Mandrake (1928)

Movie
Original title	Mandrake
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Publishing year	1928
length	108 minutes
Rod
Director	Henrik Galeen
script	Henrik Galeen
production	Helmut Schreiber
music	Willy Schmidt-Gentner
camera	Franz Planner
occupation
	Brigitte Helm : Mandrake; Paul Wegener : Prof. Jakob ten Brinken; Iván Petrovich : Frank Braun; Mia Pankau : Whore; Georg John : murderer; Wolfgang Zilzer : Wolfchen; Louis Ralph : magician; John Loder : Viscount; Valeska Gert : girl from the street; Heinrich Schroth : A gentleman in the bar;

Alraune is a film by Henrik Galeen from 1927 and had its world premiere on January 25, 1928. It is based, like the other film adaptations of this material, on the novel Alraune. The story of a living being by Hanns Heinz Ewers , published in 1911.

action

Professor ten Brinken experiments with artificial insemination and uses the sperm of an executed lust killer. A prostitute is artificially fertilized with it. The product is the girl mandrake.

She grew up in a boarding school. From there she escapes with a boy whom she had previously instigated to steal a large sum of money. Mandrake ends up in a circus, where she performs with a magician.

Ten Brinken locates her and takes her to him, where she can lead a luxurious life. She learns of her origins from the professor's diary and, in her spontaneous hatred, decides to strangle him at night. However, she comes up with the more sadistic idea of making him suffer by making him fall in love with herself. This calculation works; Professor ten Brinken falls for her emotionally and ruins himself financially for her through gambling. He also suffers from his jealousy deliberately provoked by Mandrake.

Mandrake, finally tired of their being, wants to become a normal feeling person without a tendency to cruelty and gives himself up to redemption in love.

Remarks

The fascination of this classic of the fantastic film lies in the anticipation of artificial insemination .

Henrik Galeen's film adaptation is considered the best of the previous adaptations of the material. It was made as a sound film in 1930 by Richard Oswald , again with Brigitte Helm, and in 1952 by Arthur Maria Rabenalt with Hildegard Knef in the title role. The earliest treatment ("Alraune", Hungary 1918) is considered to be that by Mihály Kertész .

criticism

Reclam's film guide judged the film: "Galeen, well versed as a director of the 'supernatural', staged this film as a vision of horror, in which Brigitte Helm, in a mask-like rigidity, drove towards inevitable doom."

literature

Fred Gehler Mandrake. In: Günther Dahlke, Günter Karl (Hrsg.): German feature films from the beginning to 1933. A film guide. 2nd Edition. Henschel-Verlag, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-89487-009-5 , p. 163 ff.

Individual evidence

^ Dieter Krusche, Jürgen Labenski : Reclams Film Guide. Reclam, Stuttgart 1973, ISBN 3-15-010205-7 , p. 28.

Web links

Mandrake in theInternet Movie Database(English)
Alraune at filmportal.de
Decision of the film supervisory board of January 20, 1928 on a complaint against the approval of the film (pdf; 397 kB)
Reviews in contemporary newspaper articles (pdf; 2.1 MB)

[1] Dieter Krusche, Jürgen Labenski : Reclams Film Guide. Reclam, Stuttgart 1973, ISBN 3-15-010205-7 , p. 28.