Bravura Beginnings: Paul Leni and the Art of the Prologue

Abstract

This chapter looks at the conclusion of Leni’s film-related work in Germany and the beginning of his employment with Universal Studios. “Bravura Beginnings” argues that the bridge between these two phases of Leni’s career was his work on a series of prologues: live stage productions that led into others’ films. Relying heavily on contemporaneous newspaper and trade-journal accounts, this chapter examines Leni’s work immediately before and after his arrival in Manhattan in 1926. In particular, it explores the prologues he staged in Berlin for Ernst Lubitsch’s Forbidden Paradise, E. A. Dupont’s Varieté, and Herbert Brenon’s Peter Pan, and two he created for Universal: ‘The Police Sergeant’s Story,’ performed as a lead-in to Tod Browning’s Outside the Law, and ‘Tremendous Trifles,’ which served a similar introductory function for William Seiter’s Rolling Home. This chapter posits that Leni’s work on these live productions paved the way for his brief but successful career as a Hollywood director and carried themes and motifs that later appeared in his films for Universal.