Here is the belle of the ball herself, from 1918, dressed in a long fur coat and matching fur hat. To me she looks like a “mysterious stranger,” and strap a gun belt around her waist and she would be right at home in a Spaghetti western. Who’d want to mess with her? Not me.
Newspaper columnist Herbert Howe was Pola Negri’s unofficial head cheerleader in the Los Angeles Press. Even before her arrival in America, he was waxing rhapsodic over the beautiful La Negri. His description of her somehow fits her perfectly, no? PICTURE PLAY MAGAZINE, July, 1921, p. 33 ” Howe, Herbert, Whose Beauty Reigns Upon the Screen? […]
Mr. Lee directed three of Pola Negri’s pictures, all of them from 1928: “Three Sinners,” “The Secret Hour,” and “Loves of An Actress.” None of them were hits. Mr. Lee continued on to into the talkie era, making pictures for Paramount and Universal, most prominently “Son of Frankenstein” and “Tower of London.” Blame on the […]
Stiller is probably best known for having been signed by Louis B. Mayer to make pictures at MGM–although only as an inducement to get one Greta Gustafson–Greta Garbo–to sign a contract with the studio. According to lore, Garbo refused to make the trip unless her Svengali came with her. Stiller’s time at Metro was short–he […]
Hmm. Never would have guessed that Apolonia Chalupec was a Scottish name, but doesn’t our bonnie lassie could right at home in Hibernian wear? (Okay, okay, in the future I promise to desist from such nonsense as above).
The following profile of Miss Negri ran in Picture Play Magazine in 1922…before she came stateside to make pictures for Paramount. The article, as you will note, does not quote Pola directly–she was still making pictures in Germany at this time–but rather quotes other people’s perceptions of her…as well as a citing a few wildly comic inaccuracies concerning […]
Here’s la belle Pola with head wear straight out of 1920. Only in 1920 would you not have been laughed at for wearing something like this. At the time, Pola was playing the vamp in “Sappho,” so this get-up is quite appropriate in context. It really must have been the talk of Berlin parties. Oh, […]
Back by popular demand…well, my demand anyway! So here’s our heroine, again sporting another fancy chapeaux–something of a cross between a pith helmet and a construction worker’s helmet. This is from about 1918. Does anyone else get the feeling that her dress was unbelievably hot to wear?
Where were we before I got sidetracked by needing to paint before selling my house…? Oh, yes! Sidney Olcott only director one picture with Pola, 1925’s The Charmer. Among the many lost pictures of Pola Negri (let’s face it, most of her career is tragically lost), this is the one I would most like to […]
“A Creature of Flame and Desire” has been submitted to McFarland Publishing and I’ve got my fingers crossed. I’d like to see the book published, if, for no other reason, that Pola Negri deserves a real biography. So far, we have the following dross: Memoirs of a Star: Miss Negri’s autobiography. Wildly inaccurate and highly […]
Pola Negri: Temptress of Silent Hollywood 