Arabella (1917)

Movie
Original title	Arabella
Country of production	Poland
original language	Polish
Publishing year	1917
length	73 (Vienna 1917), 70 (German Reich 1918) minutes
Rod
Director	Aleksander Hertz
production	Aleksander Hertz
camera	Witalis Korsak-Gologowski
occupation
	Pola Negri : Arabella Pataniecka; Władysław Grabowski : Stanislaw Pobratymski; Józef Węgrzyn; Jan Pawłowski; Antoni Bednarczyk;

Arabella is a Polish silent film melodrama from 1917, one of Pola Negri's last films in her Polish homeland before she moved to Germany at the beginning of the same year.

action

At the center of the plot is the femme fatale Arabella Pataniecka, with the men at his feet. One of them is the rich Stanislaw Pobratymski, who becomes engaged to her. But he has a strong opponent in Olgier Podhorski, a relative. He also loves Arabella and therefore wants to get rid of his annoying rival as soon as possible. Therefore he worries from Dr. East the Indian herbal poison Quambashiwa to give Stanislaw. When the latter can be saved at the last second, Olgier shoots himself.

Production notes

The then 70-minute film was made in the middle of the First World War in Warsaw, which was under German military rule . Arabella had its world premiere there on May 1, 1917. Today it is thought to be lost, except for a few footage. Arabella started calling in Austria-Hungary on November 2, 1917. The strip there was four acts on 1500 meters long and was banned from school (= youth ban). In Germany, the melodrama was shown the following year, while the war was still in progress. Here the film, which was also subject to a youth ban, measured five nudes at 1,427 meters in length.

The melodrama can be seen as typical of Pola Negri's early silent films, the type of role shown there, the “man-murdering vamp”, she was to play again and again later.

Director Aleksander Hertz (1879–1928) is one of Poland's almost forgotten filmmakers. He is of paramount importance with regard to the film history of Poland: Even during the tsarist rule, he owned the most important production company in Warsaw, the Sfinks, and directed a number of films that were very successful at the time, including several with Pola Negri and Bestia .

Reviews

"The four-act drama is characterized by a captivating plot, which is gaining interest because of the criminalistic impact."

- New Kino-Rundschau

In Paimann's film lists you can read: "Material, game, photos and scenery are very good."

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ cf. Pola Negri. In: Hans-Michael Bock (Ed.): CineGraph. Lexicon for German-language films. Delivery 9, D 1. Edition Text + Criticism, Munich 1987 (loose leaf edition).
↑ See Kay Less : The large personal dictionary of the film . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 5: L - N. Rudolf Lettinger - Lloyd Nolan. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 631.
↑ Neue Kino-Rundschau from September 1, 1917. p. 10
↑ Arabella in Paimann's film lists ( Memento from May 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive )

[1] . Pola Negri. In: Hans-Michael Bock (Ed.): CineGraph. Lexicon for German-language films. Delivery 9, D 1. Edition Text + Criticism, Munich 1987 (loose leaf edition).

[2] See Kay Less : The large personal dictionary of the film . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 5: L - N. Rudolf Lettinger - Lloyd Nolan. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 631.

[3] Neue Kino-Rundschau from September 1, 1917. p. 10

[4] Arabella in Paimann's film lists ( Memento from May 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive )