'Confession', the only decent film alas made by Joe May in Hollywood, was an homogenised, practically shot-for-shot remake of 'Mazurka' filmed by Willie Forst two years earlier. Good production values of course and starring Kay Francis and Basil Rathbone but in common with most Hollywood remakes of European films it falls short of the original. It is so easy to dismiss Forst's film as a 'weepie' but it is nonetheless extremely accomplished technically. Forst has gathered around him a top notch team. His 'preferred' editor Hans Wolff does excellent work here whilst the cinematography of Konstantin Irmen-Tschet, who began as a special effects cameraman for Fritz Lang, is exemplary. Peter Krauder is the composer and his gorgeous mazurka is performed by Pola Negri as Marianne with the voice of Hilde Seipp. Karl Haaker and Hermann Warm being responsible for the rich production design. It took this reviewer some time to come round to Pola Negri but I now realise that I sorely underrated her acting abilities. The courtroom scenes are tremendous, the only weak link being Ernst Karchow as the defence lawyer whose strident delivery makes him sound as if he were addressing a Nazi rally! Interesting also are the fates of Negri's co-stars in the film. The career of Albrecht Schoenhals, who is far more effective as the love rat than Rathbone in the remake, hit the buffers when he refused to play the title role in 'Jud Suss' that eventually went to Ferdinand Marian. He became a very respected character actor in between practising medicine and translating French literature(!) and finished his film career with 'The Damned' of Visconti. Paul Hartmann as the officer whose honour as Marianne's husband is shattered by her supposed infidelity, was banned from acting for three years for his appearances in propoganda films notably as Bismarck and as the doctor who aids his terminally ill wife's suicide in the extremely controversial 'Ich Klage an'. Friedrich Kaysler who plays the kind- hearted Judge was a marvellous actor on both stage and screen who sadly did not survive long enough to be 'denazified' as he was murdered by Russian soldiers whilst trying to protect his wife during the Battle of Berlin. The mise-en-scene of Willy Forst is highly accomplished with wonderful touches that make this film satisfying on so many levels. Sub-titled on You Tube so please see it and be sure to have a box of tissues handy!
4 Reviews
"Mazurka" waltzes around, over and above The Third Reich!
melvelvit-119 October 2006
Warning: Spoilers
MAZURKA tells the story of Lisa, a teen-age music conservatory student stalked by famed concert pianist Grigorij Michailow who, after a contrived meeting, charms the girl into sneaking out of her well-to-do home to tryst the following night at a sleazy dive where world-weary tart Vera entertains nightly. When Vera spots Michailow kissing Lisa during her act, she faints dead away and is carried to her dressing-room as the pianist and his intended prey make for the exit. Revived, Vera grabs a gun and charges through the nightclub screaming out Michailow's true name but as he turns to look at her, she plugs him and what follows is an involving courtroom melodrama where the story's shocking answer to "why" is revealed through flashbacks...
This gripping tale of a mother's love & sacrifice has been compared to MADAME X & STELLA DALLAS -but it was actually based on a real-life murder case that rocked Europe in 1930. Novelist Donald Henderson Clark may also have used this lurid yarn from the police blotter as inspiration for his best-seller, "Millie", which was made into a Pre-Code classic by RKO/Pathe in 1931 starring Helen Twelvetrees. When Warner Brothers remade MAZURKA in 1937 with Kay Francis, it's director, Joe May, was so enamored of MAZURKA that he used a stop-watch on the Hollywood sets so that scenes matched the 1935 German film exactly.
Pola Negri, silent star of German UFA & Hollywood film, is extraordinary in her first German talkie. She wrings every drop of pathos from a character who goes from a frivolous young operetta star to a jaded & degraded underworld "entertainer" who finds herself on trial for her life. The reasons why Negri's Vera won't help with her own defense (and the sacrifice she makes) could make a grown man cry.
Pola Negri on MAZURKA and film-making in Germany:
"This was my first visit to Germany in several years. There was an incredible difference in both the attitude of the people and the atmosphere...(Director Willi Forst) outlined 'Mazurka' from a directorial viewpoint, giving all his revolutionary ideas on flashback techniques to be employed... I went directly to the Hotel Adlon in Berlin where the producers, Arnold Pressburger & Gregory Rabinowitz, were waiting for me ...Pressburger said sadly, 'It'll probably be our last picture in Germany. We've got a permit for this one film, no more. I only hope they let us finish it... You see, Miss Negri, we are not Aryans.' That nomenclature ...sounded ...like an epithet abominable to the ears of God. 'Mazurka' was being shot at the Tempelhof Studios, where I had made 'Passion', 'Carmen', and so many of my other early successes. I even had my old dressing room. After a few days, it was hard to believe I had ever been away."
Then scandal hit -Josef Goebbels tried to ban Pola Negri by smearing her in print as non-Aryan. In Pola's autobiography she claims it was because she hired a Jewish secretary but biography is often revisionist history. Many historians claim Hitler was besotted with Negri and she briefly became his mistress and Goebbels, protecting the Reich, tried to destroy her. Negri wasn't Jewish and filming continued. Decades later, when asked about Hitler, Negri waxed cryptic: "There have been many important men in my life. Chaplin & Valentino for example." Hmmm...
Pola continues: "I will say this for them, under the administration of the Nazis the studios were run with phenomenal efficiency. The production techniques were far in advance of anything that I had encountered in Hollywood. However, this did not compensate for the enormous drawback of scenario sterility made mandatory by censorship and propaganda needs. We were fortunate that these things did not touch 'Mazurka'. The story was a universal one that had nothing to do with specific current events in Germany, and so the Government did nothing to tamper with the script... When the picture was released, the press was unanimous in declaring my performance the greatest of my career and calling 'Mazurka' the best talkie ever made in Germany. Word of its extraordinary quality rapidly spread through Europe and overseas to America. Unfortunately for me, the reports were so superlative that Warner Brothers bought up all the American rights as a vehicle for their star, Kay Francis*. This meant that the Forst/Negri version would never be shown in the U.S." * Warners' actually bought it for their resident Duse, Bette Davis, who (unwisely) turned it down.
Video and DVD have now made it possible for American audiences to see MAZURKA -albeit in un-subtitled prints. Since Warners' CONFESSION is more-or-less a shot-for-shot remake, it is easy to follow the 1935 Reich film after viewing the 1937 Hollywood Studio version and MAZURKA also makes a nice introduction to German film-making in the 1930's.
The first incarnation of this true crime "Ripped From Today's Headlines" thriller was RKO's 1931 MILLIE. From "Heartbreak -The Helen Twelvetrees Story": "'Millie', the risqué soap-operatic story of a disillusioned young girl's 15 year metamorphosis into a cynical, amoral, middle-aged woman... the challenging part required several on-screen transformations from an innocent youngster to a neglected wife, from a gold-digger to a successful working woman who eventually commits murder to protect her adolescent daughter... 'Millie' is also interesting historically as a prime example of the salacious themes presented during the Pre-Code era, and a quintessential Twelvetrees full of suffering, self sacrifice, and sin."
MAZURKA, with "La Negri" pulling out all histrionic stops, is a spellbinding tale. The engrossing flashback technique, La Negri, and the arresting cinematography make this film a visual delight and is highly recommended. Recommended not only for its technical innovations and "star turn", but as a testament to German filmmakers who could still produce quality work under horrific conditions during an ugly period in their nation's history.
This gripping tale of a mother's love & sacrifice has been compared to MADAME X & STELLA DALLAS -but it was actually based on a real-life murder case that rocked Europe in 1930. Novelist Donald Henderson Clark may also have used this lurid yarn from the police blotter as inspiration for his best-seller, "Millie", which was made into a Pre-Code classic by RKO/Pathe in 1931 starring Helen Twelvetrees. When Warner Brothers remade MAZURKA in 1937 with Kay Francis, it's director, Joe May, was so enamored of MAZURKA that he used a stop-watch on the Hollywood sets so that scenes matched the 1935 German film exactly.
Pola Negri, silent star of German UFA & Hollywood film, is extraordinary in her first German talkie. She wrings every drop of pathos from a character who goes from a frivolous young operetta star to a jaded & degraded underworld "entertainer" who finds herself on trial for her life. The reasons why Negri's Vera won't help with her own defense (and the sacrifice she makes) could make a grown man cry.
Pola Negri on MAZURKA and film-making in Germany:
"This was my first visit to Germany in several years. There was an incredible difference in both the attitude of the people and the atmosphere...(Director Willi Forst) outlined 'Mazurka' from a directorial viewpoint, giving all his revolutionary ideas on flashback techniques to be employed... I went directly to the Hotel Adlon in Berlin where the producers, Arnold Pressburger & Gregory Rabinowitz, were waiting for me ...Pressburger said sadly, 'It'll probably be our last picture in Germany. We've got a permit for this one film, no more. I only hope they let us finish it... You see, Miss Negri, we are not Aryans.' That nomenclature ...sounded ...like an epithet abominable to the ears of God. 'Mazurka' was being shot at the Tempelhof Studios, where I had made 'Passion', 'Carmen', and so many of my other early successes. I even had my old dressing room. After a few days, it was hard to believe I had ever been away."
Then scandal hit -Josef Goebbels tried to ban Pola Negri by smearing her in print as non-Aryan. In Pola's autobiography she claims it was because she hired a Jewish secretary but biography is often revisionist history. Many historians claim Hitler was besotted with Negri and she briefly became his mistress and Goebbels, protecting the Reich, tried to destroy her. Negri wasn't Jewish and filming continued. Decades later, when asked about Hitler, Negri waxed cryptic: "There have been many important men in my life. Chaplin & Valentino for example." Hmmm...
Pola continues: "I will say this for them, under the administration of the Nazis the studios were run with phenomenal efficiency. The production techniques were far in advance of anything that I had encountered in Hollywood. However, this did not compensate for the enormous drawback of scenario sterility made mandatory by censorship and propaganda needs. We were fortunate that these things did not touch 'Mazurka'. The story was a universal one that had nothing to do with specific current events in Germany, and so the Government did nothing to tamper with the script... When the picture was released, the press was unanimous in declaring my performance the greatest of my career and calling 'Mazurka' the best talkie ever made in Germany. Word of its extraordinary quality rapidly spread through Europe and overseas to America. Unfortunately for me, the reports were so superlative that Warner Brothers bought up all the American rights as a vehicle for their star, Kay Francis*. This meant that the Forst/Negri version would never be shown in the U.S." * Warners' actually bought it for their resident Duse, Bette Davis, who (unwisely) turned it down.
Video and DVD have now made it possible for American audiences to see MAZURKA -albeit in un-subtitled prints. Since Warners' CONFESSION is more-or-less a shot-for-shot remake, it is easy to follow the 1935 Reich film after viewing the 1937 Hollywood Studio version and MAZURKA also makes a nice introduction to German film-making in the 1930's.
The first incarnation of this true crime "Ripped From Today's Headlines" thriller was RKO's 1931 MILLIE. From "Heartbreak -The Helen Twelvetrees Story": "'Millie', the risqué soap-operatic story of a disillusioned young girl's 15 year metamorphosis into a cynical, amoral, middle-aged woman... the challenging part required several on-screen transformations from an innocent youngster to a neglected wife, from a gold-digger to a successful working woman who eventually commits murder to protect her adolescent daughter... 'Millie' is also interesting historically as a prime example of the salacious themes presented during the Pre-Code era, and a quintessential Twelvetrees full of suffering, self sacrifice, and sin."
MAZURKA, with "La Negri" pulling out all histrionic stops, is a spellbinding tale. The engrossing flashback technique, La Negri, and the arresting cinematography make this film a visual delight and is highly recommended. Recommended not only for its technical innovations and "star turn", but as a testament to German filmmakers who could still produce quality work under horrific conditions during an ugly period in their nation's history.
A thrilling tear-jerker with a surprising plot
m.hollemans1 October 2000
The film Mazurka from Germany, 1935, is a wonderful combination of a -maybe too- sentimental story with a very surprising plot.
The atmosphere is comparable with Rebecca of A. Hitchcock: eventually in the last twenty minutes suddenly everything becomes clear.
The film offers a wonderful view of the way of living in Middle Europe in the '30s. Most actors speak German with an East-European accent which sounds friendlier than average German accent.
I hope this film will become available on DVD. If it does: Purchase it, sit back, enjoy the film and... don't forget to put a box of Kleenex beside you. You'll need it!
The atmosphere is comparable with Rebecca of A. Hitchcock: eventually in the last twenty minutes suddenly everything becomes clear.
The film offers a wonderful view of the way of living in Middle Europe in the '30s. Most actors speak German with an East-European accent which sounds friendlier than average German accent.
I hope this film will become available on DVD. If it does: Purchase it, sit back, enjoy the film and... don't forget to put a box of Kleenex beside you. You'll need it!
excellent classic movie
cynthiahost15 April 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Unfortunately, Warner brothers exploited this movie because they were trying to manipulate Kaye Francis out of her contract she was'nt making much money for Warner Brothers, They bought the movie and remade it exactly. The only different about the original is the fact it is the better version and a Pola Negri vehicle.Like Kay ,Pola voice was dubbed only cause she wasn't a soprano. Kaye Francis could not sing.Abrecht Shoenhal once again show up with Pola Negri film taking advantage to what would be learned as her daughter Lisa played by Ingaborg Theek Paul Hartman, Cub Cubanna,Bismark, portrays the soldier she's in love.She later marries him and they have the daughter.But while away in war She meets Gregoir at a restaurant. He invites her to his place for a party only to take advantage of her while she drunk.She wakes up the next day realizing what happen. Once her husband comes back from war with one arm, she receives a letter from Greg.When she goes up to him to let him know it's impossible, Paul has followed her and later files a divorce taking her daughter away.Years late she tries to visit her only to be confronted by the second wife begging her not to reveal the truth.This is why in the beginning she shoot Albrecht when she sees him taking advantage of her daughter.This is a lot better version than the Kay Frances one. It's available from Clara bow page
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