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August 2005, Week 2

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Subject:
From:
"Steven P. Hill" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 14 Aug 2005 16:54:06 -0500
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Dear colleagues:

Once upon a time, Bela Lugosi -- along with several German thespians 
of the day -- acted in a 1920-21 German film entitled "Dance on the 
Volcano" ("Tanz auf dem Vulkan," also known as "Daughter of the 
Night"). Directed by  Richard Eichberg, this German film depicts the 
Russian Revolution(1917-18) and the subsequent fate of Russian 
emigres in France. (Lugosi plays an elegant young Frenchman.)   

The cast list includes 7 actors' names, and from the film intertitles 
( in English, since I have the British or US version on video ), I have 
extracted the names of all the various roles enacted in the film.  But 
except for the easily recognizable young Mr Lugosi and the 2 female 
leads (Lee Parry & Violetta Napierska), I cannot match the other 4 
actors with the 4 roles they play (i.e., "who plays whom?").   
Considerable searching on "WWW," including German sources, 
and helpful feedback from one of the Eastman House archivists, 
Jared Case, still doesn't answer this 4-part question.
 
It appears that one of the four "unmatched" actors, ROBERT SCHOLZ 
(1886-1927)   must have had a significant reputation at the time In 
Germany, and perhaps a reader of this list-server would know which 
role he plays in "Dance on the Volcano," or at least what he looks like.  
 "US.IMDB.COM" credits Herr Scholz with acting roles in 59 German 
films, 1919-28, and I note that in several of them he plays a royal, 
an aristocrat, or otherwise distinguished personage.  Given Scholz's 
younger  age, I doubt that he could have played the main villain in 
"Volcano", a "dirty old man" called "Grand Duke Frederick Fedorovitch."  
So that suggests the possibility that Herr Scholz might have played 
the heroic younger bearded Russian idealist, called "Ivan Michelov" 
(also called "Dimitri")?

And if that were so, then the chief villain (the old "Grand Duke") 
must have been played by Gustav Birkholz or Felix Hecht or Kurt 
Fuss, i.e., by one of the remaining 3 "unmatched" actors in the 
cast...?

Gratefully,
Steven P Hill,
University of Illinois (USA).
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