Pola Says Jump --- We Say How High?

Passion Delivers On Its Title Promise

Passion Was the German epic that punched Pola Negri’s Hollywood ticket. She’d roar into town like Siegfried the Conqueror. Pola seemed born with a gift for publicity. Also eroticism turned loose to kick Puritanism in the teeth (there’s what 1920 liked best about Pola and Passion). Here was a hit for which there was not enough standing room, let alone seats. Even Gothamites were made rubes by Negri’s let-loose sensuality. Passion is still a whale of an entertainment, as proved by the UK’s “Masters Of Cinema” Blu-Ray. Ernst Lubitsch satisfied that he could do more than simple comedies, staging crowd scenes here to make Griffith go begging. Like a good guillotine finish? Trouble is not getting to see heads cut off, till this. Lubitsch cleaves on camera, albeit in long shot, but gives us Negri noggin tossed to the mob like a home run ball. Sorry for the spoiler, but they say that’s how Madam Du Barry got hers, and Passion is based on that, albeit loose. “The Lubitsch Touch” abounds. Lots of Passion is funny, that plus sex like previewing Tom Jones or stolid Moll Flanders where Kim Novak demonstrated that by the 60’s, there weren’t personalities like Pola Negri anymore, point made clear by latter herself in a Disney pic done contemporaneous, The Moon-Spinners, PN temptingly inscrutable for her final screen bow.

Back to when she arrived: I read that Pola strode down Sunset with a leopard on a leash. Weren’t there local ordinances forbidding that? She also wore Chaplin out, to his own admission in a decades-later autobio, and yes, wore out is meant just the way it sounds. Valentino was another Negri conquest. She hurled herself upon his funeral bier before volunteer attendant Ben Lyon had her tossed out. Publicity was all well and good, but this was pushing a limit. Aspects of Pola make her sound like a head case, but time and her own sensible recall make clear that it was all calculated and quite apart from the person she actually was. In fact, Negri lived to a ripe age in San Antonio, of all places. Did the local boy who delivered her newspaper realize that here was the man-wrecker of all time? Again to Passion: Fact it was made by Germans was concealed at US release time (1920) due to emotion still hot from the war. First National got it “for a song” thanks to this ($40K said The New York Times, “Worth $500,000,” they added) Passion made an unexpected packet at the 5,500 seat Capitol Theatre, largest of all sites at the time. Mounted police had to steer crowds and keep order. The Times addressed Passion twice during December 1920, first with a rhapsodic review, then ten days later to marvel at stir it caused.

What rang bells was Euro depart from convention the bane of US filmmaking. No leading woman over here behaved liked Pola Negri, so sure, we’d want more of her. Passion’s Du Barry does time-honored climb from bed-to-bed, all played bawdy and not a little rude. She even sacrifices all for love in spite of being utterly selfish up to then. I tried to get to bottom of appeal from near a hundred years out, and yes, Negri heat can yet be felt. Here was grace note we’ll not see again: Pola smiles wide at one point and there’s a gold tooth (the first, or second, right maxillary bicuspid, says my quick glimpse and subsequent Google inquire). It was a century ago, so let’s be thankful the woman had teeth at all. Among Times back-flipping was designation of Lubitsch as “a cinematician of the first rank.” Would such level of pretension get me a reviewing job at the Times today? Important thing was, it likely greased Lubitsch way to H’wood employ, so all hail the NYT for that. Historic pageants had not had Passion’s, well, passion, before, let alone sex, beating even DWG and his plaster elephants, latter a rigid schoolbook beside Passion. Lubitsch has no-fool-like-old-fool Emil Jannings (as one of the King Louis’) sucking Negri’s toe prior to catching small pox and grimly looking it, face boils and all. Let Lubitsch be subtle elsewhere --- not here! Want a lively silent well off beaten paths? Shop for this Blu-ray.