Pola Negri Movies
Born Appolonia Chalupek, she was brought up by a single mother in a Warsaw slum. As a teenager, she trained at the Imperial Ballet School, debuted with the Imperial Ballet as a cygnet in Swan Lake, and danced in lead roles. She quit dancing after a bout with tuberculosis, then took up acting, which she studied at the Imperial Academy of Dramatic Arts in Warsaw. In 1913 she made her stage debut as an actress, and within a year she appeared in her first film. Soon she was a top screen star in Poland, prompting director Max Reinhardt to invite her to appear in his stage play Sumurun in Berlin; she remained there for five years, becoming internationally famous as the star of a number of major German films. Flooded with contract offers from Hollywood, she moved to America in 1923 and signed with Paramount for $3000 a week; she thus became Hollywood's first imported star. Her exotic, mysterious, passionate qualities caught on with American audiences, and she made numerous popular films; eventually her salary went up to $10,000 a week. She attracted a great deal of publicity for her offscreen romances and her long-term feud with rival Gloria Swanson. She divorced her husband, a Polish count, and made headlines with an engagement to Charlie Chaplin; she broke with Chaplin and took up with Rudolph Valentino, enhancing her sex-siren image. Valentino's death in 1926 marked the beginning of her slip in popularity with the American public, which grew bored with her flamboyant exploits. With the advent of the sound era, she returned to Europe. From 1927-31 she was married to a Russian prince; she divorced him because he mismanaged her investments during the stock market crash. She became popular again in Germany after starring in several films there; she was ordered barred from films because she was thought to be part Jewish, but Adolf Hitler personally overruled this decision due to his fondness for the mother-love film Mazurka (1935), which he reportedly watched once a week for its tearjerking effects on him. It was rumored that she and Hitler were romantically linked, but she successfully sued the French magazine that began the rumor. She settled on the French Riviera, then returned to the U.S. in 1941 after the Germans invaded France. In 1951 she became a U.S. citizen. After 1941 she appeared in only two additional films. She lived out the rest of her long life in well-off seclusion. She authored an autobiography, Pola Negri: Memoirs of a Star. ~ All Movie Guide
Disney produced this distilled Hitchcockian suspense yarn, diluted for the consumption of children. Hayley Mills stars as Nikky Ferris who is spending time in Crete at a small inn called The Moon-Spinners with her Aunt Frances (Joan Greenwood). One day Nikky discovers a handsome young man, Mark Camford (Peter McEnery), wounded in an empty church nearby. It turns out that Mark was once a London bank messenger, but he lost his job after a major jewel robbery. Tagged as a suspect, Mark has made his way to the inn to gather evidence against the inn's owner, Stratos (Eli Wallach), who Mark thinks is the real jewel thief. Nikky and Mark fall in love and decide to capture Stratos together. Silent screen vamp Pola Negri makes a luminous appearance as a jewelry aficionado. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hayley Mills, Eli Wallach, (more)
In the tradition of Hellzapoppin', Hi Diddle Diddle is an all-stops-out "screwball comedy" populated by certifiable zanies. Billie Burke plays Mrs. Prescott, the featherbrained mother of bride-to-be Janie Prescott (Martha Scott). When Mrs. P is swindled out of her life savings, Colonel Phyffe (Adolphe Menjou), the con-man father of Janie's fiancé Sonny (Dennis O'Keefe), vows to get her money back -- by any means possible. The plotline is merely an excuse for a series of wild nonsequitur visual and verbal gags, culminating in a cute reverse-cliché finale. Making her first Hollywood appearance in years, silent screen star Pola Negri is hilariously cast as Phyffe's opera-star wife Genya Smetana. Best bits: Mrs. Prescott revealing that a recurring female character is a "special friend of the director"; Leslie Quayle (June Havoc singing a duet with herself); and an outrageous scene in which the wallpaper comes to life during a eardrum-shattering family sing-along (the animation was provided by the Warner Bros. cartoon staff). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis O'Keefe, Martha Scott, (more)
- 1937
This German adaptation of Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary seldom appears in the standard movie source books (certainly never as often as the 1949 Vincente Minnelli version!), but it might well be worth seeing again. This time, the magnificent Pola Negri is cast as Emma Bovary, the unhappy bride of bourgeois Charles Bovary (Arlbert Wascher). Bored with her husband's narrow-minded attitudes and provincial lifestyle, Emma dreams of great wealth and a "perfect" romance with a young lover. When she gets the chance to escape her boredom, it is with handsome Roudolphe Boulanger (Ferdinand Marian). Alas, Madame Bovary's dreams of lasting happiness are doomed from the start, not so much by fate as by her own inner demons. The German Madame Bovary was consummately produced and acted, yet failed to strike a responsive chord with the public, possibly because Negri was too dynamic a performer for the limits of her role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pola Negri, Ferdinand Marian, (more)
- 1936
Absent from the screen since 1932, Pola Negri made the first of several comebacks in the German melodrama Mazurka. Negri is cast as a famous opera star, married to a powerful military officer. While hubby's off to war, she has "one too many" and ends up sleeping with another man. When she becomes pregnant, it's the end of her marriage and her career. Fifteen years later, Negri comes face-to-face with the daughter she'd farmed out to adoption. Careful not to reveal her true identity, the chastened Negri tries to prevent her daughter from making a similar mistake with her virtue -- and with the same casual lover who'd impregnated our heroine. When the caddish ex-lover refuses to back off, Negri takes drastic measures, setting the stage for a passion-tattering "Madame X"-style courtroom finale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pola Negri
- 1936
In this romantic melodrama, a widowed Russian noblewoman finds her torn asunder by the 1917 revolution. Just before she is to return home, she attends a grand ball. There she encounters a handsome young officer. Following the dance, she leaves her 7-year old with her maid and leaves in the company of friend and confidant who has secretly loved her for years. They are halfway there when the Bolsheviks attack the train. The lady then learns that her lover and best friend have been captured. Her friend joins the Reds and when the soldier is slated for execution, he intervenes and saves him. Meanwhile, the woman hides out with a priest and keeps looking for her daughter who disappeared during the struggle. She also searches for her friend and lover. Time jumps ahead to 1930. Now the woman works as a nightclub singer in Shanghai. There she runs into her old friend Again he proposes, and again she rejects him as she still pines for the dashing soldier. Later, they attend an Easter gala for expatriate Russians, and the woman discovers that the soldier has also become a singer. She is shocked, and further shocked to learn that he has become engaged to none other than her estranged daughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pola Negri, Gustav Diessl, (more)
- 1932
A Woman Commands is often cited as silent screen star Pola Negri's first talking picture. Actually, it was her first American talkie and almost her last, posting a $265,000 loss for RKO Radio. Ordered to marry Serbian king Alexander (Roland Young), noblewoman Maria Draga (Negri) does what she's told, though her heart belongs to dashing army captain Pasitch (Basil Rathbone). Ultimately, the heroine nearly brings about Pasitch's total downfall, but she redeems herself by sacrificing her life to save his. Negri's thick Teutonic accent is not as much of a detriment as some historians have claimed: the problem lies in the terrible dialogue she is called upon to speak. Such was the failure of A Woman Commands that Pola Negri immediately returned to her adopted homeland of Germany, where she remained until WWII necessitated her second Hollywood comeback in 1943's Hi Diddle Diddle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pola Negri, Roland Young, (more)
- 1930
Considered washed up in Hollywood, silent-screen queen Pola Negri made her talkie debut in the British The Woman He Scorned. The plot concerns a lighthouse keeper (Warwick Ward) who heads into town to purchase a new telescope lens. While taking in the sights, he finds himself in a nightclub where woman-of-the-world Negri attaches herself to him. He wants no part of her and sets out to sea alone, back to his lonely lighthouse. Halfway home, he is caught in the middle of storm, whereupon he promises the Lord on High that he'll marry Negri if he survives the deluge. Keeping his word, our hero does his best to protect Negri from her former boyfriend, an accused murderer. The Woman He Scorned proved to be such a mixed-up disaster that it would be two years before Pola Negri stepped before the cameras again. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pola Negri, Warwick Ward, (more)
- 1929
In this drama, a young lighthouse keeper must row to town after he accidentally breaks one of the lenses of his light. While in town he finds himself tempted by several streetwalkers. When one of them is hit by another fellow, the lighthouse keeper rushes to her aid. She is grateful. She decides to reform and follow him to the lighthouse. Unfortunately, the fellow isn't interested in having another responsibility and leaves without her. While rowing back, a squall suddenly erupts and his boat threatens to sink. The fellow prays and swears that he will do right by the girl if only he can be spared. He is and so he marries the girl. Unfortunately, their marital bliss is interrupted by her drunken former abuser who has become a fugitive killer and wants her to hide him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1928
Baroness Gerda Wallentin (Pola Negri) walks out on her philandering husband Count Dietrich (Paul Lukas) and heads to Vienna. En route, she meets musician Raoul Stanislaw (Tullio Carminatti) and agrees to a romantic rendezvous during a stopover at a small village. In the throes of passion, Gerda and Raoul miss their train, which is subsequently involved in a terrible accident. Reported killed in the crash, Gerda, guilty over her indiscretion, decides to remain "dead" for her husband's sake. She dyes her hair, changes her name, and finds work at a gambling casino. Years pass: Count Dietrich inevitably pays a visit to the casino, and with equal inevitability falls in love with Gerda, whom he does not recognize. Our heroine is about to rekindle her romance with the Count but changes her mind when she discovers that he's still keeping company with his mistress. Telling the Count the truth, Gerda leaves him for good and departs for America, intending to start life over for a third time. Three Sinners was based on Das Zweitte Leben, a play by Bernauer Osterreicher. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pola Negri, Warner Baxter, (more)
- 1928
The Secret Hour was the first of three screen versions of Sidney Howard's Pulitzer Prize-winning play They Knew What They Wanted. The owner of a prosperous California orange grove, Italian-born Tony (Jean Hersholt) decides that he lacks romance in his life. Spotting waitress Amy (Pola Negri) at a roadside café, Tony falls in love with her from afar. Mailing her a proposal of marriage, the self-conscious Tony encloses a photo of his handsome foreman Joe (Kenneth Thomson). Even when Amy finds out the truth, she reconciles herself to going through with her marriage to the crude but likeable Tony. Meanwhile, Joe and Amy meet, and though Joe can't stand the girl at first, eventually they fall in love and marry in secret; before long, Amy is pregnant with Joe's child. Enraged when he finds out what's been going on behind his back, the good-hearted Tony can't bring himself to send Amy away or break up his friendship with Joe, so he agrees to bless their marriage. The Secret Hour underwent several radical changes in the transition from stage to screen (in the Sidney Howard original, Tony marries Amy and is cuckolded by Joe), but this didn't weaken the film as much as Pola Negri's miscasting. In addition to the two subsequent film versions, They Knew What They Wanted was transformed by Frank Loesser into the Broadway musical The Most Happy Fella. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pola Negri, Jean Hersholt, (more)
- 1928
Victorien Sardou's 1882 stage play Fedora was transformed by future director John Farrow into the Pola Negri vehicle The Woman from Moscow. The star plays White Russian princess Fedora, who harbors a seemingly hopeless love for dashing Boris Ipanoff (Norman Kerry). Kept separated throughout the film by class differences, military interventions and revolutionaries, hero and heroine suffer magnificently for nearly eight full reels. Sardou had written his play as a vehicle for Sarah Bernhardt, and indeed it seems at times that Negri has been possessed by the spirit of "The Divine Sarah." Though filmed silent, The Woman from Moscow was able to accommodate two tacked-on musical sequences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pola Negri, Norman Kerry, (more)
- 1927
Barbed Wire was based on The Woman of Knockaloe, an antiwar novel by Sir Hall Caine. The original novel dealt with the deleterious WWI-era policy of shipping German-born British citizens back to their "homeland" at the outbreak of the war, no matter how long they'd lived in England. The hero, who'd been brought from Germany to the Isle of Man in his infancy, is forced to spend a lengthy internment at the Knockaloe Alien's Camp before his deportation. The story concerned his relationship with a Manx farm woman who is sympathetic to his plight. Screenwriter Jules Furthman rewrote Caine's story as a traditional POW drama, changing the locale to France. Polish actress Pola Negri stars as Maria, a French farm girl whose romance with German prisoner-of-war Oskar (British actor Clive Brook, who'd spent the war in his own country's service as an officer) forms the dramatic nucleus of the story. In the interests of authenticity, most of Oskar's fellow prisoners were played by genuine German war veterans who'd spent the duration in POW camps. Even so, the film was essentially a vehicle for Pola Negri, and as such falls just short of being a classic of its genre. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pola Negri, Clive Brook, (more)
- 1927
Based on a Hungarian play by Lajos Biro, Hotel Imperial stars Pola Negri as a chambermaid in a small Gallacian hotel. When World War I erupts, the town in which Pola lives is alternately occupied by both the Russians and the Austrians. As the film's various intrigues play themselves out, we learn that Pola is actually an aristocrat, posing as a maid to find her sister's murderer, which she does with the help of handsome Austrian officer James Hall. Hotel Imperial represented the last directorial effort of Mauritz Stiller, who returned to Sweden after being rejected by the love of his life, Greta Garbo. This, coupled with the death of Pola Negri's ex-lover Rudolph Valentino during production of Hotel Imperial, earned the film a reputation as a "jinx." The curse evidently carried over to the 1939 talkie version, which had an even more benighted production history. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pola Negri, James Hall, (more)
- 1927
Pola Negri and director Mauritz Stiller fail to make much of this somber and unoriginal melodrama, which was based on the play by Ernest Vajda. Julie, a model of the Paris studios (Negri), is on trial for murder. On the stand, she relates her story, and in the style of Madame X, the film is told in flashback. She loves artist Pierre Bouton (Einar Hanson), who is dying of consumption. In order to get him to the Alps for a cure, Julie marries Moreland, an art patron (Andre Sarti). She secretly uses his money to buy Pierre's paintings so he can remain at Davos. At one point, however, his condition worsens and Julie hastens to his side. Moreland follows her and discovers them together. He divorces Julie and, with the help of Gaston Napier (Arnold Kent), compromises her so that he can retain custody of their little boy. Julie vengefully shoots Napier. After hearing her story, the court acquits her, and she reunites with the now-cured Pierre. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pola Negri, Einar Hansen, (more)
- 1926
Mal St. Clair, one of the best of the many imitation Lubitsches of the 1920s, called the shots on Good and Naughty. Pola Negri stars as wealthy and beautiful Germaine Morris, who loses out on a job with a prestigious decorating firm. It seems that the firm's owner, Gerald Gray (Tom Moore) has a policy against hiring pretty girls because such ladies always leave upon landing husbands. So Germaine "dresses down" and becomes a dowdy dishrag. It's all part of a scheme to win the heart of Gerald Grey, though it seems like defeating the purpose to try to be attractive by being unattractive. Based on a play by Rene Peter and Henry Falk, Good and Naughty was sort of remade by Marion Davies as Ever Since Eve (1937). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pola Negri, Tom Moore, (more)
- 1926
Pola Negri is her usual overstated self in the outlandish comedy-melodrama Crown of Lies. Negri plays Olga, an immigrant girl who finds work as a domestic in a New York theatrical boarding house. Aspiring to become an actress herself, Olga studies the various boarders and mimics their behavior. This amuses car salesman John Knight (Robert Ames), who falls in love with Olga and invites her to accompany him to the mittel-European kingdom of Sylvania, where he is to open a dealership. But before they can start their journey, Olga is accosted by a servant of Sylvanian Count Mirko (Noah Beery Sr.), who is convinced that our heroine is the long-lost daughter of the Queen (shades of "Anastasia"!) She is spirited off to Sylvania with her boyfriend John in tow and is promptly installed in the royal palace, where she uses her "theatrical training" to pose as a noblewoman. So convincing is her performance that the peasants overthrow the present Sylvanian regime and install Olga on the throne. In the end, however, Olga gives up her regal splendor for a less glamorous but more fulfilling life as the wife of ever-patient John Knight. No, no one believed this one in 1926, either. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pola Negri, Noah Beery, Sr., (more)
- 1925
The exotic Pola Negri is given the role of a half-English, half-Chinese girl in this drama based on W. Somerset Maugham's play and directed by Raoul Walsh. In spite of the illustrious names attached to this production, however, it was a weak film which did justice to none of them. When Daisy Forbes (Negri) returns to China after being educated in England, she discovers that her father has died, and she has been ostracized from white society because her mother was Chinese. Daisy had no idea of her origins because her real mother had been posing as her nurse all this time. Although George Tevis (Edmund Lowe) loves her, his uncle convinces him to avoid her. Lee Tai (Sojin Kamiyama), a Mandarin, is determined to have Daisy, and he uses all his wiles to abduct her. She is saved by Harry Anderson (Rockliffe Fellowes), and out of gratitude she marries him. But when he finds himself snubbed by society because of her, he begins treating her cruelly. Nevertheless, he refuses to let her go -- he threatens to kill Tevis if he sees him with her. But Anderson is removed from the picture when he drinks a poisoned glass of wine that Lee Tai had meant for Tevis to drink. Tevis and Daisy return to England together and Lee Tai is executed. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pola Negri, Edmund Lowe, (more)
- 1925
According to the Paramount publicity mill, Joseph Hergesheimer wrote this unoriginal tale of California's early days especially for Pola Negri. Like all too many of Negri's Paramount vehicles, this drama was not worthy of her talents. Don Geraldo y Villalon (Joseph Dowling) hates Americans because he believes they robbed him of his mine. While he sequesters himself at his ranchero, his daughter Carlotta (Negri) yearns for excitement. When she insists on attending a ball that is being held at the mine, her father kills himself. Carlotta falls in love with John Basset (Youcca Troubetzkoy), the superintendent of the mine, but he has no use for her. So she goes to San Francisco where she becomes a dancehall girl and attracts the attention of vigilante leader Luke Rand (Warner Oland). He offers to get the mine back for her if she gives him what he wants. Carlotta agrees, but when she realizes that Rand's efforts will mean Basset's death, she helps defend the mine instead. Rand nevertheless comes to collect what he feels that Carlotta owes him, and Basset shoots him. After being exonerated of the villain's death, Basset is united with Carlotta. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pola Negri, Joseph J. Dowling, (more)
- 1925
Mariposa (Pola Negri) is a dancer in a Spanish café who is discovered by theatrical manager Señor Sprotti (Cesare Gravina) around the same time that Ralph Bayne, a wealthy American (Wallace MacDonald), sees her. Bayne falls in love with her immediately, as does his chauffeur, Dan Murray (Robert W. Fraser). Because of Sprotti, Mariposa is able to come to America, where both Bayne and Murray continue to woo her -- Bayne with a lot more success. Bertha Sedgwick (Gertrude Astor) is also interested in Bayne, and she rivals Mariposa for his affections. She happens to have a husband (Edwards Davis), and when he catches her in Bayne's apartments, Mariposa, who is also there, claims to be the one compromised. Although Bayne offers to marry her, Mariposa has been disillusioned by his behavior, and she chooses Murray instead. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pola Negri, Wallace MacDonald, (more)
- 1925
This sophisticated and well-made comedy-drama was one of Pola Negri's best vehicles for Paramount. More often than not, the studio seemed at a loss with what to do with the exotic European star. By placing her in the completely incongruous setting of a small American town (and having Malcolm St. Clair as director), the company created something novel and fun. Because her love affair has gone bad, Italian Countess Elnora Natatorini (Negri) decides to visit a cousin in America, Sam Poore (Chester Conklin). The townsfolk of Maple Valley have never seen a Countess before and her stylish and slightly decadent demeanor alternately delights and shocks them. Country boy Gareth Johns (Charles Emmett Mack) becomes hopelessly infatuated with her. But there is real love between the Countess and district attorney Richard Granger (Holmes Herbert). Granger, however, is a bit of a stuffed shirt, and when he believes that the Countess prefers Johns over him, he denounces her and demands that she be run out of town. The Countess' dilemma is solved when one of the women hands her a horsewhip and tells her to use it on Granger. She does, and it works wonders; in only a few feet of film, the Countess and Granger are headed for the altar. This film was based on the novel The Tattooed Countess by Carl Van Vechten. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pola Negri, Charles Emmett Mack, (more)
- 1924
It's a mystery why Paramount released this terrible film. Actress Pola Negri had filmed it years before in Europe and it was neither a credit to her nor to the director Ernst Lubitsch, who she has collaborated with on other, truly stunning films. The setting is Paris in the 1860s. Yvette (Negri) owes a hundred francs at the boarding house where she lives, so she goes out in search of a way to get the money. She winds up starting a fight between two men and runs off. During her escape, she runs into the handsome Andre Leduc, a young composer. The two fall in love and marry. But their happy life is marred by the presence of her wicked cousin, Raoul Fournier. He is determined to break the couple up by proving that Yvette is far below Leduc's station in life. This crudely made film was adapted from the play The Flame, by John Mueller. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pola Negri
- 1924
Silent star Pola Negri and director Dmitri Buchowetzki had worked together in Europe, and Negri's American studio, Paramount, sent for Buchowetzki to direct her again. Like their prior Paramount picture, Men, this drama carries a Continental flavor. After her mother goes insane, Lily Czepanek (Negri) goes to work in a bookstore. A young lieutenant, Richard Von Prell (Ben Lyon), falls in love with her. But his superior, Colonel Von Mertzbah (Noah Beery, who nearly steals the film), decides he wants her too. Von Mertzbah gets his chance when Von Prell has temporarily disappointed Lily. After she weds the colonel, Lily renews her relationship with Von Prell, and Von Mertzbah catches them together. He seriously wounds Von Prell in a duel and throws Lily out of the house. When she doesn't hear from Von Prell, Lily becomes the mistress of Karl Dehnecke (Raymond Griffith), a wealthy roué. Von Prell finally comes back with his uncle, Walter Von Prell (William J. Kelly), in tow. Lily has to act unsophisticated and innocent so the uncle will give the union his approval, but Dehnecke ruins her pose by showing up with a group of drunken friends and denouncing her. The uncle refuses to let Von Prell have anything to do with her and her romance is destroyed. But all is not lost for Lily -- a remorseful Dehnecke proposes to her and she accepts. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pola Negri, Ben Lyon, (more)
