Being a product of the Silent era, this German variation on the Frankenstein theme actually preceded the definitive James Whale pictures; a rare (the copy I acquired was culled from an old Italian TV broadcast that I somehow missed out on) and still very little-known film – despite the involvement of Henrik Galeen (THE GOLEM [1914 and 1920], NOSFERATU [1922] and THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE [1926]), Brigitte Helm (METROPOLIS [1927]) and Paul Wegener (THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE [1913], THE GOLEM [1914, 1917 and 1920] and THE MAGICIAN [1926]) – this is probably due to the fact that, in spite of some clear Expressionist trimmings, the plot is mainly treated as sophisticated melodrama! Especially disappointing for genre buffs is the fact that the creation scene is completely by-passed – shown only in a split-second flashback towards the end when Alraune (Helm, a veritable femme fatale spawned from the mandrake root by ambitious alchemist Wegener) discovers her unnatural origin when she happens upon the scientist's diary! Galeen, however, demonstrates a sure eye for pictorial detail throughout (particularly when dealing with the carnival and casino settings) and the basically 'incestuous' relationship between creature and creator is treated with amazing sensitivity and depth for its time. The ending, then, is equally non-horrific as Alraune, resigned now to her soulless existence, goes away with her creator's long-infatuated nephew while Wegener pays the price for his tampering with nature by being left all alone.
12 Reviews
The Golem vs. The Metropolis Robot
EdgarST8 January 2018
Two monsters meet in this second adaptation of Hanns Heinz Ewers' novel: Paul Weneger, actor and director of "Der Golem" (1920), and Brigitte Helm, diva of Fritz Lang's masterpiece "Metropolis" (1927).
Classified as science fiction and horror, the film was more of a fantasy to me. A scientist decides to inseminate a prostitute with a mandrake root that grew thanks to the semen of a murderer who was hanged on a tree. In the first scene, we learn that it is a full moon night and that someone will dig directly under the hanged man's body to remove the root. It will be used for the experiment. The result will be a living creature: Alraune.
The film (or the copy I saw) makes a discreet ellipsis when the prostitute enters the scientist's experiment room, and in the next scene, we see young Alraune (mandrake, in German) in a boarding school ruled by nuns, from which she will escape with the scientist's worthless nephew. In the story that continues, there is no science fiction or terror, but the drama of a woman who ignores her origin. Her attempts to love and live freely are frustrated every time her "father" intrudes. He is convinced that Alraune has inherited anti-social traits from her prostitute mother and murderous father. However, what Alraune really wants is to enjoy life: she escapes with a magician to a circus, flirts with the animal trainer and meets a good viscount who falls for her and proposes marriage. But papa scientist does not give up, so she decides to take revenge.
Brigitte Helm, who, as in "Metropolis", alternates between innocent sweetness and malicious eroticism, contributes to the fascination of the story. Director Henrik Galeen uses expressionist images, although the realistic approach predominates. It is a pity that the restored version is not available and what circulates is a vile copy of a VHS edition in English, with music often out of place and with the name of the protagonist changed to Mandrake. However, curiosity is curiosity and there is no one who can beat our archaeological passion for cinema.
Classified as science fiction and horror, the film was more of a fantasy to me. A scientist decides to inseminate a prostitute with a mandrake root that grew thanks to the semen of a murderer who was hanged on a tree. In the first scene, we learn that it is a full moon night and that someone will dig directly under the hanged man's body to remove the root. It will be used for the experiment. The result will be a living creature: Alraune.
The film (or the copy I saw) makes a discreet ellipsis when the prostitute enters the scientist's experiment room, and in the next scene, we see young Alraune (mandrake, in German) in a boarding school ruled by nuns, from which she will escape with the scientist's worthless nephew. In the story that continues, there is no science fiction or terror, but the drama of a woman who ignores her origin. Her attempts to love and live freely are frustrated every time her "father" intrudes. He is convinced that Alraune has inherited anti-social traits from her prostitute mother and murderous father. However, what Alraune really wants is to enjoy life: she escapes with a magician to a circus, flirts with the animal trainer and meets a good viscount who falls for her and proposes marriage. But papa scientist does not give up, so she decides to take revenge.
Brigitte Helm, who, as in "Metropolis", alternates between innocent sweetness and malicious eroticism, contributes to the fascination of the story. Director Henrik Galeen uses expressionist images, although the realistic approach predominates. It is a pity that the restored version is not available and what circulates is a vile copy of a VHS edition in English, with music often out of place and with the name of the protagonist changed to Mandrake. However, curiosity is curiosity and there is no one who can beat our archaeological passion for cinema.
The man-made mandrake -or the sin of artificial insemination
melvelvit-123 October 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Paul "The Golem" Wegener creates Brigitte "Metropolis" Helm from the sperm of a condemned man and the egg of a prostitute to disprove genetic theory and names her Mandrake after a plant that grows beneath the gallows and brings either very good or very bad luck. She's raised in a convent where she drowns flies, puts spiders in the nuns' habits, and demands a smitten young swain steal money from his father's bank so they can run off together. He does, they do -and soon join a circus where every man is at Mandrake's feet. Her "father" eventually finds her, brings her home, and introduces the girl into society where she has the same devastating effect on anything in pants ...including her creator. Uh oh.
A great tale (based on German legend) with plenty of potential is told in pedestrian fashion (no Expressionism, here) and further diluted by a half-way happy ending (!) that has Mandrake falling in love and finding happiness while "father" goes insane for tampering with things no mortal should. The artificial insemination angle would have been verboten in Hollywood at the time but Weimar Germany was most likely unfazed. The 1952 remake with Erich von Stroheim and Hildegarde Knef gave ALRAUNE the ending it cried out for.
A great tale (based on German legend) with plenty of potential is told in pedestrian fashion (no Expressionism, here) and further diluted by a half-way happy ending (!) that has Mandrake falling in love and finding happiness while "father" goes insane for tampering with things no mortal should. The artificial insemination angle would have been verboten in Hollywood at the time but Weimar Germany was most likely unfazed. The 1952 remake with Erich von Stroheim and Hildegarde Knef gave ALRAUNE the ending it cried out for.
Positive review of this rare, silent film
CParis8 October 1999
Warning: Spoilers
ALRAUNE is another spectacular piece of early German cinema, surprisingly overlooked by film buffs and historians alike. The film is not "expressionist" in the way of CALIGARI or METROPOLIS, but fans of those films will enjoy it regardless.
The plot (without spoilers) is creepy to begin with: a scientist (Paul Wegener) decides to experiment with humanity by creating a woman from the seed of a hanged man impregnated into a prostitute. Using two reprehensible creatures as parents, as well as artificial insemination (which is implied in the film, not stated as some articles on the film have indicated), the doctor aims to see if an individual's humanity is the product of nature or nurture.
The woman he creates, called Alraune (although called "Mandrake" in the english title cards, a name ill-fitting the overtly feminine character) is played by Brigitte Helm. No better casting for this part could have been made at the time: Helm's performance here far surpasses that of her most famous film role (the robotrix from Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS) and (I feel) solidifies her position as top femme fatale of that era. Her sensuous, provocative movements, gestures, stares and sneers even outshine those of Marlene Deitrich in years to come. There are moments where Helm slips into the silliness that harms her role as Maria in METROPOLIS (flailing about wantonly), but these are kept to a minimum by the director.
Paul Wegener, as the doctor, also proves to be an actor out of time. His performance would stand up to modern criticism, as it lacks the usual melodramatic facial manipulations or exaggerated movements of many silent film male stars. Rather, Wegener tells us his characters thoughts and feeling swith subtle glances, almost imperceptible lip movements, and ingenius body posture. Wegener, you may recall, played the great clay giant Der Golem in his film of the same name; to see Wegener play this role, sans makeup and gravitas, is to understand the strength of his abilities.
Overall the film is very good, although suffers from an ending not in keeping with all that builds up to it. A seduction scene between father and "daughter" is outrageous even by today's standards. But Alraune/Mandrake is presented as almost soulless, and this is much diluted by the end, although not truly explained. Was it nurture after all? Possibly, but the doctor's role in Alraune's maturation is almost nonexistent (she is raised in a girl's school, and spends the rest of the time running away from "father.") The film fails to answer the questions is presents. However, this may be one of the few negative symptoms of German silent films, which seem to universally fall apart at the resolution, backing away from the horrors they presented throughout.
I am not sure if the version currently available on video is complete, but seems to soft-pedal the insemination issue (some viewers will think mandrake root was used as opposed to the hanged man's seed.) The title cards are few and far between, allowing the visuals to tell the story, not the dialog.
For fans of the Frankenstein myth, Alraune presents another take on the tale of scientific hubris gone awry. An excellent film, it should be sought out in favor of the later (weaker) "Unholy Love" remakes.
The plot (without spoilers) is creepy to begin with: a scientist (Paul Wegener) decides to experiment with humanity by creating a woman from the seed of a hanged man impregnated into a prostitute. Using two reprehensible creatures as parents, as well as artificial insemination (which is implied in the film, not stated as some articles on the film have indicated), the doctor aims to see if an individual's humanity is the product of nature or nurture.
The woman he creates, called Alraune (although called "Mandrake" in the english title cards, a name ill-fitting the overtly feminine character) is played by Brigitte Helm. No better casting for this part could have been made at the time: Helm's performance here far surpasses that of her most famous film role (the robotrix from Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS) and (I feel) solidifies her position as top femme fatale of that era. Her sensuous, provocative movements, gestures, stares and sneers even outshine those of Marlene Deitrich in years to come. There are moments where Helm slips into the silliness that harms her role as Maria in METROPOLIS (flailing about wantonly), but these are kept to a minimum by the director.
Paul Wegener, as the doctor, also proves to be an actor out of time. His performance would stand up to modern criticism, as it lacks the usual melodramatic facial manipulations or exaggerated movements of many silent film male stars. Rather, Wegener tells us his characters thoughts and feeling swith subtle glances, almost imperceptible lip movements, and ingenius body posture. Wegener, you may recall, played the great clay giant Der Golem in his film of the same name; to see Wegener play this role, sans makeup and gravitas, is to understand the strength of his abilities.
Overall the film is very good, although suffers from an ending not in keeping with all that builds up to it. A seduction scene between father and "daughter" is outrageous even by today's standards. But Alraune/Mandrake is presented as almost soulless, and this is much diluted by the end, although not truly explained. Was it nurture after all? Possibly, but the doctor's role in Alraune's maturation is almost nonexistent (she is raised in a girl's school, and spends the rest of the time running away from "father.") The film fails to answer the questions is presents. However, this may be one of the few negative symptoms of German silent films, which seem to universally fall apart at the resolution, backing away from the horrors they presented throughout.
I am not sure if the version currently available on video is complete, but seems to soft-pedal the insemination issue (some viewers will think mandrake root was used as opposed to the hanged man's seed.) The title cards are few and far between, allowing the visuals to tell the story, not the dialog.
For fans of the Frankenstein myth, Alraune presents another take on the tale of scientific hubris gone awry. An excellent film, it should be sought out in favor of the later (weaker) "Unholy Love" remakes.
Dull melodrama
jamesrupert20147 September 2021
An unscrupulous doctor (Paul Wegener) creates a living 'mandrake', the soulless offspring of a prostitute inseminated with the semen taken from an executed criminal. The unnatural progeny, Alraune (German for mandrake), is played by temptress extraordinaire Brigitte Helm, best known for playing the saintly Maria and her evil Maschinenmensch avatar in Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis' (1927). Although the film is sometimes classified as horror/science fiction, it is more of a romantic melodrama, as the doctor slowly becomes infatuated with his creation, who is beginning to aspire to human feelings. Human artificial insemination had been around since the late 1700s, so other than the choice of sperm donor, there is nothing particularly novel about the premise, which is essentially a test of the frequently overly-simplified 'nature/nurture' dichotomy (in reality, it is nature 'plus' nurture, not nature 'or' nurture). The eponymous 1911 novel by Hanns Heinz Ewers had been films twice before this version and several times afterwards but the 1928 silent is considered to be truest to the original story. The film has not aged well - not a lot happens and the silent acting comes off as a bit theatrical. There are several versions on-line, with and without music. The image quality in the one I watched was not great but the score, a mix of recognisable 'classics', helped pass the time spent watching the relatively boring film.
"Get with child a mandrake root." John Donne.
brogmiller17 April 2022
Hanns Ewers wrote the original screenplay for 'The Student of Prague', the finest version of which is generally considered to be that of 1926 directed by Henrik Galeen. Here Galeen directs this extremely loose adaptation of Ewer's novel 'Alraune' which reunites him with star and co-director of 'The Golem', Paul Wegener, who plays mad scientist Jakob ten Brinken. The role of the soulless femme fatale Alraune who drags men to their doom is tailor-made for Brigitte Helm, following her impact in Lang's 'Metropolis'.
By the time Ewer's novel was published, news of Russian experiments in artificial insemination involving animals had already reached the West and seemed the stuff of nightmares. Such a pity therefore that this film fails to fulfill expectations.
Although it contains some Expressionist flourishes it lacks the overall visual style and imaginative flair of Galeen's contemporaries, early scenes are victims of censorship cuts, the succession of men who fall under the spell of Alraune's sexual charisma are little more than ciphers and it is weakened by a lame, unsatisfactory ending.
The real fascination of the piece lies in the dynamic between Paul Wegener and Brigitte Helm whose scenes together are riveting.
Despite its weaknesses the influence on Hollywood's mad science/creation films is there for all to see although its depiction of destructive female sexuality would never be replicated.
By the time Ewer's novel was published, news of Russian experiments in artificial insemination involving animals had already reached the West and seemed the stuff of nightmares. Such a pity therefore that this film fails to fulfill expectations.
Although it contains some Expressionist flourishes it lacks the overall visual style and imaginative flair of Galeen's contemporaries, early scenes are victims of censorship cuts, the succession of men who fall under the spell of Alraune's sexual charisma are little more than ciphers and it is weakened by a lame, unsatisfactory ending.
The real fascination of the piece lies in the dynamic between Paul Wegener and Brigitte Helm whose scenes together are riveting.
Despite its weaknesses the influence on Hollywood's mad science/creation films is there for all to see although its depiction of destructive female sexuality would never be replicated.
I made no connection
Horst_In_Translation17 June 2016
Warning: Spoilers
There exist several versions of this "Alraune" movie, also another starring Brigitte Helm, but this very old one we have here is from 1928, so almost 90 years old and possibly the most known film. It is in black-and-white and silent and stars the aforementioned Brigitte Helm ("Metropolis") as the main character. The movie is fairly long for its time, almost runs for 110 minutes and features some of the great silent film actors. The writer and director is Henrik Galeen, who himself id known for writing the scripts and screenplay for some of the great classics from that era of German cinema. So, the premise is pretty good, but the overall outcome here is a bit disappointing I must say. The reason may be that I am not the greatest silent film fan at all, but still I felt that the plot was extremely shallow, especially for a film with such a massive runtime. There was not a single character that I really truly cared for and that includes Helm's main character as well as the minor players. I give "Alraune" a thumbs down. This one is really only worth seeing for the very biggest silent film enthusiasts. Everybody else will be as bored as I was.
A clever. artful masterpiece of late german expressionism
patrickfilbeck4 February 2022
The Austrian filmmaker Henrik Galeen is one of the beacons of the rightly celebrated expressionism of German film in the 10s and 20s, while his name is wrongly known to very few and mostly goes under the weight of the work of directors such as Fritz Lang or Robert Wiene. His work Alraune shows how exceptional Galeen was at what he did.
Galeen uses the novel by Hanns Heinz Ewers, which anticipated the concept of artificial insemination by decades and addressed it. The director brought the book, and thus the subject, to a wider audience than Ewers' book could.
A Frankenstein-esque professor (the equally gifted filmmaker Paul Wegener, who later became an opportunist through his association with the fascists of National Socialism) plans to create a woman based on the Alraune myth, i.e. The human-shaped plant that symbolizes misfortune and happiness can bring, especially in relation to childbearing. The professor thinks about the breeding of certain types of people in an anti-humanistic manner and decides, to explain his words, to use "degraded subjects of society" for this experiment. The portrayal of the involuntary nature of the participants, the inhuman view of people and human experiments, the lack of ethics on the part of a scholar or doctor are all anticipations of what would soon doom Germany and then Europe and large parts of the world. The result is Alraune (Brigitte Helm), the first human being to use artificial insemination. She grew up in a convent school, apparently an experiment in the perverted educational-theoretical sense of the neo-humanists, looking for the relationship between genetics, i.e. The predestination of human existence, and socialization, i.e. The influences of the environment on the human individual. Alraune escapes from this experiment and ends up at the circus after her anti-social attitude has already been shown several times. Helm plays Alraune really impressive. She vacillates between the experimental malignancy of the being and the incomprehension of one's own being, which triggers sadness in the main character.
The professor can finally find Alraune, but Alraune finds out what kind of machinations she came into being and decides, almost according to her nature, but still understandable for everyone, to take revenge on the professor. This requires an understanding of injustice, through which the wonderful dialectic of the film stands out very clearly. Mandrake may be created from the "corrupt", but the basis of her nature lies in the facets of the human. The professor, on the other hand, came about "naturally" but is himself a being who inflicts suffering on other people - and this without the history of the injustice inflicted that Alraune experienced.
The magical, surreal aspects of the plot now come more and more to the fore through the main character. She seduces the professor and ruins him, especially financially; the human aspect no longer seemed to have played a major role in this blueprint of fascist medicine.
Ultimately, after completing her revenge, Alraune decides against the predestination of the experiment and proves the will of man as the good of his self-determination. The fact that love is the decisive factor here is part of the history of modern educational sciences, which rightly determined that, for example, parental love or friendly affection play an important role in the good development of a human being.
In this way, Henrik Galeen packs a fundamentally humanistic statement into an hour-and-a-half film and inspires with the basic characteristics of expressionist filmmaking. Impressive images, surreal confusion, a spider's web of theses and refutations make this film a classic in film history.
Galeen uses the novel by Hanns Heinz Ewers, which anticipated the concept of artificial insemination by decades and addressed it. The director brought the book, and thus the subject, to a wider audience than Ewers' book could.
A Frankenstein-esque professor (the equally gifted filmmaker Paul Wegener, who later became an opportunist through his association with the fascists of National Socialism) plans to create a woman based on the Alraune myth, i.e. The human-shaped plant that symbolizes misfortune and happiness can bring, especially in relation to childbearing. The professor thinks about the breeding of certain types of people in an anti-humanistic manner and decides, to explain his words, to use "degraded subjects of society" for this experiment. The portrayal of the involuntary nature of the participants, the inhuman view of people and human experiments, the lack of ethics on the part of a scholar or doctor are all anticipations of what would soon doom Germany and then Europe and large parts of the world. The result is Alraune (Brigitte Helm), the first human being to use artificial insemination. She grew up in a convent school, apparently an experiment in the perverted educational-theoretical sense of the neo-humanists, looking for the relationship between genetics, i.e. The predestination of human existence, and socialization, i.e. The influences of the environment on the human individual. Alraune escapes from this experiment and ends up at the circus after her anti-social attitude has already been shown several times. Helm plays Alraune really impressive. She vacillates between the experimental malignancy of the being and the incomprehension of one's own being, which triggers sadness in the main character.
The professor can finally find Alraune, but Alraune finds out what kind of machinations she came into being and decides, almost according to her nature, but still understandable for everyone, to take revenge on the professor. This requires an understanding of injustice, through which the wonderful dialectic of the film stands out very clearly. Mandrake may be created from the "corrupt", but the basis of her nature lies in the facets of the human. The professor, on the other hand, came about "naturally" but is himself a being who inflicts suffering on other people - and this without the history of the injustice inflicted that Alraune experienced.
The magical, surreal aspects of the plot now come more and more to the fore through the main character. She seduces the professor and ruins him, especially financially; the human aspect no longer seemed to have played a major role in this blueprint of fascist medicine.
Ultimately, after completing her revenge, Alraune decides against the predestination of the experiment and proves the will of man as the good of his self-determination. The fact that love is the decisive factor here is part of the history of modern educational sciences, which rightly determined that, for example, parental love or friendly affection play an important role in the good development of a human being.
In this way, Henrik Galeen packs a fundamentally humanistic statement into an hour-and-a-half film and inspires with the basic characteristics of expressionist filmmaking. Impressive images, surreal confusion, a spider's web of theses and refutations make this film a classic in film history.
Copycat of Metropolis
mrdonleone31 January 2020
Warning: Spoilers
How is it possible for any movie to be an almost exact copy of Metropolis, only a year later, and still be praised for being a so called "master"work?? That goes beyond me. It's really utter nonsense. Yuck yuck yuck!!!
David Jeffers for SIFFblog.com
rdjeffers21 January 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Poison Angel
Based on the medieval legend of the Mandrake, a root, which grew beneath the gallows from the semen of hanged men, Hanns Heinz Ewers novel Alraune was brought to the screen in 1928 by Ama-Film GmbH and director Henrik Galeen (The Student of Prague 1926, Nosferatu 1922 as screenwriter). Paul Wegener (The Golem 1920, The Magician 1926) stars as Professor Jakob ten Brinken, the "world famous authority on genetic cross-breeding", who implants a prostitute with the 'seed' of a hanged man in order to study the effects of environment over genetics on the offspring. The resulting child is Alraune, whom Brinken calls 'Mandrake', played by Brigitte Helm (Metropolis 1927, The Love of Jeanne Ney 1927). Alraune is raised in a convent, ignorant of her origins, believing Brinken is her father. Just as the Professor is convinced, his 'experiment' has overcome her genetic history she runs away with a boy and begins a life of troubled encounters with men. Helm is both innocent, alluring and at times intensely evil in this captivating performance of a lovely young girl, both attracted to and in conflict with the men in her life. As in the novel, which this film closely follows, the idea and understanding of love is unknown to Alraune. As she chats with a circus magician she shares her train compartment with, his real intentions unknown to Alraune, he entertains her with slight-of-hand tricks. He produces a live mouse that he places on her leg and it quickly crawls under her skirt as the girl calmly observes. " What? You are not afraid of mice? Little girl. You will make something of yourself." While the film was heavily censored in 1928, this surviving scene must have been, and remains today, tremendously provocative.
Brinken eventually finds Alraune, living as a circus performer, just as she rebels against the magician's attempts to control her flirtations with another man. " Stop me if you can!" In one of the most electrifying scenes in all of Weimar Cinema, Alraune opens the door to the lion's cage now on the stage and steps in. As the curtain opens, the crowd reacts in utter horror while, outside the cage, circus performers furiously run in all directions. Alraune stands before several enormous lions she teased only moments earlier, completely motionless, as the camera cuts to a close-up of her penetrating eyes.
Once they are away from the circus, Brinken determines to start a new life with the girl, but Alraune again plots to run away with another man. As she is leaving, she finds the Professor's diary and discovers the truth of her existence, "Where do I belong in society?" Alraune bitterly decides to stay with Brinken and seek her revenge, feeling unfit for the man she now loves. She tortures Brinken by constantly flirting with men. As her ultimate insult, Alraune, dressed from head to tow in shimmering silk, seduces Brinken, "Do you really think I haven't known all along that I am not your daughter?" She runs off, depriving him and the torture continues. Financially and morally destitute, Brinken confronts Alraune as she packs her bags to leave. In a harrowing scene, he chases her from room to room with a large knife. Just as her death seems imminent, Alraune is saved by her lover and Brinken is left to suffer "the hell of loneliness and insanity."
An overlooked treasure, Alraune represents the height of silent film in the Weimar era. With the exception of early scenes featuring Alraune's 'mother' and the convent, the film is entirely occupied by men, surrounding Helm like the unnoticed setting of a luminous jewel.
Based on the medieval legend of the Mandrake, a root, which grew beneath the gallows from the semen of hanged men, Hanns Heinz Ewers novel Alraune was brought to the screen in 1928 by Ama-Film GmbH and director Henrik Galeen (The Student of Prague 1926, Nosferatu 1922 as screenwriter). Paul Wegener (The Golem 1920, The Magician 1926) stars as Professor Jakob ten Brinken, the "world famous authority on genetic cross-breeding", who implants a prostitute with the 'seed' of a hanged man in order to study the effects of environment over genetics on the offspring. The resulting child is Alraune, whom Brinken calls 'Mandrake', played by Brigitte Helm (Metropolis 1927, The Love of Jeanne Ney 1927). Alraune is raised in a convent, ignorant of her origins, believing Brinken is her father. Just as the Professor is convinced, his 'experiment' has overcome her genetic history she runs away with a boy and begins a life of troubled encounters with men. Helm is both innocent, alluring and at times intensely evil in this captivating performance of a lovely young girl, both attracted to and in conflict with the men in her life. As in the novel, which this film closely follows, the idea and understanding of love is unknown to Alraune. As she chats with a circus magician she shares her train compartment with, his real intentions unknown to Alraune, he entertains her with slight-of-hand tricks. He produces a live mouse that he places on her leg and it quickly crawls under her skirt as the girl calmly observes. " What? You are not afraid of mice? Little girl. You will make something of yourself." While the film was heavily censored in 1928, this surviving scene must have been, and remains today, tremendously provocative.
Brinken eventually finds Alraune, living as a circus performer, just as she rebels against the magician's attempts to control her flirtations with another man. " Stop me if you can!" In one of the most electrifying scenes in all of Weimar Cinema, Alraune opens the door to the lion's cage now on the stage and steps in. As the curtain opens, the crowd reacts in utter horror while, outside the cage, circus performers furiously run in all directions. Alraune stands before several enormous lions she teased only moments earlier, completely motionless, as the camera cuts to a close-up of her penetrating eyes.
Once they are away from the circus, Brinken determines to start a new life with the girl, but Alraune again plots to run away with another man. As she is leaving, she finds the Professor's diary and discovers the truth of her existence, "Where do I belong in society?" Alraune bitterly decides to stay with Brinken and seek her revenge, feeling unfit for the man she now loves. She tortures Brinken by constantly flirting with men. As her ultimate insult, Alraune, dressed from head to tow in shimmering silk, seduces Brinken, "Do you really think I haven't known all along that I am not your daughter?" She runs off, depriving him and the torture continues. Financially and morally destitute, Brinken confronts Alraune as she packs her bags to leave. In a harrowing scene, he chases her from room to room with a large knife. Just as her death seems imminent, Alraune is saved by her lover and Brinken is left to suffer "the hell of loneliness and insanity."
An overlooked treasure, Alraune represents the height of silent film in the Weimar era. With the exception of early scenes featuring Alraune's 'mother' and the convent, the film is entirely occupied by men, surrounding Helm like the unnoticed setting of a luminous jewel.
Brief, brief review of Munich Filmmuseum Restoration
samirw21 April 2000
I've just seen the world theatrical premier of the Munich Filmmuseum's restoration of this classic, presented by University of Chicago's Documentary Film Group in cooperation with Chicago's Goethe Institute and Lufthansa. Live piano accompaniment was provided by the excellent Aljoshe Zimmerman with an introduction by Stefan Drößler, director of the Filmmuseum. Zimmerman composed the score for the Filmmuseum and additionally accompanied "Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens" (also restored and presented as a double feature). The restoration was pieced together largely from surviving reels from Russia and Denmark, which focused on Alraune's mother and father, respectively. The restoration sports quite a few intertitles, in German, some of which were present in the original. Absolutely remarkable, and a must for anyone who appreciates excellent cinema.
All versions are at least 400 m short
esserguido9 April 2017
There can't be a review giving this silent movie any proper judgement. One star is as possible as ten stars are since you are guessing anyway, because whatever version you watch, it is incomplete: The longest version up to date, being merged from Russian and Italian analog material, is still missing 400 m. Especially a dance performance of vanguard artist Valeska Geert is totally lost, among other scenes. And this might also explain why we don't see laboratory scenes of Alraune's making.
So this movie lacks coherence, though the acting of Wegener and Helm is superb and subtle, unlike common silent movies. Still, if you are not (yet) into silent movies or Brigitte Helm's eyes, better start with one that wasn't so much tampered with. But if you'll watch this one, then you are to enjoy a great allegory about humanity being proud of a creation of its own making, then falling for it which works on the destruction of its creator.
So this movie lacks coherence, though the acting of Wegener and Helm is superb and subtle, unlike common silent movies. Still, if you are not (yet) into silent movies or Brigitte Helm's eyes, better start with one that wasn't so much tampered with. But if you'll watch this one, then you are to enjoy a great allegory about humanity being proud of a creation of its own making, then falling for it which works on the destruction of its creator.
See also
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