Sumurun was yet another film from a director who was quickly becoming one of the more prolific in the world as the teens became the 20s. "Die Augen Der Mumie Ma" had served notice that Ernst Lubitsch was a force to be reckoned with, and Sumurun furthered that notion. The German filmmaker had been an actor first (an
understudy to the great Max Reinhardt, in fact) and while working in the Deutsches theatre, one of their favorite pantomimes was to become the impetus behind Sumurun. Lubitsch himself plays the role of a hunchbacked clown in love with a woman who does not love him back, and he plays it with a raw emotion that comes through even in a silent film. The best performance in the film though has to be from the great Pola Negri as the woman he loves. She is very believable as the sensuous dancer who longs to be part of the Sheikh's harem. Paul Wegener plays the Sheikh as a (obviously) tyrannical, jealous maniac and the look in his eyes is one of a very shaky sanity. The story is one of sizzling eroticism and adventure in the Far East, and is crafted quite well. It is almost jarring how quickly and often we as an audience are asked to switch back and forth from watching an emotional melodrama to a ridiculous and sometimes even slapstick, comedy. Overall, it works though and makes the film more interesting than the straight ahead epics being done in America at the time. It was, after all, part of Lubitsch's charm. The sets and costumes are fantastic but the photography and editing leaves something to be desired. The story too is a bit schizophrenic but all in all it was a very enjoyable silent film from Lubitsch's early days in Berlin.
January 12, 2011
