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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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