E.A. Dupont (1891-1956) was one of the top directors during Germany’s Weimar years (1919-1933). Two of his noteworthy films during that time were THE ANCIENT LAW (1923) about the son of a Rabbi who becomes an actor and is shunned by his father (which became the basis for THE JAZZ SINGER 4 years later) and VARIETY (1925) which features a trapeze artist (Emil Jannings) whose female protege’ betrays him. His success and reputation led to offers outside of Germany. After a quick trip to Hollywood, he went to England and made two classic silents before the arrival of sound. They were MOULIN ROUGE (1928) and PICCADILLY (1929) with Anna May Wong. They were both commercial successes and his future looked bright but then sound arrived and it proved to be his undoing.
Dupont’s trademark during the Silent Era was his cinematography. His camera seemed able to go anywhere and do anything. The look of his films expanded the vocabulary of silent cinema and all of the movies mentioned above were showcases for the mobile camera. This was no longer possible when sound arrived as the earliest sound movies stopped dead in their tracks for dialogue sequences. The visual storytelling aspect of Dupont’s movies was never the same and he wound up becoming just another director for hire making increasingly unmemorable movies like PROBLEM GIRLS until he bottomed out with the low budget science fiction opus, THE NEANDERTHAL MAN (1953). By this time he had become a heavy drinker who had made only two movies in 14 years. He died 3 years later.
The silent film renaissance of the 21st century, thanks to old movie rediscoveries and new restoration techniques, has brought Dupont back into the limelight. Although MOULIN ROUGE (the first of 4 major movies to use that title) was released as a silent film in 1928, it was refitted with music and sound effects and released again in 1929. This did not affect the look of the movie and it remains a remarkable time capsule of the entertainments and fashions of the late 1920s. The melodramatic storyline has the fiance of a cabaret headliner’s daughter falling in love with the mother which leads to serious complications and potential tragedy. The last reel is a textbook example of editing for maximum impact and it is just as visually exciting today as it was 100 years ago.
The lead performance by German-Russian actress Olga Cherkova dominates the film as do her cabaret numbers. Eve Gray is fine as the daughter but French actor Jean Bradin.is too bland as the boyfriend. The original silent version of MOULIN ROUGE no longer seems to exist and so this restoration is based on the “improved” sound edition. The picture quality is quite good as is the cleaned up sound but the movie has that occasional speeded-up quality which is typical of those silent films that had a soundtrack added. Network, the British company who specialize in 1950s and early 60s TV shows like ROBIN HOOD, have done a fine job here and deserve credit for resurrecting this forgotten silent classic which shows director Dupont at the top of his game.
The Capsule Critic 