ONE ARABIAN NIGHT
starring Pola Negri
PICTURE PLAY MAGAZINE
December, 1921
A fragment of the colorful tales told in that fascinating collection of the "Arabian Nights" has been captured as the basis of this spectacular picture. It was made in Germany by no less promising a combination than Ernest Lubitsch and Pola Negri, who startled the American film market with the triumph they made of "Passion." This production is hardly equal to the Du Barry story; it is more involved, less coherent, and lacks the intense touch of human interest running through the portrayal of one character. But it, nevertheless, is a brilliant and bizarre achievement which smites the eye with scenes that seem blazing with color in spite of the colorless medium of the screen.
Here are all the intrigues of a particularly lively and restless harem.
ONE ARABIAN NIGHT
Starring Pola Negri
MOTION PICTURE CLASSIC
December, 1921
First, let us consider the Ernst Lubitsch production "One Arabian Night" (First National), the obviously titled American cut version of the German "Sumurun." "One Arabian Night" is not Lubitsch at his best, for it harks back to an earlier period in the development of the director. It is at once flashing and inadroit, colorful in its atmosphere of the storied Bagdad of the Thousand and One Nights, and yet crude in its telling.
The Reinhardt "Sumurun" is familiar to American theatregoers thru its presentation here some seasons ago. Like the unadulterated Arabian Nights, it is passion rife and rampageous, pulsating and unadorned. It speaks of love, lust and blood in terms crimson and erotic. The weird sensuous beat of the desert drums moves thru. This tale of Sumurun, dancer of the desert, who leaves death and pain behind her in her quest for gold and power and who finds her way to the golden couch of the mighty sheik only to meet death, is not of the Pollyanna school of fiction.
The Reinhardt pantomime -- for the tale was told without words behind the footlights -- had all the imagery of the German master of stage-craft in his finest moments. It was a series of moving, glowing pictures. All this made ideal screen fare, easily transferable to the silversheet, save for the menace of censorship.
Far be it from us to consider the morals of "One Arabian Night," save to say that it does not offend us. As a cinema contribution, it has movement, seconds of fine acting and a faint measure of the imagination of the Reinhardt original. We realize that the original film has been severely cut in the process of diluting it for our modest American eyes, but at the same time we must pronounce it interesting principally as prophetic of the man who was later to do "Passion" and "Deception." The lighting is bad, and the camera work frequently atrocious. But, nevertheless, there is the indication of a man of genius behind the direction. And Pola Negri's desert dancer! Here is passion untamed, enmeshed in fine acting. All the fire and abandon that mark her Carmen are to be found here. Ernst Lubitsch himself plays the tragic role of the hunchback with a splendid sensitiveness. Paul Wegener, the unforgettable Golem, makes the sheik a dominating character.
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