Come to the cabaret… Moulin Rouge (1928), with Meg Morley, Kennington Bioscope

Well now… this was a slow-cooked pot-boiler with two hours and ten minutes of gently simmered passion play, expertly filmed and performed, especially by the extraordinary Olga Tschechowa, and all filled out by Meg Morley’s improvisations in heart-rending minor keys. The challenge was not so much the sheer amount of ground to cover musically but the pace at which things happened and Meg took it all in her stride from massed showgirls on stage to life or death car chases and hearts breaking in slow-motion – almost eternal triangles. It was a perfectly pitched performance and the extended applause from a packed Bioscope was as much for Meg as the film; a cracking end of year show.

Michelle Facey introduced us to the main players behind the scene with her trademark thoroughness and penchant for juicy titbits; I knew that Olga Tschechowa had known Adolf Hitler but what I didn’t know was that she was a Russian spy tasked with his murder. Based on her display in this film, she looks more than capable with a fearless performance both as a dancer on stage and also in terms of her ferocity. She commits to every dark turn and not in a melodramatic way but with convincing passion.

Olga Tschechowa

Ewald André Dupont – director of The Ancient Law (1923) and Variety (1925) - wrote, produced and directed with his debut film in Britain and brought his ability to capture performance especially in the long opening section showing acts at Paris' grand Casino de Paris standing in for the Moulin Rouge – it’s a full 27 minutes before we really get to the characters interacting.  The film's detailed scenes was shot in Elstree but there are plenty of exterior night shots showing the illuminated locations in Paris and the interiors shots show thoroughbred comtemporary performers in the Casino. 

Dupont sets the scene so well with so many mini dramas, a man trying to decide between two prostitutes, another selling dirty postcards, the audience watching the show and each other and the spectacular acts on stage. If nothing else, Mouline Rouge is a superb snapshot of French musical hall entertainment featuring so many acts - dancers, actors, singers and snake charmers who otherwise would only be found on palybills and mentioned in reviews.

Un-named cabaret contortionist

Tschechowa stars as Parysia the main attraction at the Moulin’s cabaret and one can easily see why in her eye-popping costume and with her natural poise on stage during so many West End professionals. She has a daughter, Margaret, played by Eve Gray who had a short role as a murderee in The Lodger and she’s not the only one from that film as an uncredited Marie Ault turns up late in the film as a backstage helper trying to restrain an hysterical Parysia.

Margaret has been away at expensive finishing school and turns up to see her mother perform after four years away. With her is Andre (Frenchman, Jean Bradin, who was in Prix de Beauty with Louise Brooks) the son of a wealthy father (Georges Tréville) who, naturally does not approve of the relationship given her mother’s career.

Watching Mother on stage: Jean Bradin and Eve Gray

Andre is immediately star-struck and buys a programme featuring lots of pics of his girlfriend’s Mum, for a man about to marry his love he does seem easily distracted by Parysia’s more overt sexual presence but he falls hard and the complications begin.

As Michelle pointed out, Gray was only three years younger than Tschechowa, but the two make the relationship believable even though Olga was only 31, she carries it off and there’s one memorable scene in which, face covered with cream she stares horrified at her aging face in the mirror… that’s acting my dears! Dupont juxtaposes this with Andre lying in bed and reading the programme he bought, lusting after her provocative photographs just as she doubts her aging appeal and giving, quite possibly, a whole new meaning to the phrase jazz-age mags.

What the face cream won't hide and Andre's magazine heaven

Wanting a better path through life for her daughter, Parysia goes to visit Andre’s grumpy old Dad in the hope of persuading him to sanction the marriage. She succeeds after he sees she has left behind a possibly incriminating handkerchief – I probably missed the significance – and he writes confirming his decision just as Parysia’s about to lie about it.

But it’s then that she is shown Andre’s true feelings as he bows down kissing her hand and offers to marry her instead. Parysia parries his proposal and tries to get the marriage arranged as soon as possible in order to make Andre focus on  her daughter but he’s not one to be easily swayed and potential disaster awaits as he looks at ill-advised and dangerous ways of maintaining honour… the kid needs a good talking to, and just perhaps, his first exposure to more overt sexual expression has confused his uptight bourgeois libido?

Andre reveals his true feelings...

The story is very slight for a two-hour film but it works through the strength of the main players and because of the cinematography of Werner Brandes who captures some fantastic images throughout from smoky music halls, to extreme close-ups. Brandes is adept at catching faces and the captured reactions of the extras in the theatre would be hard to edit away as they really show the most important part of cabaret culture. Apparently, Ray Milland is one of the audience members although I didn’t spot him.

There’s also superb art direction from Alfred Junge who would end up working with Powell and Pressburger on I Know Where I’m Going, A Matter of Life and Death and Black Narcissus.

It was a smashing end to the year for the Bioscope and another film that shows the strength of British silent film, especially when it collaborated with European talent. It was enlivened by Meg Morley's superb musicianship; she has a real feel for jazz-age narratives and played tirelessly for this Moulin Marathon! 

Cheats! There's 38 of you and Meg did it all on her own!

Moulin Rouge is available on Network Blu-ray and DVD, complete with John Reynders score which I believe was written for a shorter version? It runs the full 127 minutes and so 120 edits were made gto make the music fit. Either way it’s a visual feast and well-worth asking Santa to add to your stocking this Christmas.

And now for a visual postscript for your delectation...

One audience member goes from stalls (4th from left) to stage... the performers obviously keen to be extras too!

An artist is inspired... any resemblance to Lautrec is intentional

Andre daydreams of kissing the other woman...

See! It's Marie Ault!