I saw a 1958 acetate print of 'Den Hvide slavinde' ('The White-Slave Trade') at the Cinema Muto festival in Sacile, Italy, in October 2006. This film has an interesting history. First, some background: During the early 20th century, a popular theme in sensationalist literature was the crime of 'white slavery'. White slavers were organised rings of criminals who abducted young women and forced them into prostitution, sometimes in a foreign nation where they had no contacts and couldn't speak the local language. Undoubtedly, this crime genuinely existed -- and still does, in the early 21st century -- but I have difficulty believing that it was ever as glamorous or exotic as it was purported to be in novels and films of the period.
Now, this film's history: IMDb's web page for 'Den Hvide slavinde' lists two different production companies -- Fotorama and Nordisk -- implying that this movie is a co-production. That's incorrect. In the spring of 1910, the Fotorama studio (based in Aarhus, Denmark) made a three-reel film titled 'Den Hvide slavinde', the longest film produced in Denmark to that date. It was a huge money-maker. The rival Nordisk studio, based in Copenhagen, decided to cut themselves a slice of the Danish by producing a scene-for-scene copy with the same title: to minimise the chances of lawsuits, Nordisk released their film primarily in other Scandinavian markets outside of Denmark. Ironically, the Nordisk film -- a blatant rip-off -- has survived, whilst the original Fotorama version appears to be lost except for a few tantalising fragments. (No, you clevers in the back there; I don't have a print handy.) To complicate matters, the actors listed on IMDb's webpage are the (correct) cast of the missing Fotorama production, not the surviving Nordisk version.
This IMDb review addresses the Nordisk movie, and I've listed the actors who appear in that version. Surviving documents from the Aarhus studio indicate that Nordisk's production is a scene-for-scene copy of the Fotorama original, barring a few characters' names changed.
Anna (Ellen Diedrich), a beautiful girl from a poor background, is offered a well-paid position as a lady's companion in London. Handsome Georg (Lauritz Olsen) has been Anna's friend since childhood, and they are now informally betrothed. The sceptical Georg suspects that the job offer is too good to be true, but Anna dismisses his scepticism and she reports to the London address. The stately home in England turns out to be a whorehouse, run by madame Ella la Cour, corseted to a fare-thee-well: apparently there are no good-looking women in London, so they have to import them from Denmark. Anna manages to overpower her first client (Svend Bille) but is unable to escape. Here, the film cleverly manages to have it both ways: establishing Anna as fighting to protect her virginity whilst, at the same go, keeping her a prisoner in a brothel. Thus, the audience can delude themselves that Anna remains a virgin while she's captive in a whorehouse.
SPOILERS COMING. Remarkably and implausibly, the brothel's chambermaid (Doris Langkilde) is sympathetic to Anna's plight, and she smuggles out a message to Anna's parents (Otto Lagoni and Julie Henriksen). Georg travels to England and hires a detective (Victor Fabian). There's now an exciting sequence of escape and chase, as Anna climbs down from the brothel's upper storey into a waiting motorcar, and the villains then pursue the liberators. The baddies abduct Anna again (she must be one of their best girls, since they go to so much trouble to keep her!), and they take her to the quayside, intending to escape to yet another nation. But that pesky chambermaid has alerted Scotland Yard. There's a thrilling climactic shipboard struggle, and all ends happily.
Nordisk's 'Den Hvide slavinde' is so impressive (by 1910 standards) that it's a shame to realise that this entire production is a crib from the original version. A real highlight here is a triptych sequence: a three-way split-screen, featuring a 'phone conversation between two villains (at opposite sides of the screen) while the centre of the image depicts a bustling street. However, press reviews of the earlier Fotorama production make clear that this effect originated in that film: the same sequence in this Nordisk version, while breath-taking, is merely a copy.
I was so impressed by this film that I'm tempted to give it a high rating, but solid evidence indicates that it's entirely a knock-off of the earlier version. Split the difference, and I'll rate this Nordisk remake 7 out of 10.
Now, this film's history: IMDb's web page for 'Den Hvide slavinde' lists two different production companies -- Fotorama and Nordisk -- implying that this movie is a co-production. That's incorrect. In the spring of 1910, the Fotorama studio (based in Aarhus, Denmark) made a three-reel film titled 'Den Hvide slavinde', the longest film produced in Denmark to that date. It was a huge money-maker. The rival Nordisk studio, based in Copenhagen, decided to cut themselves a slice of the Danish by producing a scene-for-scene copy with the same title: to minimise the chances of lawsuits, Nordisk released their film primarily in other Scandinavian markets outside of Denmark. Ironically, the Nordisk film -- a blatant rip-off -- has survived, whilst the original Fotorama version appears to be lost except for a few tantalising fragments. (No, you clevers in the back there; I don't have a print handy.) To complicate matters, the actors listed on IMDb's webpage are the (correct) cast of the missing Fotorama production, not the surviving Nordisk version.
This IMDb review addresses the Nordisk movie, and I've listed the actors who appear in that version. Surviving documents from the Aarhus studio indicate that Nordisk's production is a scene-for-scene copy of the Fotorama original, barring a few characters' names changed.
Anna (Ellen Diedrich), a beautiful girl from a poor background, is offered a well-paid position as a lady's companion in London. Handsome Georg (Lauritz Olsen) has been Anna's friend since childhood, and they are now informally betrothed. The sceptical Georg suspects that the job offer is too good to be true, but Anna dismisses his scepticism and she reports to the London address. The stately home in England turns out to be a whorehouse, run by madame Ella la Cour, corseted to a fare-thee-well: apparently there are no good-looking women in London, so they have to import them from Denmark. Anna manages to overpower her first client (Svend Bille) but is unable to escape. Here, the film cleverly manages to have it both ways: establishing Anna as fighting to protect her virginity whilst, at the same go, keeping her a prisoner in a brothel. Thus, the audience can delude themselves that Anna remains a virgin while she's captive in a whorehouse.
SPOILERS COMING. Remarkably and implausibly, the brothel's chambermaid (Doris Langkilde) is sympathetic to Anna's plight, and she smuggles out a message to Anna's parents (Otto Lagoni and Julie Henriksen). Georg travels to England and hires a detective (Victor Fabian). There's now an exciting sequence of escape and chase, as Anna climbs down from the brothel's upper storey into a waiting motorcar, and the villains then pursue the liberators. The baddies abduct Anna again (she must be one of their best girls, since they go to so much trouble to keep her!), and they take her to the quayside, intending to escape to yet another nation. But that pesky chambermaid has alerted Scotland Yard. There's a thrilling climactic shipboard struggle, and all ends happily.
Nordisk's 'Den Hvide slavinde' is so impressive (by 1910 standards) that it's a shame to realise that this entire production is a crib from the original version. A real highlight here is a triptych sequence: a three-way split-screen, featuring a 'phone conversation between two villains (at opposite sides of the screen) while the centre of the image depicts a bustling street. However, press reviews of the earlier Fotorama production make clear that this effect originated in that film: the same sequence in this Nordisk version, while breath-taking, is merely a copy.
I was so impressed by this film that I'm tempted to give it a high rating, but solid evidence indicates that it's entirely a knock-off of the earlier version. Split the difference, and I'll rate this Nordisk remake 7 out of 10.
