Pandora's Box

"Pandora's Box" is a legendary silent film, and it is very well directed by G.W. Pabst, with emphasis on the German Expressionism popular in 1928, when it was filmed.

Still, the film would likely be forgotten were it not for the dazzling, mesmerizing performance of its star, Louise Brooks, whose natural style and alluring sexuality was largely ignored by American audiences and critics in the '20s.

The film casts Brooks, with her straight black hair in a pageboy bob (later the model for the "Dixie Dugan" comic strip), as Lulu, a femme fatale who defines the term.

The film opens in Germany, with Lulu as the mistress of newspaper mogul Dr. Peter Schon (Fritz Kortner), but that doesn't keep her from flirting with other men — including the mogul's son, Alwa (Franz Lederer). The plot has Lulu eventually marrying Schon, after a scandalous backstage sequence at a musical revue, but as she's rising in social prominence, she finds herself charged with murder and sentenced to prison. Soon she's on the lam and winds up a prostitute on the streets of London, ultimately having an ill-fated encounter with Jack the Ripper.

Wild-eyed soap opera? You bet, but Brooks gives a cagey interpretation to Lulu that is quite unexpected and which keeps the film from falling on its face. She plays the character as completely charming and without guile so that there is never a trace of meanness or trickery in her spirit. The result is that Lulu is quite likeable, even when she does despicable things.

New Yorker magazine critic Pauline Kael, who is retired now, described Brooks' performance this way: "She's like a cool, beautiful, innocently deadly cat that people can't keep their hands off."

It's a stunning film, no question, with sexuality that is quite frank for its day, effective atmosphere and, of course, Brooks' stunning performance.

Born in Kansas, Brooks began her show-business career at age 15 as a dancer on Broadway, eventually becoming a Ziegfeld girl. This led to a Hollywood contract, and she made several mediocre pictures in the mid to late 1920s.

Then, in 1928, she did two films that garnered particularly good notices for her — "A Girl In Every Port" (directed by Howard Hawks) and "Beggars of Life" (directed by William Wellman). Hollywood paid little attention, but G.W. Pabst was fascinated by her and offered Brooks the lead in "Pandora's Box," which he would film in Germany. Brooks was 23 at the time.

The film was a European sensation, and Brooks and Pabst quickly followed it with "Diary of a Lost Girl." She then made a third successful film in Europe in 1930,

"Prix de Beaute" for French director Rene Clair.