Molnár and Film

Tonight I was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where actress Isabella Rossellini introduced screenings of two early films, both of which were made by people with connections to the Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnár.

The first film, Lonesome, was directed by Paul Fejos, who had previously worked with Molnár before immigrating to the U.S. and making movies for Hollywood. Prior to moving to California, Fejos had also served as an advisor for a production of Molnár's The Glass Slipper in New York.

According to film expert Richard Koszarski, who spoke in between the two screenings, Fejos had made some movies in Hungary in addition to directing live theater there. It was Molnár, though, who helped Fejos make connections in the U.S. that allowed him to direct his first American films, the now-lost The Last Moment, and then in 1928 Lonesome, which was screened tonight with live music performed by Joanna Seaton and Donald Sosin.

Movies were never intended to be silent, but when Fejos was working on Lonesome, he assumed all of the music and sound effects would be improvised, much as Seaton and Sosin were able to do. However, 1927 was the year of The Jazz Singer, and after that, producers were demanding that sound be added to films. Fejos shot a few new scenes with dialogue, and the picture was released with a recorded soundtrack in movie theaters equipped for sound.

That was the minority of theaters in America, though, so when the film was released, most people saw it without those scenes of dialogue. Koszarski said some critics complained that the dialogue scenes made little sense and weren't necessary. (Indeed, they really weren't.) He also mentioned that Fejos's admiration for Molnár continued throughout his film career, and he longed to make a movie of Molnár's most famous play, Liliom, though he never did.

After Lonesome, we saw the German film Menschen am Sonntag, ein Film ohne Schauspieler, which translates as People on a Sunday: A Film without Actors. Shot without professional performers, the film was based on reportage by Curt Siodmak (who later penned the werewolf movie The Wolf Man) that was worked into a screenplay by Billy Wilder (credited as Billie Wilder).

Wilder also has connections with Molnár, since his later film One, Two, Three is based on one of Molnár's one-act plays. Both films tonight were enjoyable to watch, particularly with the live musical accompaniment.