In keeping with my goal to watch at least one film a week that I've never seen before, last night I watched Ernst Lubitsch's totally wacky 1921 silent film "The Wildcat" starring Pola Negri. Rather than try to even explain how insane this film is I took a few screen shots. Check the crazy German Art Deco sets and bizarre "iris" shapes used to frame out some of the scenes!
The story is almost completely inconsequential. Military guy falls for mountain girl (Negri), military guy is supposed to marry military commanders daughter blah, blah, its all just an excuse for non-stop wackiness!
The mountain people!
Pola Negri taking a bath in the snow!
The military commander watching his troops.
Check those stairs!
The sets and costumes made me think a bit of Windsor McKay's "Little Nemo"! If you havent seen this before and are in the mood for something totally insane check this one out!
4 comments:
I will have to check this out. The sets look fantastic!
Oh wow! Is this available anywhere? I must watch.
Crazy stairs alright.
A hilarious and fun film. I was thinking Dr Seuss at times when watching the uniforms and sets. And considering that Theodore Geisel was a teenager at the time when it was released, it might have influenced him.
If you liked this, I'd suggest some of the other Lubitsch comedies including The Doll and The Oyster Princess. KINO has released excellent DVDs of all three.
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