Walbrook notes

Anton’s mother

Thanks to a tip from its author (thanks Christian) a great biog at filmportal.de, when put through an internet translation mangle (my German is still schlechte) seems to confirm an interesting bit of information about AW.

Many websites describe him as ‘half-Jewish’ which as I understood it implied that his father was Jewish, his mother not - although the concept of matrilineal descent in Judasim is not cut and dried!

Anyhow, it seems his mother was called Gisela Rose Cohn. Cohn (or Cohen) really could hardly be more Jewish, so it seems that his father is the non-Jewish parent. Whether this ‘officially’ makes AW Jewish, rather than ‘half’, I’m not sure - even if I was Jewish I doubt it would be - and I’m not sure how important the difference is.

However, it’s very interesting to find out a tiny bit more about his parents, and - while also learning about the intensely brewing activity and thought in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna with its great Jewish artists and burgeoning anti-semitism,  - start to assemble the environment he was born into.

Guilt!

Guilt is a big part of my Anton appreciation - it’s rather strange. I feel like a bit of a fraud half the time. I am a very neglectful webmaster - not updating the site for years; I haven’t even seen all the AW films that are available at reasonable prices (I’ve got La Ronde and Queen of Spades waiting to be watched right now); and I couldn’t hand-on-heart say that AW was absolutely my number-one all-time peerlessly perfect favourite actor (to paraphrase something David Mamet wrote about AW, he is - and so is Roger Livesey, Peter Barkworth, and maybe one or two others). There are probably people who are more passionate about his work, and know more about the films and plays he was in, so I feel rather embarrassed when communicating with other fans and film buffs. And that’s another thing - I don’t know what is about three rungs below ‘buff’ in film knowledge, but that’s where I am. Hmm. The thing is, I think he’s an astonishing and under-appreciated actor, and finding out more about him is simply enjoyable for me. It’s a selfish thing. It’s like being a detective on a case, without the mess and palaver of a murder to worry about. That’s not a noble quest - but it is fun, which is much harder to resist.

Some scattergun connections made during lunchtime

Here’s an interview with AW that’s long been on the great Powell and Pressburger site. Here’s a Wikipedia entry about Grock, the clown who was “a pupil” of Walbrook’s father (also Adolph), according to AW in the interview. So the clown fraternity will need to be investigated…and I’m not keen on clowns.

And in this interview he mentions “Ida Schuselka-Wohlbruck, a great-great-great (or so!) grandmother”, which leads to these auto (badly) translated Wikpedia pages here and here (NB ‘welfare Brueck’ is Wikitranslation-ese for Wohlbrück!)

Also, it seems that his parents lived in Italy, presumably escaping Nazis but not Fascists. I wonder what happened to them?

And at this point I run out of time.

More leads than the 101 Dalmatians, but it takes time to follow them all up. My German evening class this evening might help, when eventually I get past the ‘Ich heiße Chris’ stage.

Gaslight screening at the Barbican cinema

Turning up the wick on the Gaslight man - Times Online

I went to see Dickinson’s Gaslight last night, and it was enourmous fun. The film is finely - some would say over - wrought melodrama, with Anton Walbrook pinching his lips, arching his eyebrows and curling his vowels to great effect. His villainy is so fox-like and grand it could be seen as over-the-top - his face goes from boiling anger, to saucy leer, to heavy-lidded insouciance in split seconds. But that would imply that it wasn’t a great performance and it is, because when you are not grinning and revelling at his dripping wickedness, you are genuinely nervous of his next move on poor wibbly-eyed Diana Wynyard.

Tragically, the 1944 Hollywood remake with Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman not only eclipses this version in popularity - exacerbated by MGM’s aptly Louis Bauer-like dastardly attempts to supress the Thorold Dickinson version - but it is the only version currently published on DVD. Apparently there was a version with the Dickinson film added as an extra to the 1944 version(!) but - judging by recent Amazon reviews - this edition seems to have been curtailed.

This Barbican screening was introduced by Philip Horne and Peter Swaab, authors of Thorold Dickinson: A world of film: A World of Film which I will be snapping up as soon as possible. We heard some fascinating information - such as that Gaslight was filmed on a closed set, and all scenes were filmed in sequence - unlike most films that are shot in whatever order is convenient.

I was also lucky (and pushy) enough to collar Peter Swaab briefly on my way out to talk Walbrook and ask to be emailed any tips on sources of AW information - and Mr. S was thoroughly nice and obliging too, so buy his (and Philip Horne’s) book!

• Wikipedia on Gaslight 1940
• Wikipedia on Gaslight 1944
• Wikipedia on Thorold Dickinson