The white peacock

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Movie
Original title The white peacock
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1920
length approx. 86 minutes
Rod
Director EA Dupont
script Paul Leni
E.A. Dupont
production Hanns Lippmann for Gloria-Film (Berlin)
camera Karl Hasselmann
occupation

The White Peacock is a German silent film melodrama from 1920 by EA Dupont and Paul Leni (screenplay) with Hans Mierendorff and Grit Hegesa in the leading roles.

action

Lord Cross is a respected but always very serious gentleman. In society he is therefore called “the man without a laugh”. One evening when he and his snobbish girlfriend from the British upper class visited the vaudeville show “Zur Goldenen Kugel” in the somewhat disreputable Whitechapel district of London, in which its director Navratil tries to make the audience laugh with a comical buffo, the Lord's gaze falls immediately on a young gypsy girl. It's almost still a child and immediately fell for it. The little girl is called Maryla and dances to the music of her musical companion Czupan, a man of the Puszta who also comes from the traveling people. As if spellbound, Lord Cross' eyes rest on the seductive gypsy, and after the performance he rushes to the backstage area in order to "save" her from what he believes is a pernicious environment. Maryla should come with him, the Lord tells her. With him, he promised, she would be better off than here, because he would like to look after her like a father. With a heavy heart, Czupan lets Maryla go.

In the years to come, Lord Cross had her raised to be a real little lady. Maryla has now become Marylowna. She has fallen in love with the significantly older man and will eventually become the Lord's wife. One day she overheard a conversation with her husband, from which she understands that he is ashamed of her because of her origins and her slightly disreputable Whitechapel dancer past. In order not to expose her husband in front of society, Marylowna decides to leave him and return to her artistic roots, dance. Marylowna quickly made a career. Her dance figure "The Dying Peacock" made her famous overnight and filled the auditorium. Marylowna became the "white peacock" and was cheered by everyone.

One evening a graying man is sitting in the box and is enjoying her performances: the tired old man is Marylowna's husband, who had been desperately looking for her since she disappeared. He desperately wants her back and therefore writes her a letter in which he asks forgiveness for his lack of support and social arrogance. Marylowna's love for Lord Cross has not cooled down over the years, and so she is ready to return home. But at the same time her old violin accompanist and childhood friend Czupan reappears, who is completely shabby. He doesn't want to lose Maryla a second time and tries to win back his former dancer using threats of violence. Marylowna tries to defend herself with a revolver, when a shot accidentally goes off and Czupan dies. That same evening, a fire breaks out in the theater, in which Marylowna dies miserably.

Production notes

The white peacock was created in the UFA studio in Berlin-Tempelhof , passed film censorship on July 31, 1920 and was banned from youth. The first performance took place on August 12, 1920 in Berlin's Tauentzienpalast . The length of the strip was 1,780 meters, divided into five acts.

The film structures were designed by Paul Leni and implemented by Robert A. Dietrich . Otto Moldenhauer was responsible for the exterior buildings on the UFA open-air site in Tempelhof. Bruno Köhler designed the costumes.

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