10 December 2017

Fesseln (1918)

German actress, writer and producer Hedda Vernon was the star of the Eiko Film production Fesseln/Chains (Hubert Moest, 1918). During the 1910s, she was such a popular film star in Germany that she got her own Hedda-Vernon serial.

Hedda Vernon in Fesseln
German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 559/1. Photo: Eiko-Film. Hedda Vernon and Hermann Vallentin in Fesseln (Hubert Moest, 1918).

Hedda Vernon in Fesseln
German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 559/2. Photo: Eiko-Film. Hedda Vernon in Fesseln (Hubert Moest, 1918).

Hedda Vernon in Fesseln
German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 559/3. Photo: Eiko-Film. Hedda Vernon and Hermann Vallentin in Fesseln (Hubert Moest, 1918).

A forgotten film


Little is known about this film. Fesseln/Chains (Hubert Moest, 1918) was offered to the German National Board of Censors in August 1918.

Fesseln is one of the seven silent films from 1918 in which German film star Hedda Vernon (1886–1925) played the lead role. Between 1912 and 1925 she starred in more than 80 films. How and where she died is unknown.

Next to Hedda Vernon were in the cast: Emil Albes, Ewald Brückner, Lucie Friedrich, Hermann Vallentin and Erich Wilde.

The film was scripted by Richard Wilde. We don't what the plot was about, but the postcards seem to suggest a storyline. Vernon plays a poor girl who finds a job as a nanny but is maltreated.

Director was Hubert Moest, who was Hedda Vernon's husband from 1913 till 1920. Moest was also her regular film director at Eiko in the years 1914-1918 and afterwards at other companies, including his own company Moest-Film from 1919 on.

Rotophot produced this series of sepia postcards with scenes from the film in their Film Sterne (Film Stars) series.

Hedda Vernon in Fesseln
German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 559/4. Photo: Eiko-Film. Hedda Vernon in Fesseln (Hubert Moest, 1918).

Hedda Vernon in Fesseln
German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 559/5. Photo: Eiko-Film. Hedda Vernon in Fesseln (Hubert Moest, 1918).

Hedda Vernon in Fesseln
German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 559/6. Photo: Eiko-Film. Hedda Vernon in Fesseln (Hubert Moest, 1918).

Sources: Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.

No comments: