It's technologically pretty clever for 1931. Near the opening, just when the new girl is being shown around the boarding school, there is a scene of the girls' chorus enthusiastically singing a patriotic song, and the camera dollies in through the mob to one particular face. As it does so, the sound of her voice becomes louder and distinguishable from the others, so we can hear that she's shouting a corruption of the lyrics -- something about needing to eat.
The careful meshing of images and sound wasn't standard for the time, except of course that Hitchcock had played around with it in early films like "Blackmail". But it's apparent that some effort was put into the direction. There's a nicely staged high angle shot of a five-story square staircase filled with chattering children moving upward as if on a frisky escalator.
The new girl is fourteen-year-old Manuela von Meinhardis, whose mother had died when she was young and father serves in the military. After the other students welcome her, they warn her about falling in love with one of the teachers, the compassionate but mercurial Fräulein von Bernburg. Manuela then is promptly groomed and fitted with an ugly uniform with precise and ergonomic Gründlichkeit.
This is some girls' school too. The rules are strict, somewhere between a convent and Marine Corps boot camp. You can't have money, candy or books of your own. You can't put a picture of a movie star on the inside of your locker door. Everything is presided over by a stern, homely Headmistress who reminds me of Miss Pavor DeGrone, my fifth grade arithmetic teacher. Try to imagine a scowling Erik von Stroheim in drag. "Through discipline and hunger we shall be great again." Now, this is 1931, so Hitler hadn't risen to the dazzling heights he would yet achieve, but it's also Prussia, home of the Junkers, land of the Spartans.
At bed time, von Bernburg comes around to the dormitory and kisses each girl delicately on the head. The girls, hungry for affection as well as chocolate, await their turns ecstatically. But when it's Manuela's turn she throws herself into the teacher's arms and they kiss on the lips, which introduces a note into the relationship that's only been hinted at before, although the note is minor. In a later scene, von Bernburg gives Manuela a new petticoat and the impression is conveyed that the teacher is especially fond of Manuela but that Manuela's affection goes rather deeper than that. Well, after all, Manuela is at an age where, as the headmistress puts it, "their emotions are aroused." Any doubt about Manuela's physical development is put to rest in a scene in which she wears tights as part of a costume for Schiller's play, "Don Carlos." She's pretty nicely filled out, even if she's illegal. Schiller wrote the play around 1785. I had to read his work in a German class and he's pretty good, even amusing at times. It's Schiller's words that are sung by the chorus in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, some of the noblest music extant.
During a post-play celebration, an alcoholic punch is passed around and Manuela, happy beyond imagining because she was successful as the principal player and because she believes von Bernburg loves her, gets drunk and shouts out some opinions that find their way to the ears of Miss DeGrone, I mean the headmistress. Manuela and von Bernburg are forbidden to speak to one another again and Manuela's classmates are ordered to shun her. This leaves Manuela pretty down in the dumps. I'll leave it at that.
I suppose it was surprising in 1931 to find a film dealing with what everyone since appears to have called "lesbianism," but it's really a story about the need to leaven discipline with understanding and mercy. Anyway, it's not really surprising that the teen-aged girls should develop crushes on an authority figure or on each other, even if it leads to some sexual experimentation.
This is the kind of school that sociologists call a total institution in which everything is controlled and people of the same sex are forced to spend time together. If this is as bad as it gets in a Prussian girls boarding school, any state prison in American has it beat by a mile.
The careful meshing of images and sound wasn't standard for the time, except of course that Hitchcock had played around with it in early films like "Blackmail". But it's apparent that some effort was put into the direction. There's a nicely staged high angle shot of a five-story square staircase filled with chattering children moving upward as if on a frisky escalator.
The new girl is fourteen-year-old Manuela von Meinhardis, whose mother had died when she was young and father serves in the military. After the other students welcome her, they warn her about falling in love with one of the teachers, the compassionate but mercurial Fräulein von Bernburg. Manuela then is promptly groomed and fitted with an ugly uniform with precise and ergonomic Gründlichkeit.
This is some girls' school too. The rules are strict, somewhere between a convent and Marine Corps boot camp. You can't have money, candy or books of your own. You can't put a picture of a movie star on the inside of your locker door. Everything is presided over by a stern, homely Headmistress who reminds me of Miss Pavor DeGrone, my fifth grade arithmetic teacher. Try to imagine a scowling Erik von Stroheim in drag. "Through discipline and hunger we shall be great again." Now, this is 1931, so Hitler hadn't risen to the dazzling heights he would yet achieve, but it's also Prussia, home of the Junkers, land of the Spartans.
At bed time, von Bernburg comes around to the dormitory and kisses each girl delicately on the head. The girls, hungry for affection as well as chocolate, await their turns ecstatically. But when it's Manuela's turn she throws herself into the teacher's arms and they kiss on the lips, which introduces a note into the relationship that's only been hinted at before, although the note is minor. In a later scene, von Bernburg gives Manuela a new petticoat and the impression is conveyed that the teacher is especially fond of Manuela but that Manuela's affection goes rather deeper than that. Well, after all, Manuela is at an age where, as the headmistress puts it, "their emotions are aroused." Any doubt about Manuela's physical development is put to rest in a scene in which she wears tights as part of a costume for Schiller's play, "Don Carlos." She's pretty nicely filled out, even if she's illegal. Schiller wrote the play around 1785. I had to read his work in a German class and he's pretty good, even amusing at times. It's Schiller's words that are sung by the chorus in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, some of the noblest music extant.
During a post-play celebration, an alcoholic punch is passed around and Manuela, happy beyond imagining because she was successful as the principal player and because she believes von Bernburg loves her, gets drunk and shouts out some opinions that find their way to the ears of Miss DeGrone, I mean the headmistress. Manuela and von Bernburg are forbidden to speak to one another again and Manuela's classmates are ordered to shun her. This leaves Manuela pretty down in the dumps. I'll leave it at that.
I suppose it was surprising in 1931 to find a film dealing with what everyone since appears to have called "lesbianism," but it's really a story about the need to leaven discipline with understanding and mercy. Anyway, it's not really surprising that the teen-aged girls should develop crushes on an authority figure or on each other, even if it leads to some sexual experimentation.
This is the kind of school that sociologists call a total institution in which everything is controlled and people of the same sex are forced to spend time together. If this is as bad as it gets in a Prussian girls boarding school, any state prison in American has it beat by a mile.