughter Gertrud falls in love with Birkinger, and one day they get married. Their childless marriage is not a happy one. Birkinger cheats on his wife with his former girlfriend Doritt Lenee (Ruth Weyher). The unfaithful husband even goes so far that he and Doritt rent a room in a hotel as Mr. and Mrs. Birkinger.

When a fire breaks out in the hotel, the two can not escape and perish in the flames. Now Gertrud Birkinger is officially dead. At first, she does not notice anything about this development, because she too stayed in the hotel because she had secretly travelled to join her husband. But she could be saved.

After a lengthy recovery, Gertrud returns to her old, premarital life and devotes herself entirely to her brother Hermann's (Gerd Briese) children.

Die Flammen Lügen was shot in April and May 1926 in the Berlin-Staaken studio. The film passed the censorship on September 25th and was banned from youth. The premiere took place on 22 October 22nd, 1926 in the Berlin movie palace Mozartsaal. Franz Schroedter was responsible for the film sets, Axel Graatkjær was the director of photography, and Walter Supper the editor.

Paimann’s Filmlisten reviewed: “The subject is kept quite sentimental and has a number of gripping moments. The direction is steady, the presentation and photography smooth.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 59/3. Photo: Henny Porten-Froehlich Produktion. Henny Porten and Hans Adalbert Schlettow in Die Flammen lügen/The flames lie (Carl Froehlich, 1926).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 59/4. Photo: Henny Porten-Froehlich Produktion. Henny Porten in Die Flammen lügen (Carl Froehlich, 1926).

Liebe im Kuhstall (1928)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 102/1. Photo: Henny Porten Freuhlich-Produktion. Henny Porten in Liebe im Kuhstall/Love in the Cowshed (Carl Froelich, 1928).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 102/2. Photo: Henny Porten Freuhlich-Produktion. Henny Porten in Liebe im Kuhstall/Love in the Cowshed (Carl Froelich, 1928).

In Liebe im Kuhstall/Love in the Cowshed (Carl Froelich, 1928), Janos von Holodronz (Iwan Kowal-Samborski) is a real good-for-nothing from old nobility. Together with his four friends, he lives in a completely dilapidated estate. Now, according to his uncle Albrecht (Eugen Neufeld), only marrying a wealthy lady can save his economic survival. He believes that the wealthy Countess Koritowska would be an ideal marriage candidate. But Janos stands across, he doesn't want to. At least not this unknown woman, because he (and his four cronies as well) has long since lost his heart to the perky cowgirl Marischka (Henny Porten).

One day she appeared out of nowhere, or better said: she was discovered in the hay. That is where the young woman had laid down to rest the night before when she was surprised by a downpour on her wandering after work in the cowshed. The five men don't think twice: of course, this Marischka finds work with them straight away. The buxom cowgirl immediately notices that she is turning the heads of the men on the farm and makes full use of this. The peasant girl, who doesn't seem to have much experience in her job, soon messes up the entire estate.

One day Janos' uncle Albrecht, Knight of Holodronz, appears and frankly offers his nephew money if he should finally lead a distinguished young lady from a good (and above all wealthy) home to the altar. His four friends then have a "brilliant" idea. Why not just make Marischka "elegant" and sell it to the wealthy uncle as a "good match". Said and done. But soon all this becomes too stupid for Marischka. She confesses the truth to her uncle and runs away crying. The five men's beautiful plan seems to have failed, and Janos would like to tie himself up with a rope straight away. But the stupid cowgirl stole it and used it to tie her bundle, as she left the yard at once.

The crybaby, disappointed by Janos, explains that she will bring the rope back at Pentecost when the merchant of the place where Janos is heavily in debt has taken over the farm and moved into it. Janos should have been chased from the farm by then. How can the latter suspect that this whole story was only staged by Countess Koritowska, who in truth is identical to Marischka and of course also not a cowgirl, in order to test Janos as a possible marriage candidate? In the end, after all the trials and tribulations, the lovers still find each other.

Other actors in Liebe im Kuhstall/Love in the Cowshed (Carl Froelich, 1928) were Oskar Karlweis as Oberleutnant a. D. Wedelski, Otto Wallburg as Wenzel the soap cutter, and - debuting on screen - Felix Bressart as bailiff. Fritz Friedmann-Frederich and Walter Supper scripted the film. Sets were by Gustav A. Knauer and Willy Schiller, cinematography by Gustave Preiss. Porten's husband Wilhelm Kauffmann co-produced the film and was production manager too. The film premiered 26 October 1928 at the Berlin cinema Capitol.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 102/3. Photo: Henny Porten Freuhlich-Produktion. Henny Porten in Liebe im Kuhstall/Love in the Cowshed (Carl Froelich, 1928).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 102/4. Photo: Henny Porten Freuhlich-Produktion. Henny Porten and Oskar Karlweiss in Liebe im Kuhstall/Love in the Cowshed (Carl Froelich, 1928).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 102/5. Photo: Henny Porten Freuhlich-Produktion. Henny Porten and Otto Wallburg in Liebe im Kuhstall/Love in the Cowshed (Carl Froelich, 1928).

Skandal um Eva (1930)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 122/1. Photo: Schmoll / Henny Porten Freuhlich-Produktion. Henny Porten in Skandal um Eva/Scandalous Eva (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1930).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 122/2. Photo: Schmoll / Nero-Porten-Film. Henny Porten in Skandal um Eva/Scandalous Eva (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1930).

In Skandal um Eva/Scandalous Eva (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1930), Eva Rüttgers (Henny Porten) is a young teacher in a German provincial town. She becomes engaged to the educator Dr. Kurt Hiller (Oskar Sima). By chance, she learns of a four-year-old Hiller's illegitimate son. She secretly drives to the foster parents of little Gustav and returns with him to town.

What was actually planned as a surprise for her fiancé turned into a moral scandal. Hiller does not recognise his own son and, like the rest of the city, considers him to be Eva's illegitimate son, who has deliberately kept this son a secret and now wants to bring him into the marriage.

Eva is supposed to be fired from her position as a teacher. This gets the students involved. They do not want to be separated from the popular teacher and this leads to the clarification of the misunderstanding with their protests.

Skandal um Eva/Scandalous Eva (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1930) was based on the popular stage farce 'Skandal um Olly' by Heinrich Ilgenstein. It was both Porten and G.W. Pabst's first sound film. It was considered an entertaining film that showed the mastery of Porten.

Skandal um Eva/Scandalous Eva (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1930) was scripted by Friedrich Raff and Julius Urgiß, the cinematography was by Fritz Arno Wagner, and editing by Wolfgang Loë-Bagier and Marc Sorkin. The film premiered in Germany on 11 June 1930.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 122/3. Photo: Schmoll / Nero-Porten-Film. Henny Porten and Oskar Sima in Skandal um Eva/Scandalous Eva (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1930).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 122/4. Photo: Schmoll / Nero-Porten-Film. Henny Porten in Skandal um Eva/Scandalous Eva (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1930).

Sources: Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.