Women in horror during the 1920s - part 2

As a preface to this continuing list of the real women of horror in the 1920s, I suppose I ought to tell you that I am fully aware of what was going on in Hollywood horror with Lon Chaney and his female co-stars at the time. Unfortunately, due to the infamous MGM vault fires, most of those movies no longer exist. Lamentable as it may be, I don't really care that much about Hollywood in the 1920s anyway.

For the sake of completeness, I found a picture of Lon Chaney with Ethel Grey Terry looking terrified in "The Penalty" (1920), but decided not to repost it as everyone considers it a "crime drama" rather than a horror movie. Having watched it on YouTube, it's a damned good film, but I would call it a revenge flick with horror elements. Maybe I'll review it for a "Thriller Thursday" eventually.

Similarly, I almost skipped over Martha Mansfield's role alongside John Barrymore in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1920). Apparently, it's not to be confused with J. Charles Haydon's identically named 40 minute movie from the same year although, honestly, I'd never watched either of them before last night. I found the Public Domain version of the longer "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" on YouTube and have embedded it below, I've also given you a picture of Martha Mansfield looking hot to make up for my faux pas.

Martha Mansfield as Millicent Carew

As they say, "even Homer nods". In my defence, I've never been able to make it through any older version of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" without getting bored. The story is too well known even to those who have never read the book by Robert Louis Stephenson, and the 1920 movie version is both confusing in the middle and far from being the best adaptation. On the bright side, Martha Mansfield and several of the "prostitutes" are nice to look at.

Anyway, after that slight digression, it's time to talk about Greta Schröder (or Schroeder - either spelling is acceptable) and mention how she has been totally eclipsed in favour of Max Schreck by everyone who writes about F.W. Murnau's "Nosferatu". I can't entirely redress the balance because I don't know very much about either of them except what I've read on the internet, but I've got enough information to say something.

Greta Schröder in Nosferatu (1922)

Greta Schröder as Nina

Depending on which version you watch, Greta Schröder plays either Ellen Hutter or Nina (rather than Mina) Harker. As you may know, changing the names of the characters didn't help F.W. Murnau to escape the wrath of Bram's Stoker's widow who wanted all copies of the film destroyed for plagiarism and copyright infringements. I can't say that I blame her because I'm not the biggest fan of "Nosferatu" either. I'm at a loss to explain why, nowadays, The Asylum doesn't get sued by the makers of the movies which they rip-off or even why there are so many clones of horror movies in the first place, but back in in the 1920s, copyright offences were still prosecutable albeit only in civil lawsuits.

Although Max Schreck only has 9 minutes or so on screen, his hideous Graf Orlok character is obviously the most remembered image from the film. It may surprise you to learn, however, that Greta Schröder has almost the same amount of screen time including 30 seconds playing with a cat. As far as I'm concerned, that makes her far more important. Apart from her wig (please don't let that be her real hair!), she's a lot better looking too.

Nina plays with her pussy cat.

Greta Schröder's other movies include "The Golem" (1920) where she plays the girl with the rose, and another small part in "The Lost Shadow" (1921). Both of these parts were undoubtedly due to being married to director Paul Wegener (although she was previously married to another actor). According to Wikipedia, in "Shadow of the Vampire" (2000), she is portrayed as having been a famous actress during the making of "Nosferatu", but in fact she was little known.

Well, now Greta Schröder can also be known for being part of my "real women of horror" month. Here's a still from "The Golem" where Greta looks a lot prettier:

Greta gives a rose to the Golem.

If you've never seen "Nosferatu", I've embedded the full movie for you below. Greta may not do a lot except cuddle Gustav von Wangenheim and point at things, but she's still an iconic horror heroine. She's the reason why Count Orlok gets caught in the sunlight too. Let's not forget that little detail.




Tomorrow: Alexandra Sorina in "The Hands of Orlac" (1924)

Women in horror during the 1920s - part 1

You know their faces, but do you know their names? That's the challenge which I will present to you every day during this "real women in horror" month.

Of course, it may be a little bit unfair of me to go right back to the 1920s to make a point especially as 99.9% of movie fans weren't even alive back then, but no matter what age you are, you should already be familiar with Robert Weine's "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1920), F.W. Murnau's "Nosferatu" (1922) and Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" (1927). They turn up in so many budget DVD compliation packs that you have no excuse for not having them in your movie collection several times over. Arguably, the latter isn't a horror movie, but that really depends on your point of view. There's certainly a lot more to "Metropolis" than sci-fi.

Isn't it funny how the names of the directors fall so easily from everyone's lips? But can you name who played Jane Olsen, Ellen Hutter (Mina Harker depending on the version) or Maria without looking them up? I wonder why that is. Could it be that you just don't care? Well, you're not leaving this blog without the answers so keep your pudgy fingers away from that Google search button!

The 1920s were a time of more artistic freedom and sexiness than ever before or since. If you have some strange idea that the 1920s were much like the puritanical Victorian era, think again! Although all the drug taking, sexual perversions and prostitution barely made it from real life onto the silver screen, those elements were certainly in the background of every European movie production. In America, not so much, but then America has always been puritanical and at least 50 years behind the rest of the world anyway. Americans who went overseas during the 1920s to the "Sin Cities" of Paris, Shanghai and Berlin didn't want to return. Those who did certainly spiced things up for a while, but I'm not here to give you a political history lesson. Just watch the documentary which I've embedded below:



Thus, it's no surprise that the three big German horror movies of the 1920s contained the sexiest women of the time. Sex always sold well and men flocked to these movies to see such beauty. It wasn't just the dirty mac brigade who would go to sit with their bowler hats on their laps either. The audience for horror movies was made up of a far more diverse movie-going public than some clique of perverts. Horror was respectable entertainment back then and not a grubby little secret.

But that's enough introduction, let's get to the girls...

Lil Dagover in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

Lil Dagover as Jane Olsen

Lil Dagover (born as Marie Antonia Siegelinde Martha Seubert in 1887) was one of the biggest stars in German cinema. To have some idea of how popular she was, she made 139 movies from 1916 until a year before her death in 1980. 139 real movies, ladies and gentlemen, and not one of them a crappy camcorder job!

Say her name as many times as you can to get it established in your mind: LIL DAGOVER... LIL DAGOVER... LIL DAGOVER... If she appears in a mirror behind you, you're doing it wrong.

As Jane Olsen, the "frail, menaced heroine" of "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", Lil Dagover was the world's first silent scream queen. Think about that for a while.

At least in Germany, Lil Dagover was an "A-list" celebrity actress. She never needed to hang out at conventions signing autographs for $20 a pop or panhandle the crowds to raise cash for the next low-budget nasty. Okay, so she got many of her roles because she was briefly married to a director, but let's not got there. Lil Dagover was an accomplished stage actress before (unlike Sheri Moon Zombie) which guaranteed her a career with UFA.

Did I mention that Lil was Hitler's favourite actress? I have now.

Want to know what an A-list German actress from the silent era looks like in action? Just watch her:




Tomorrow: Greta Schröder in "Nosferatu" (1922)