With the exception of Brigitte Helm in the title role, this sound remake of the classic 1928 silent has an entirely different cast and crew, and is a pretty impressive piece of work in its own right.
Helm this time doubles up as both Alraune and as her drunken mother Alma singing in a bar in chiaroscuro close-up and a wet-look pencil skirt in a prologue set in 1913. The supporting cast is full of familiar faces from both German silents (Bernhard Goetzke) and Hollywood talkies (Martin Kosleck as a young admirer named Wolfgang Petersen), and the bulk of the action is this time explicitly identified with late Weimar Germany, with the year specifically stated as 1930, complete with a chassis-hugging dress of the period for Miss Helm in one scene, and imposing sets by Otto Erdmann & Hans Sohnle noirishly lit by Günther Krampf. All in all a film crying out for a decent restoration.
Helm this time doubles up as both Alraune and as her drunken mother Alma singing in a bar in chiaroscuro close-up and a wet-look pencil skirt in a prologue set in 1913. The supporting cast is full of familiar faces from both German silents (Bernhard Goetzke) and Hollywood talkies (Martin Kosleck as a young admirer named Wolfgang Petersen), and the bulk of the action is this time explicitly identified with late Weimar Germany, with the year specifically stated as 1930, complete with a chassis-hugging dress of the period for Miss Helm in one scene, and imposing sets by Otto Erdmann & Hans Sohnle noirishly lit by Günther Krampf. All in all a film crying out for a decent restoration.