Pictures and the Picturegoer (Jan-Dec 1924)

MAY 1924 Pictures and Picf\ire$uer 19 KJ amirx&s FrorcxGerm^rwj He has a royal swagger and a royal dignity, although he was born in the land where kings are not M atlc in Gennany -but born in U.S.A.! American Citizen — but can't speak English ! Tonus from Brooklyn — but came to his own in Berlin ! Pharoah, Danton, Henry VIII., Louis XV., Peter the Great — Emile Jannings, Germany's foremost "heavy." You wouldn't believe to look at him that he was an American, except for the extraordinary hint of Wallace Beery in his general appearance and manner; but then Wallace doesn't shout his nationality either. You would call Jannings a Teuton wherever you saw "him, even through the black make-up of Othello. You don't need to hear him speak in order to know that he has spent most of his life in the Fatherland. It is the Motherland for him, as a matter of fact. Mr. Jannings. senior, was a citizen of Brooklyn N.Y., and when the young Emile was taken to Germany by his parents it was only with the intention of making a short stay in his mother's old home. But while they were there Mr. Jannings died, and his widow stayed on with her own people. So it was that America Above : As " Peter the Great of Russia." Below : In a scene from " Money Madness," which gives him one of his few modern roles. I lc lias both the roj ind the royal dignity, and can t *1 1 you more aboul " uneasy lying the head that wears thi crown " than any other actor on the screen, 1 1* has Kingi d it over Egypt, Russia, France and England and as Danton he has unkinged Ki in France. Bui when all is said and dour, his English monarch is most to bis own taste. lie levelled in Ins bluff King Hal in Anne Bolcyil, and indeed it is a superb piece of character acting. But in our opinion it would be hard to beat bis picture of the defeated and broken Pharoah creeping back into Thebes, turned out by his own soldiery, and dying ill lonely grandeur on the throne he had lost. There arc just about three actors ill the world who could have played that scene. Thereis none who could have bettered it. Jannings has a library. It is a grand library, full of old and interesting volumes. It is his portrait gallery, and the pride of his heart. If you really want to please him, you will ask him to take you round it ; then he will shout at you in truculent German and beperfectly happy. The dream of his life has been to go to America, not so much to visit his birthplace and renew tender memories of Brooklyn X.Y., as to work in the famous studios of California where there is liberty and plenty of dollars. Now his dream has come true. Brooklyn N.Y. has got back its celebrated citizen — rather worried to find that his country has gone dry in his absence — but quite prepared to make the best of it, and play juveniles or anything else that is wanted. But we may be sure that America won't waste him. And for a start it is rumoured that Mary Pickford has her eye on Jannings as leading man in her next picture. As Henry VIII of England. missed a great actor and Germany gained one of the most scintillating stars of her stage and screen. Now, at thirty-eight, Emile Jannings tops the six-foot measure and weighs — well, I won't say how many pounds ! Not that he would mind, of course ; it is his presence and figure that have helped him to carry off some of his biggest parts. Brown-haired and brown-eyed, bluff and genial, with a voice like a megaphone, he is an imposing figure, even out of his Court robes . . . and he has led a long studio life of Kingship and Courts. Whenever they wanted a King in Thule — or anywhere else — they sent for Emile Jannings.