Pola Negri: The Iconic Collection, The Early Films

This three-disc set features four German films that established the career of exotic beauty Pola Negri, the first European superstar imported by Hollywood, who went on to become a glamorous presence in American silent cinema. The Polish Dancer (1917), a Polish production and Negri's earliest surviving work, is a silly melodrama, with Aleksander Hertz directing her in the role of Pola Basznikow, a headstrong girl who becomes a celebrated nightclub performer with a reckless love life. In The Yellow Ticket (1918), one of Negri's early German features, co-directed by Eugen Illés and Viktor Janson, she plays Lea, a Jewish woman who hides her true identity to study medicine in Russia amidst a culture of prejudice. Eyes of the Mummy Ma (1918), her first of many pairings with the great Ernst Lubitsch, is the highlight here, an exotic tale about an Egyptian woman named Ma who's rescued from an ancient crypt and then pursued by baddie Emil Jannings as she makes her name in European society. Finally in Sappho (1921), helmed by Dimitri Buchowetzki (who followed Negri to Hollywood), the actress plays the title character, whose smoldering beauty drives men insane. While these rarities boast historical value and would make fine additions to a dedicated silent-movie library, they're not representative of Negri's best work and are of secondary interest next to her more important Lubitsch collaborations (some of which are available in Kino's Lubitsch in Berlin collection). Damaged footage mars the overall quality, and the low-fidelity video mastering is inferior to the standards set by companies like Kino, Criterion, and even the Warner Archive (in addition, the original German titles have been replaced with generic, blandly translated English titles). DVD extras include stills and a text bio of Negri. Optional. (S. Axmaker)