| Sumurun | |
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 Film poster | |
| Directed by | Ernst Lubitsch |
| Written by |
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| Produced by | Paul Davidson |
| Starring | see below |
| Cinematography | |
| Distributed by |
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Release date |
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Running time | 103 minutes |
| Country | Germany |
| Languages |
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Sumurun (a.k.a. One Arabian Night) is a 1920 German silent film directed by Ernst Lubitsch based on a pantomime by Friedrich Freksa .
A company of travelling performers arrive at a fictional oriental city. It includes the beautiful dancer Yannaia, the hunchback clown Yeggar who is lovesick for Yannaia and the Old Lady who loves Yeggar. The slave trader Achmed wants to sell Yannaia to the Sheik for his harem. At the Palace, the Sheik finds out that his favourite, Sumurun, is in love with Nur-Al Din, the handsome clothes merchant. He wants to condemn her to death but his son obtains her pardon. After seeing Yannaia dancing, the Sheik is keen to buy her. Yeggar is desperate and takes a magic pill which makes him look dead. His body is hidden in a chest. The women from the harem come to Nur-Al Din's shop and hide him in a chest so that he can be brought into the Palace. The chest containing Yeggar's body is also brought to the Palace and the Old Lady manages to revive him. The Sheik finds Yannaia making love to his son and kills both of them. He then finds Sumurun making love to Nur-Al Din and wants to kill them but he is stabbed in the back by Yeggar. [1]
The filming of Sumurun began at the Ufa studios Union Berlin Tempelhof Studios on 13 March 1920. The monumental sets were realised by Kurt Richter and Ernő Metzner. The costumes were designed by Ali Hubert . This is the last film in which Ernst Lubitsch starred. Sumurun was classified by the Film Censor's Office as not suitable for minors. The première took place on 1 September 1920 in the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Berlin.[ citation needed ]
In Germany, Sumurun was highly praised by contemporary critics and was described as "a cinematic journey into a universe of emotions and passions of great intensity and utter perfection, with a remarkable Ernst Lubitsch in one of the main roles." [2]
In America, The New York Times wrote that One Arabian Night (the title under which Sumurun was released) gave added evidence that Ernst Lubitsch "is the superior of most directors anywhere, and that Pola Negri, a Polish-German actress, is one of the few real players of the screen who can make a character live and be something other than an actress playing a part." It concluded that, despite some shortcomings, it remained one of the year's best pictures. [3]
The film was released on DVD in the U.S. by Kino Lorber as part of the box set "Lubitsch in Berlin" in 2007 with English intertitles. It was also released in the UK by Eureka's Masters of Cinema series as part of the box set "Lubitsch in Berlin: Fairy-Tales, Melodramas, and Sex Comedies" in 2010 with German intertitles and English subtitles.
Ernst Lubitsch was a German-born American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as his prestige grew, his films were promoted as having "the Lubitsch touch". Among his best known works are Trouble in Paradise (1932), Design for Living (1933), Ninotchka (1939), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), To Be or Not to Be (1942) and Heaven Can Wait (1943).
Pola Negri was a Polish stage and film actress and singer. She achieved worldwide fame during the silent and golden eras of Hollywood and European film for her tragedienne and femme fatale roles. She was also acknowledged as a sex symbol.
Hans Dreier was a German motion picture art director. He was Paramount Pictures' supervising art director from 1927 until his retirement in 1950, when he was succeeded by Hal Pereira.
Ossi Oswalda was a German actress, who mostly appeared in silent films, many of which were early films of German filmmaker Ernst Lubitsch. Her characters were often eccentric, spoiled, and child-like. Oswalda was given the nickname 'The German Mary Pickford' due to her popularity at the time.
Ferdinand "Fred" Immler was a German stage and film actor.
Anna Boleyn, also known as Deception, is a 1920 German historical film directed by Ernst Lubitsch. It stars Henny Porten as Anne Boleyn and Emil Jannings as King Henry VIII.
The Spanish Dancer is a 1923 American silent costume epic starring Pola Negri as a gypsy fortune teller, Antonio Moreno as a romantic count, and Wallace Beery as the king of Spain. The film was directed by Herbert Brenon and also features a five-year-old Anne Shirley, appearing under the name "Dawn O'Day." The film survives today.
Harry Liedtke was a German film actor.
The Wildcat, subtitled A Grotesque in Four Acts, is a 1921 German silent, farcical romantic comedy film directed by Ernst Lubitsch. It was shot at the Tempelhof Studios in Berlin.
Madame DuBarry is a 1919 German silent film on the life of Madame Du Barry. It was directed by Ernst Lubitsch, written by Norbert Falk and Hanns Kräly with the title role taken by Pola Negri and Louis XV played by Emil Jannings. Its alternative title for United States distribution was Passion.
Paul Davidson was a German film producer.
Paul Biensfeldt was a German-Jewish stage and film actor.
Die Augen der Mumie Ma is a 1918 German silent horror film directed by Ernst Lubitsch. The film stars Pola Negri as Ma, Emil Jannings as Radu, and Harry Liedtke as Wendland. It was the first collaboration between Lubitsch and Negri, a pairing that would go on to make worldwide successes such as Carmen (1918), Madame DuBarry (1919), and Sumurun (1920).
The Projektions-AG Union was a German film production company which operated between 1911 and 1924 during the silent era. From 1917 onwards, the company functioned as an independent unit of Universum Film AG, and was eventually merged into it entirely.
Carmen is a 1918 German silent drama film directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Pola Negri, Harry Liedtke, and Leopold von Ledebur. It was based on the novella Carmen by Prosper Mérimée. Like Bizet's opera Carmen, this film only adapts the third part of Mérimée's novella and transforms the character of Don José at the beginning of the story from bandit on the run to honest man in love with his childhood sweetheart. The film was released with English intertitles in the United States in 1921 under the alternative title Gypsy Blood.
The Flame is a 1923 German silent drama film directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Pola Negri, Hermann Thimig, and Alfred Abel. The film is based on a play by Hans Müller. In the United States it was released under the alternative title Montmartre. It was the last film Lubitsch made in Germany before emigrating to Hollywood where he directed his first American film Rosita for United Artists the same year.
The Red Peacock is a 1920 German silent film directed by Paul L. Stein and starring Pola Negri and Victor Varconi. It was shot at the Tempelhof Studios and distributed by UFA. Long thought lost, the film was rediscovered in a New York basement in 2020.
Kurt Richter (1885–1960) was an Austrian art director of the silent era. He designed the sets for more than a hundred films during his career, including a number made by the leading German company UFA where he frequently collaborated with director Ernst Lubitsch.
The EFA Studios or Halensee Studios were film studios located in the Berlin suburb of Halensee. They were a prominent centre of film production in the silent and early sound era. Constructed in 1919 after the First World War, they were part of a wave of modern studios that used artificial lighting rather than the earlier glasshouse studios that relied on natural light. Early productions included The Head of Janus by F.W. Murnau. They were located close to Berlin Zoo and were sometimes also known as the Zoo Studios.
