Alraune (1952) User Reviews

Slow moving, yet fascinating Gothic piece.

[flapdoodle64 · 7/10 · 7 March 2010]

This film is a quiet, Gothic kind of psychological film, and is interesting and well enough made so as to be watchable in a poorly dubbed US version. I found the actress in the title role to be strangely compelling, and convincingly portrayed sexual attraction with slightly disturbing aspects.

Eric Von Stroheim plays a perverted scientist, which is interesting because Von Stroheim is said to have induced an actual orgy among actors in order to film an orgy scene in one of the silent movies he directed. Stroheim, in his famous roles in Grand Illusion and Sunset Boulevard, was adept at playing formerly great and tragically flawed characters: this role is an interesting variation on this theme.

This film was made in 1952, in Germany, and is concerned with scientist who collects semen from an executed criminal and uses it to impregnate a prostitute; the offspring of this union is the title character. This movie would have had a strong resonance upon its original audience, just 7 years after the end of the Nazi period.

The Nazis, besides having many kinky sexual fetishes, instigated some strange 'breeding' programs designed to induce blonde-haired and blue-eyed people to reproduce. There were hostels, where these blonde and blue-eyed women could stay during their pregnancy, and where they and their offspring could live afterwords, free of charge and enjoying a comfortable lifestyle.

Alraune is the German word for the mandrake root. In folk legend, the mandrake grew beneath the hanged man, and it was the legendary discharge of semen from a hanged man which supposedly caused this plant to grow. In addition, there was another legend in which the mandrake, applied to a woman's nether regions, could instigate a pregnancy, with or without sexual contact from a living man.

This is a slow moving but strangely compelling film, and owes a lot to the beautiful actress in the title role. The subtext is also fascinating.

Cross pollination

[JohnSeal · 6/10 · 23 March 2008]

This fascinating German fantasy film stars the legendary Erich von Stroheim as Professor Jacob ten Brinken, a brilliant scientist who has played God and created the world's first test tube baby. Now fully grown, Alraune (Hildegard Knef) is a beautiful but affectless creature whose way with the opposite sex threatens to ensnare the Professor's nephew (a very young looking Carlheinz Bohm). Alraune's amorality--presumably the result of being bred from the egg of a prostitute and the sperm of a murderer--has not been tempered by a spell in convent and now threatens to destroy the family legacy. Though clearly set before World War II, the film reflects concerns about the misuses of science by the Nazi regime, though perhaps the conclusions it reaches are not that far afield from those of Dr. Mengele. Alraune is a missing link between German expressionism and the Italian Gothic cinema of the early 1960s, with a dash of Jean Cocteau thrown in for good measure. Interesting sidenote: it sure sounds like von Stroheim dubbed his own English language track.

The evils of artificial insemination

[melvelvit-1 · 7/10 · 23 October 2011]

Brooding scientist Professor ten Brinken (a stern Erich von Stroheim), thrown out of Uni for his blasphemous beliefs, creates a "daughter" (Hildegarde Knef) from the sperm of a double murderer and the egg of a prostitute in his castle laboratory and raises her under the gallows, where the mandrake root grows. It's an experiment in genetic theory but true to the plant's legend, Alraune will bring good fortune just before death and destruction as the movie opens with the girl escaping from a convent and making her father rich when she divines a mineral spring on land he bought. Falling for her cousin (Karlheinz "Peeping Tom" Boehm), Alraune feels something for the first time but luck won't last long and although her "evil" isn't premeditated (much), she's responsible for an attempted suicide, a framing for theft, a fatal accident, a duel, death from exposure, bankruptcy, and public disgrace. The story ends with the inevitable: Alraune, crying tears she never could before, gives up the man she loves lest he be cursed, too, and her "father", who gave her life, takes it away and goes to the gallows in a fitting twist of fate. The film equates artificial insemination with the crimes of Viktor Frankenstein but blames the creator since love is what gives us our souls and Alraune had become human.

The German production's a handsomely mounted, atmospheric period piece with an Expressionism the original 1928 silent lacked, especially in the gloomy castle, and some thunder, wind, and rain are there to underscore a point or two. Obviously THE BAD SEED, a hit Broadway play and Hollywod movie about hereditary evil that came out a few years later, wasn't exactly innovative. The dubbed U.S. version, UNNATURAL: THE FRUIT OF EVIL, is missing ten minutes and eliminates any reference to artificial insemination.

Worth a look, even if only for its unusual premise.

[youroldpaljim · 31 October 2001]

ALRAUNE (aka UNNATURAL), is based on the popular Hanns Heinz Ewers novel. This version made in 1952, is the fifth and last version filmed. Many sources state that this film is lost in its English language version, but since the version I saw everyone spoke English, I can assure you they are wrong.

This film is unusual, if only for its premise. Erich Von Stroheim plays Ten Brinken, a scientist who has created a women by means of artificial insemination. Ten Brinken used the sperm from a hanged murderer and the egg from a prostitute. Ten Brinken raises the girl (whom he has named Alraune, German for "mandrake") as his daughter, but is convinced because she was created artificially, she will inherit all the unsavory characteristics of her "parents". Only evil will befall all those who may fall in love with her. And tragic circumstances do follow all the men she tries to fall in love with. There is an odd element thrown in which suggests Alraune has supernatural powers. She convinces Ten Brinken to by a worthless parcel of land. She then commands some workers to start digging where they discover a spring whose waters contain healing properties. Ten Brinken and a wealthy woman invest in it but the spring runs dry and Ten Brinken ends up almost financially ruined.

Despite the films very adult premise, I could not help thinking that this film has the feel of a film belonging in era much older than the 1950's. The few American critics who reviewed the film when it was released in America in 1957 also noted an old fashioned air fatalism throughout the film. Karl Boehm (later of PEEPING TOM) is convincing as the young man who falls in love with Alraune, despite being aware of her ghastly origin and is the only man Alraune finds true love. Critics said he was to naive and boyish for the part, but I think that was what was right for the role.

ALRAUNE (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, 1952) ***

[Bunuel1976 · 7/10 · 14 October 2013]

I had watched the best-regarded (if still rare) 1928 Silent version of this much-filmed German melodrama with Sci-Fi undertones during a previous Halloween challenge; while I recall precious little of that one at this juncture, having re-read my review of it, I know the remake features a different conclusion – as well as a different method of creation for the titular figure (the more realistic one of artificial insemination here instead of her emanating from the mandrake root, though the plant remains much in evidence throughout even now). Still, offhand, I would say that both films are equally effective – with the lead roles being especially well-filled: Erich von Stroheim and Hildegarde Knef (at her loveliest) in this adaptation replacing Paul Wegener and Brigitte Helm respectively in the earlier movie; leading the supporting cast, however, is Karl Boehm (who would excel in his later genre role in the British-made PEEPING TOM [1959]). As I said, events are not exactly fantastic – indeed, leaning more towards romance in the vein of two other much-filmed and horror-tinged classics, namely "The Picture Of Dorian Gray" and "Trilby" (often filmed as SVENGALI and whose 1954 British version, incidentally, also had Knef as its leading lady!) – but, then, Stroheim does keep a caged ape (which comes to no use other than as an added bizarre touch!) in his laboratory and, in any case, the result is no less stylish for that; all in all, this is ample proof that the Germans did not lose their touch for the Expressionistic with the advent of WWII! The premise, too, of a femme fatale turning the heads of several men, all of whom know one another and naturally fall out over her, is interesting for its distinct film noir trappings – in this case, extending to the rethought doom-laden climax that includes a murder and subsequent execution steeped in irony.

Neat, Slow Sci-Fi Horror

[Rainey-Dawn · 6/10 · 7 September 2017]

Unnatural: Fruit of Evil/Alraune/Mandragore - I have not seen 1918, nor the 1928 or the 1930 versions of this film, so I have nothing to compare this 1952 with.

A scientist has taken the 'seed' of murderer and impregnated a prostitute by artificial insemination. The scientist thought the results would make for a more interesting study from bad people, because good people are so boring - as he explains.

It seems that artificial insemination sparked fears and ideas in people of the early 1900s... but a fairly interesting film came from it. There are better sci-fi horror films of the 1950s but this one is still worth a one time watch.

6.5/10

Unusual sci-fi drama

[ebeckstr-1 · 6/10 · 26 August 2018]

Unusual if rather tepid "science fiction" drama about a woman created through a combination of artificial insemination and the supernatural properties of the mandrake root (although how this is done is never really explained, and there wasn't a single sci-fi laboratory scene of the kind we are used to seeing). This movie is sometimes categorized as horror, which is simply incorrect, and anyone interested in watching it should know ahead of time that the science fiction content is extremely limited and simply the catalyst for the story. This is essentially the story of a femme fatale and the men she destroys.

Alraune review

[JoeytheBrit · 4/10 · 7 May 2020]

A dull German thriller with elements of science fiction woven into its femme fatale storyline. Hildegard Knef is the test-tube spawn of a prostitute and executed killer created by an ageing Erich von Stroheim who apparently has the power to beguile every man she meets. A young Karlheinz Bohm plays the young hero who fights his desire for her without passion or conviction - although, to be fair, the pedestrian script gives him little to work with.

Good role for Knef, but underwhelming film overall

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 22 December 2016]

"Alraune" or "Mandrake" is a West German German-language movie from 1952, so it will have its 65th anniversary next year and this film was made less than 10 years after the end of World War II to put it in perspective. The director is Arthur Maria Rabenalt and it is possibly his most known movie now. Kurt Heuser, a pretty successful writer back then, was in charge of adapting the original novel by Hanns Heinz Ewers, the man who also came up with "Der Student von Prag", a pretty well-known silent movie. But back to this one here. It runs for almost 90 minutes and the title character is played by Hildegard Knef this time, Brigitte Helm in the past. You can compare Knef's turn with Helm's here and it is probably entirely subjective which one you will like more. it is the story of an artificially created woman and how she brings disaster and misery apparently to everybody around her (especially men) because she is not natural. There are certainly a couple connections to the classic "Metropolis" in here and you will recognize them when you see them. But sadly, all in all, it is far from being as good as this masterpiece. I found almost all the supporting characters, also the male ones, mostly uninteresting and Knef alone was not enough to let me appreciate the entire project. This is also because her character lost appeal for me in the second half of the film, or the last third maybe, as we see a plot development that just wasn't working for me at all, but it was needed maybe back then to please the masses. I will not go into detail any further to avoid spoilers. Anyway, this film is another example of how mediocre and forgettable the 1950s were in German cinema. I give it a thumbs-down and do not recommend the watch.

A surprising must-see!

[JohnHowardReid · 9/10 · 14 March 2018]

A Deutsche Styria Film. English version made by The American Dubbing Co. for Carlton Films. U.S. release through Distributors Corporation of America: 1958. West German release through Gloria: 23 October 1952 (sic). 92 minutes.

German title: ALRAUNE.

SYNOPSIS: An iconoclastic professor's mysterious but highly attractive daughter has no less than four young men in a spin.

NOTES: Fifth remake of the 1911 Hans Heinz Ewers novel. There were three silent versions of which the most famous is the 1928 release with Brigitte Helm and Paul Wegener. Miss Helm starred again in the 1930 remake, this time oppposite Albert Bassermann and a somewhat second-string cast rather stagily directed by Richard Oswald (doubtless hampered by the demands of the sound engineer). 1

1952 seemed an opportunistic time for a full-scale remake, using a top-of-the-range budget and an impressive cast led by Erich von Stroheim (making his first film appearance after his Hollywood comeback role in Sunset Boulevard), Hildegard Knef (then at the height of her fame-she starred in no less than seven films in 1952), and Karlheinz Bohm (later to play the title role in Peeping Tom).

COMMENT: Although this film is only at present available in its English-dubbed version, one must admit that the dubbing, for once, is exceptionally good. The principal dubbers even make laudable attempts to imitate both Knef's and Von Stroheim's voices and their methods of delivery. It's also pleasing that Fraulein Knef's songs have been left to speak for themselves in their original German and that Werner Heymann's most appropriate background music has been retained.

Rabenalt is not usually thought of as a classy director, but, helped by the atmospheric sets and photography, he has done wonders here. Extremely fast-clipped film editing keeps the plot moving at a breakneck pace for almost every second of its 92 minutes.

Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow

[keith-moyes-656-481491 · 5/10 · 20 January 2011]

I have finally managed to catch up with this hard-to-find movie on a budget DVD.

Even in 1952, when the movie was first made, it was already an anachronism, full of the misogyny that seemed to characterise German movies from the early Twentieth Century (e.g. The Blue Angel). Typically they featured a beautiful woman who exerts a fatal attraction on all the men around her and then humiliates and destroys them.

The femme fatale in this movie is Alraune. She is the result of the artificial insemination of a prostitute by a murderer. This 'unnatural union of tainted blood' is posited as the reason for her selfishness, emotional frigidity and destructiveness. However, at the very end, the movie suddenly flips and holds out the possibility that her soulless predation on men is due to nurture rather than nature. I doubt if this is thematic sophistication on behalf of the film-makers. Probably, it is just indecisiveness.

I find this film hard to evaluate, because the print is very poor and there are some baffling artifacts in the DVD transfer that I have never encountered before. More to the point, the movie is only 79 minutes long, as against the 92 minutes quoted on IMDb. I do not know whether this trimming was undertaken when the English language version was prepared, or whether it is a consequence of damage to the print itself. Possibly it is both.

This might explain the strange editing. There are some very abrupt plot transitions that suggest significant cuts were made for US distribution but, in addition, the transitions between the remaining scenes are sometimes so sharp that the dubbed dialogue seems to spill over from one scene to the next. This gives the film a disconcerting rhythm. The pacing within scenes is often quite ponderous (I am tempted to say 'Germanic'), but the cutting between them is very sharp. The result is that the movie seems both leaden and breathless at the same time. I would be interested to see the original German language version to see if it has this same paradoxical feel.

It is difficult for me to recommend this movie in the form in which I have seen it. It really needs to be viewed in a reasonably good, and reasonably complete, print.

Despite all its deficiencies, I found that Alraune did exert a weird sort of fascination, but I recognise that it will probably only appeal to those people who are particularly curious about the oddities that can occasionally be disinterred from the remoter hinterlands of the movie landscape.

To the more general movie-goer I would say: "there are better things to do with your time."

Unsettling Vintage Sci-Fi, An overlooked Gem

[karinrjeffrey · 12 September 2017]

The title refers to the German word for Mandrake root. A disturbing and noir-like horror movie that viewers will either love or hate, it has a queasy quality with elements of camp that will either annoy or delight.

Charismatic actor and director Erich von Stroheim, who held his own in Sunset Boulevard, doesn't disappoint here.

Karl Boehm, the wide-eyed, eerily handsome actor who rose to stardom in the British cult horror classic Peeping Tom, is also very watchable.

Context is everything. This is an intriguing horror film that will reward a second viewing.

Cheap and listless

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 23 July 2017]

I saw this on Amazon Prime under the title UNNATURAL: FRUIT OF EVIL. It's a slow-moving little potboiler in which a scientist manages to create an artificial woman with no sense of morality. Inevitably the woman gets loose in the world and causes calamity due to various men falling in love with her. While there are shades of THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN in the premise and the film explores some intriguingly muddy moral ground, generally it's cheap and listless, never really sparking when it should. The best thing about it is the cast, including Karl Boehm (later of PEEPING TOM infamy), Hildegard Knef, and the barnstorming Erich von Stroheim.

West German Horror Classic with Hildegarde NEFF and ACADEMY AWARD nominee Erich von STROHEIM

[ZeddaZogenau · 8/10 · 19 October 2023]

Unusual horror film pearl with Hildegard Knef and Erich von Stroheim

This German black-and-white film premiered on October 23, 1952 at the Europa-Filmpalast Düsseldorf and is based on the novel (1911) by Hanns Heinz Ewers, which has already been filmed several times. The film was directed by Arthur Maria Rabenalt and produced by, among others, the Carlton Filmgesellschaft, whose producer Günther Stapenhorst, as UFA production manager at the time, supervised the Kästner film adaptation "Emil and the Detectives" (1931), which is still well worth seeing, and a few years later the was supposed to produce the legendary film adaptation of "Im Weißen Rössl" (1960) with Peter Alexander. "Alraune" was shot in the Bavaria film studio Geiselgasteig and on exterior shots in Munich and the surrounding area.

What's it about? A beautiful young woman named Alraune (Hildegard Knef) casts a mysterious spell on all men who lay eyes on her. This is what happens to young Frank Braun (Karlheinz Böhm) and his friends (including the fabulous and very attractive Harry Meyen) when they discover the unknown beauty in Frank's uncle's garden. This Professor Jacob ten Brinken (Erich von Stroheim) is a somewhat strange fellow. And so it gradually turns out that the young woman, whom the old scientist introduces as his daughter, was born in a very bizarre way. This is how the misfortune takes its course. Although Alraune has unusual powers that prove to be very rewarding financially, her magical attraction to men is causing more and more people to fall into ruin, without her longing for her own true love being fulfilled.

This eerily sparkling film gem indulges in expressionism and horror romance and, with its dark atmosphere and great cast, is a real treat for film enthusiasts. Hildegard Knef inspires and convinces as an unearthly beauty. After her return from Hollywood, she made one film after another in those years and was (still) the undisputed superstar of the Federal Republic film industry.

Erich von Stroheim (1885-1957), born in Vienna, had lived in the USA since 1909 and became an important director and film actor there (for example in the Billy Wilder classics "Five Graves to Cairo" (1943) and "Boulevard of Twilight" (1950) fits perfectly into the role of the crazy genius.

Karlheinz Böhm (three years later he would achieve worldwide fame alongside Romy Schneider in the "Sissi" films) and Harry Meyen, who undeservedly never made it that big (a decade later, Romy Schneider's first husband) fit perfectly arrogant charmers who cannot escape the mysterious magic of dangerous beauty.

In a supporting role, Hans Cossy (the actor was the first husband of the woman later known as Vera Brühne, who was to become a defendant in a spectacular murder trial in the early 1960s, which was then made into a film with Corinna Harfouch in the title role) impresses as the coachman Mathieu , who will be remembered for his striking face and his imposing appearance.

This film is very worth seeing. Great actors, an eerie atmosphere, a horror film that was basically invented in Germany in the 1920s, but unfortunately was later made far too rarely. From February 1957 the film was also shown in the USA under the title "Unnatural...The Fruit of Evil". Von Stroheim was still alive, after her phenomenal Broadway success as Ninotschka in the musical "Silk Stockings", Knef was now also a celebrity in the States as HILDEGARDE NEFF. That probably helped to bring the film, which was already five years old at the time, into cinemas.

"Good People Are So Uninteresting!"...

[azathothpwiggins · 26 May 2021]

ALRAUNE (aka: MANDRAGORE) is the story of the beautiful, beguiling woman of the title. Born as the result of artificial insemination, Alraune's "parents" were used by Jacob Ten Blinken (Eric Von Stroheim) to create Alraune in his laboratory. In the context of the film, since her "father" was a murderer, and her "mother" a prostitute, Alraune was born without a soul.

Now, men are instantly bewitched by her, while women detest her. Living by her own rules, Alraune needs no one but herself. Men come and go, with several ending up dead!

With an interesting tie-in to the legend of the Mandrake root, this is a sci-fi / horror / fantasy film that delves into Alraune's total lack of human feeling and the affect of her condition on others. As seemingly wicked as Alraune is, she is the product of Ten Blinken's "tampering with nature", so, how much of the blame is truly hers? Isn't she simply being what she was born to be?

A fascinating film with outstanding performances from all involved...