Based on two plays by the acclaimed German dramatist Frank Wedekind, Die Büchse der Pandora (or Pandora’s Box), tells the story of Lulu, a lovely, amoral, and somewhat petulant showgirl whose behavior leads to tragic consequences. Louise Brooks plays Lulu, a singular femme fatale. As Brooks’ biographer Barry Paris put it, her “sinless sexuality hypnotizes and destroys the weak, lustful men around her.” And not just men. . . Lulu’s sexual magnetism had few bounds, as this once controversial film features what is thought to be the screen’s first lesbian character.
Before the film premiered at the Gloria–Palast in Berlin in early 1929, critics and the movie-going public were dismissive of the much anticipated work. The very idea of the film had been rejected by some who claimed “Lulu is inconceivable without the words that Wedekind made her speak.” Hoping to deflect such criticism, director G.W. Pabst conducted a well-publicized search for an actress who was just the right type: according to one film journal of the time, the search was a topic of considerable interest, and “Everywhere one went one heard ‘What about Lulu?’ and ‘Is Lulu found yet?’” (Later, the worldwide publicity campaign echoed the public’s interest when it asked “Wer ist Lulu?”) Once the part was cast, Germans objected to the little known Brooks in the role, doubting an American actress could play what was thought to be an essentially German character.
As a psychological study, some found Pandora’s Box a disappointment; some critics regretted Pabst’s seeming retreat from the social and political engagement of his earlier works. Other critics — as well as censors, were likewise taken aback by what was then considered a rather frank portrayal of sexuality. Even from afar, the poet H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), writing in the English/Swiss film journal Close Up, noted the controversy when she stated the film had only “passed by the German censors after a stormy discussion of several hours duration.”
Pabst’s choice of Brooks was thought to be a mistake, and her acting came under fire. German critics stated she looked attractive but appeared unconvincing. Siegfried Kracauer, writing in Frankfurter Zeitung, thought Brooks not enough of a whore. While one German critic called Brooks “an inanimate dummy.” Variety’s correspondent in Germany chimed in with a critique hardly more sympathetic, “Louise Brooks, especially imported for the title role, did not pan out, due to no fault of hers. She is quite unsuited to the vamp type which was called for by the play from which the picture was made.”
Over the next number of months, Pandora’s Box played across Europe, where it was similarly received and similarly cut according to local standards. In France, for example, censors thought it indecent for a father and son to vie sexually for the same woman. Their solution was to tinker with the titles and convert Alwa (Franz Lederer) from Dr. Schön’s son to his male secretary. Other changes were made in other countries. Over the next year, the film would be shown in Russia, north Africa, South America, and Asia. In Japan, it was heavily promoted.
By the time Pandora’s Box debuted in the United States in late 1929, nearly a third of the film had been cut. The 55th Street Playhouse in New York City, the small art house that debuted the film, projected a statement lamenting that the film had been censored. The theater also apologized for the “added saccharine ending” in which Lulu joins the Salvation Army.
Quinn Martin, critic at the New York World, wrote “It was the privilege of a few reviewers to see Pandora’s Box shortly after it was received by its American exhibitors and before the New York censors got at it. In the beginning it appeared to this one to be a rather harmlessly lewd little exhibition with misery and murder and a touch of abnormalcy along other lines, but at that time, at least, it told a sort of story. Now, it is recommended principally, if at all, for its striking photographs of Miss Louise Brooks, the American actress. At least, the persons who have charge of our film morals have seen fit to leave Miss Brooks’s back, legs, and haircut as they pictured at the outset. Miss Brooks, therefore, retains all of her original charms. . . . It does occur to me that Miss Brooks, while one of the handsomest of all the screen girls I have seen, is still one of the most eloquently terrible actresses who ever looked a camera in the eye.”
Billboard magazine had a similar take, “This feature spent several weeks in the censor’s board’s cutting room: and the result of its stay is a badly contorted drama that from beginning to end reeks with sex and vice that have been so crudely handled as not even to be spicily entertaining. Louise Brooks and Fritz Kortner are starred, with Miss Brooks supposed to be a vampire who causes the ruin of everyone she meets. How anyone could fall for la belle Brooks with the clothes she wears in this vehicle is beyond imagination. . . . This is a silent production that has no business playing anything but guild theaters.”
Photoplay, one of the leading fan magazines of the time, noted “When the censors got through with this German-made picture featuring Louise Brooks, there was little left but a faint, musty odor. It is the story, both spicy and sordid, of a little dancing girl who spread evil everywhere without being too naughty herself. Interesting to American fans because it shows Louise, formerly an American ingénue in silent films, doing grand work as the evil-spreader.” Mordaunt Hall, critic for the New York Times, famously countered when he wrote, “Miss Brooks is attractive and she moves her head and eyes at the proper moment, but whether she is endeavoring to express joy, woe, anger or satisfaction it is often difficult to decide.” Variety put the nail in the coffin when its critic opined “Better for Louise Brooks had she contented exhibiting that supple form in two-reel comedies or Paramount features. Pandora’s Box, a rambling thing that doesn’t help her, nevertheless proves that Miss Brooks is not a dramatic lead.”
Regina Crewe, writing in the New York American, said “But not even the censors may be blamed for all the film’s deficiencies – the acting, for instance, and the rather absurd melodramatic story. . . . Unlike Anna May Wong, and other Hollywood actresses who have blossomed into skilled players under European influence, Miss Brooks doesn’t seem to have improved since her departure. She is comely as ever, but her pantomimic abilities are sadly limited. . . . The picture is one of the less deserving efforts and was received with apathy by the audience.”
But was it? Despite poor reviews, the film was widely written about (for such a limited release) and did well in its New York debut. The New York Sun reported Pandora’s Box “ . . . has smashed the Fifty-fifth Street Playhouse’s box office records. It will therefore be held for another week.” At a time when most new or first-run films played only one week, a two-week run was considered noteworthy, and a little above average.
In 1929, however, sound had arrived and poorly reviewed silent films from abroad were little in demand. Although exhibition records of the time are far from complete, the film was seldom shown in America in the years following its New York debut. Following New York, Pandora’s Box was shown at the Little Theater in Baltimore (January 1930), Acme Theater in New York City (May 1930), Little theater in Newark, New Jersey (May 1931), and 5th Ave. Theater in New York City (December 1933). The film’s last known public showing in the United States (prior to its later revival) was at the Sunday playhouse at Taliesin, the Wisconsin estate of architect Frank Lloyd Wright (May, 1934). [A more detailed account of the early screening history of Pandora’s Box in the United States can be found in this Film International article from 2023, “Lulu in America: ‘Sin Lust Evil!’ and the Lost History of Louise Brooks and Pandora’s Box.”
After that, Pandora’s Box fell into obscurity, and was more often than not referenced in early film histories as a failed film by an otherwise noted German director. It took decades for historians and audiences to rediscover the work. In his 1989 biography of Brooks, Barry Paris put it this way: “A case can be made that Pandora’s Box was the last of the silent films—not literally, but aesthetically. On the threshold of its premature death, the medium in Pandora achieved near perfection in form and content.”
Information and images related to Pandora’s Box can be found on the following LBS web pages: Movie Posters || Promotional Material || Newspaper Advertisements || Censorship Records || Miscellaneous
RELATED MATERIAL:
DATABASE LINKS:
- Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
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STORY SYNOPSIS:
Lulu is a beautiful young woman who all men find irresistible. She is being kept by the rich industrialist, Dr. Ludwig Schön. She is his mistress, and he is engaged to be married to a respectable woman of his own class. To be rid of her, Schön arranges for Lulu to appear in his son’s musical revue, but the son too falls for Lulu’s charms. When Schön and his fiancée go to see the revue, Lulu gets upset, Schön attempts to calm her, and the two are caught in a compromising situation. The elder Schön now feels he must marry Lulu, knowing full well it will ruin his reputation. On the wedding day, everything comes to a crisis. Schön’s actions (spoiler alert) cost him his life, and Lulu is tried for manslaughter. She escapes with the help of her old cronies, and together, they flee the country and enter a seemingly inescapable downward spiral toward destitution and further tragedy … and Jack the Ripper.
PRODUCTION HISTORY:
The film was in production in Berlin at the Nero-Film Studio between October 17 and November 23, 1928.
| CAST: | |
|
Louise Brooks
|
Lulu |
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Fritz Kortner
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Dr. Peter Schön |
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Franz Lederer
|
Alwa Schön |
|
Carl Goetz
|
Schigolch |
|
Krafft-Raschig
|
Rodrigo Quast |
|
Alice Roberts
|
Countess Anna Geschwitz |
|
Gustav Diessl
|
Jack the Ripper |
|
Sig Arno
|
stage manager (uncredited) |
|
Daisy D’Ora
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Charlotte M.A. von Zanik, Schön’s fiancée (uncredited) |
|
Michael von Newlinsky
|
Marquis Casti-Piani |
| Hans Casparius | chef / cook |
| Paul Falkenberg | |
| Sid Kay’s Fellows | wedding band (uncredited) |
| CREDITS: | |
|
Studio:
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Nero-Film AG |
|
Distributor:
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Süd-Film |
|
Producer:
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Heinz Landsmann and Seymour Nebenzahl (uncredited) |
|
Production manager:
|
Georg C. Horetsky |
|
Director:
|
Georg Wilhelm Pabst |
|
Assistant Directors:
|
Mark Sorkin and Paul Falkenberg |
|
Writing Credits:
|
Ladislaus Vajda (screenplay), adapted from the plays Erdgeist and Die Büchse der Pandora by Frank Wedekind |
|
Cinematography:
|
Günther Krampf |
|
Film editor:
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Unknown (mistakenly credited to Joseph R. Fliesler, the distributor of the 1929 American print) |
|
Art Direction:
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Andrei Andreiev and Ernö Metzner (uncredited) |
|
Title cards:
|
Marcel Tuszkay |
|
Music:
|
Willy Schmidt-Genter (composer) / xxxx (conductor) |
|
Costumes:
|
Gottlieb Hesch |
|
Format:
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Silent – black & white |
|
Running Time:
|
9 reels (10,676 feet), or 131 minutes – elsewhere reported as The Netherlands: 3029 meters. United Kingdom: 7,100 feet. |
|
Approval Card:
|
No. 21540, issued on January 30, 1929 |
|
Premiere:
|
February 9, 1929 (Gloria–Palast in Berlin, Germany) |
|
Country of Origin:
|
Germany |
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Under its German title, Die Büchse der Pandora, documented screenings of the film took place in Austria, Danzig (then free city-state now known as Gdańsk), Slovakia (then part of Czechoslovakia), Latvia (then part of the U.S.S.R), Luxembourg, Ukraine (then part of the U.S.S.R), and the United States. (The print shown in the United States, which was sometimes advertised under its original German title, featured English-language intertitles.)
Outside Germany, Die Büchse der Pandora was exhibited or written about under the title Loulou (Algeria); La caja de Pandora and Lulu (Argentina); Le boîte de Pandore and Loulou (Belgium); A caixa de Pandora (Brazil); Кутията на Пандора (Bulgaria); La caja de Pandora and Lulu (Chile); Lulu La Pecadora (Cuba); Pandořina skříňka or Pandořina skříňka (Lulu) and Umrít Büchse der Pandoru (Czechoslovakia) and Pandorina skrínka (Slovakia); Pandoras æske (Denmark); De doos van Pandora (Dutch East Indies – Indonesia); Pandora’s Box (England); Pandora laegas (Estonia); Pandoran lipas (Finland); Loulou and Le boîte de Pandore (France); Λούλου and Lulu- το κουτί της Πανδώρας (Greece); Pandóra szelencéje (Hungary); Lulu and Il vaso di Pandora and Jack lo Sventratore (Italy); パンドラの箱 or Pandoranohako and The Box of Pandora (Japan); Korea (Box of Pandora); Pandoras lade and Pandoras Kaste (Latvia); Pandoros skrynia (Lithuania); Lou lou La Boite de Pandore (Luxembourg); La caja de Pandora (Mexico); De doos van Pandora (The Netherlands*); Pandoras eske (Norway); Lulu and Puszka Pandory (Poland); A Bocéta de Pandora and A caixa de Pandora (Portugal); Cutia Pandorei and Lulu and Pandora szelenceje (Romania); Lulu and Pandorina skrinjica (Slovenia); La caja de Pandora (Spain); Pandoras ask (Sweden); Meş’um Fahişe and Meş’um Fahişe (Lulu) (Turkey); Dzieje Kokoty Lulu (Ukraine); Box of Pandora and Pandora’s Box (English-language press) and Pandora szelencéje (Hungarian-language press) and Ящик Пандоры (Russian-language press) (United States); La caja de Pandora and Lulu and El alma de la herrera (Uruguay, sound version); Lulu and Лулу and Ящик Пандорьі (U.S.S.R.); La caja de Pandora (Venezula).
Since the late 1950s, numerous screenings of the film have been taken place around the world, including first ever showings under the title Pandora’s Box in Australia, Canada, India, Israel, Northern Ireland, Dubai and elsewhere. In 2016, a first ever showing of the film took place in Turkey under the titles Pandora’nın Kutusu and Pandora’nýn Kutusuö. (read more) The film has also been shown on television in a few countries in Europe as well as in Australia, Canada, the United States.
* According to European censorship records, the film was banned in Finland (1929), Norway (1929), and Sweden (c. 1929/1930). Despite the film being banned in The Netherlands in 1930, it was later shown on October 18, 1935 at De Uitkijk theater in Amsterdam. With the rise of Nazi party, the film was banned in Germany between 1934-45. It was also banned in Portugal from 1936-1945. For a more detailed history of the film’s history of censorship, see the LBS webpage “Pandora’s Box — Censorship Records.”
STATUS:
The film is extant, though footage cut by censors following the film’s release is missing and considered lost. There is no complete copy nor a “director’s cut” of the film known to exist. Over the years, a few differing versions of the film have been released both theatrically and for home video on VHS, Laser Disc, DVD, and Blu-ray in Europe and the United States. Versions found on YouTube are poor copies of earlier, inferior releases. The best copies of the film are the Criterion Collection release from 2024 (USA), and the Eureka Masters of Cinema series release also from 2024 (UK).
FURTHER READING: RELATED ONLINE DOCUMENTS, PROGRAM NOTES, VIDEO CLIPS, etc…
Along with the Barry Paris biography of Louise Brooks and Brooks’ own Lulu in Hollywood (notably the chapter “Pabst and Lulu”), two other books which provide a good deal of information on the film are Pandora’s Box (Lulu) (published by Lorrimer / Simon & Schuster in 1971), and Pamela Hutchinson’s Pandora’s Box (published by the BFI in 2018). Information on each of these titles can be found on ESSENTIAL READING. Additionally, the Pandora’s Box bibliography here on the LBS website contains links to a handful of articles available online. Otherwise, here are some additional pieces of interest, each of which can be accessed online.
Die Büchse der Pandora
— five pages of undated German censorship notes, not the inter-titles as stated
Card, James. “Psychological Masterpieces: Pandora’s Box.” University of California, Los Angeles, 1962.
— four pages of program notes from the UCLA series
anonymous. “Pandora’s Box.” National Film Theater (London), n.d. (1960s ?)
— two pages of program notes
Pandora’s Box (Lulu): a film. Simon & Schuster, 1971.
— contains the shooting script of the film, cast listing and credits, and dozens of stills, as well as a brief introduction by Brooks, an article by the actress entitled “Pabst and Lulu,” and an essay by film writer Lotte H. Eisner entitled “Pabst and the Miracle of Louise Brooks.”
anonymous. “G.W. Pabst’s Pandora’s Box.” Janus Films, 1973.
— two pages from an early Janus Films catalog
Card, James. James Card introduces Pandora’s Box at the Pacific Film Archive, 1978.
— audio recording of Eastman House curator James Card, with an introduction by Tom Luddy
Bloch, Judy. “Restored treasures of German expressionist cinema from the Munich Film Archives: Pandora’s Box.” Pacific Film Archive, 1981.
— four pages of notes
anonymous. “Pandora’s Box.” George Eastman House, 1980s?.
— one page of program notes
Merritt, Russell. “Pandora’s Box.” San Francisco International Film Festival, 1995.
— one page of program notes
anonymous. “Die Büchse der Pandora.” Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin, 1997.
— two pages of program notes in German, French and English
Ebert, Roger. “Great Movies: Pandora’s Box“. RogerEbert.com, April 26, 1998.
— this essay, first published in the Chicago Sun Times, was included in Ebert’s 2002 book, Great Movies
Hoberman, J. “Opening Pandora’s Box.” Criterion Collection, 2006.
— book essay which accompanied the Criterion DVD released in 2006 and 2024
Kizirian, Shari. “Pandora’s Box“. San Francisco Silent Film Festival, 2006.
— program essay
Hagopian, Kevin. “Pandora’s Box.” New York State Writers Institute, n.d.
— film notes
Gladysz, Thomas. “Pandora’s Box“. San Francisco Silent Film Festival, 2012.
— program essay
Kermode, Mark. “Kermode Uncut: Pandora’s Box.” BBC, May 2018.
— video commentary from the UK critic
La Compagnia Cinema. “Lulù – Il vaso di pandora” di G.W.Pabst (1929) – Introduzione al film,” August 18, 2020.
— Italian-language video commentary
Boucles d’escarpins portés par Louise Brooks dans « Loulou » (G.W. Pabst, 1928) September 14, 2021
— La Cinémathèque francaise page on the shoe buckles worn in Pandora’s Box
anonymous. “Pandora’s Box.” Janus Films, 2024.
— online press kit with links to press notes, stills, trailer and poster (the press notes contain a few factual errors)
| British Film Institute, 2018 | Janus Films trailer, 2024 |