Jannings' Desdemona

Baccarat / Le Souris d'hôtel, a lesser 1929 silent from France's Films Albatros, has turned up on Le Cinémathèque Française' Henri site. This one is a curiosity which deserves some attention as the last film of Ica von Lenkeffy, talented star of the twenties Hungarian film & theatre and Desdemona to Jannings' Othello in Dmitriy Bukhovetskiy's lumpen 1922 production. The production's major assets are her winning performance and Art Nouveau decors, complete with glass matte ceilings and paintings in the style of Fernand Leger. Larzere Meerson assisted with the decoration.

  Lenkeffy, Pusey & decor

In an opening missing from the version restored by the Cinémathèque, privileged youth Arthur Pusey cleans up at the Cannes Baccarat tables and glamorous Ica insinuates herself into his hotel room to hide till he goes to sleep and she can work on the locked cabinet there, dressed in an overall black satin manteau, which proves to have the edge on the one Musidora's Irma Vip used to get about in. Underneath hers, Ica has a flashlight belt, short skirt and see-through top.

When his burglar/Souris d'hôtel is caught in the act, Pusey is smitten, fobs off hotel security and takes her home to the chateau to meet mother Elmire Vautier, who implausibly welcomes her as Daughter-in-law material, despite the fact that the women look to be the same age, while Pusey had just played the boy in an early version of "The Blue Lagoon." After a bath in one of those curtained alcoves with a sunken tub, supper on the terrace defeats Ica, so she abandons the implements and eats with her fingers and, rather than embarrass her, Mum joins in. The servants are not impressed, the butler shocking young Pusey by proposing a wolf trap to deal with food thefts in the kitchen.

   Ica Lenkeffy

The promising liaison is undermined when a telegram is intercepted, proving to be from Ica's dad Yvonneck (Chapeau de paille d'Italie – Albatros had handled René Clair silents) In the low dive, where she connects with him, he breaks a bottle over the head of one of the pug-uglies who criticises his daughter. The father (an imposing performance) has a plan to deal with a financial crisis Ica has brought about and, in a false beard, obtains employment as a dealer at the tables, ensuring that his daughter's intended wins. Manager Isaure Douvan calls young Pusey aside and assures him that his irreproachable family connections mean that no action will be taken against him and the boy immediately undertakes to repay the fraudulent losses.

In Dieppe a year later, Ica's Charleston wows the customers. The young heir follows her ("le coeur est ireconsilable") and, like Mozjoukine in Manolescu, the only way to support the relation with the demi monde is for him to join in the thievery – comic scene of Pusey in the black outfit and visions of facing a firing squad.

Pusey & Lenkeffy

The film is minor, cobbling together then familiar society comedy plot lines. It's chiefly valuable as another chance to observe the Albatros house style. Direction & script by Argentinian some-time star (the Curtiz Moon of Israel) Adelqui Migliar/Milar can best be described as functional, though they do run a couple of camera flourishes – the dancer reflected in the pupils of two eyes, stress shown by wobbling one of Henri Crétien's anamorphic lenses, as in the Feyder Cranquebille.

The incomplete copy gets by, though blue-tinted night scenes dropped into a monochrome print are just distracting. There are French captions but the synopsis above should get anyone through.

Barrie Pattison 2024