Laugh in paradise… Siren of the Tropics (1927), Günter A. Buchwald and Frank Bockius, Slapstick Festival 2021

Over ten years into my silent film hobby and this is the first full-length feature film I've seen with the legendary Josephine Baker. Rather remiss you may say but she has been on my list and this, appropriately enough, was her first feature film and, indeed, one of the very first films to feature a black actor as one of the leads this side of Oscar Micheaux, Richard E. Norman, Frank Peregini and other black filmmakers in the US. Hollywood was certainly not ready to go as far as French directors Mario Nalpas and Henri Étiévant do in La sirène des tropiques and other ethnicities often paid the price for involvement in the Caucasian world.

 

Their film does not necessarily follow the cliqued tramlines of other multi-ethnic stories but Miss Baker is treated as more overtly sexual than most white actors at this time – she’s topless twice -  and is portrayed as both innocent and with a childlike wildness; she attracts (white) male lust as well as love and protectiveness, revels in powerfully expressive jazz dancing – seriously, that *core* and the way she co-ordinates massive extensions without any apparent strain -  and yet remains in awe of western spirituality. So many questions… but, so used are we to seeing black actors now, that it’s a shock to see someone as naturalistic as her placed, largely, at the centre of a story in which race is not really mentioned.

Jospehine Baker

Slapstick 2020 was the last film festival I was able to physically attend and this year it has leapt online with some alacrity with a week’s worth of films, presentations and panel discussions all with newly commissioned musical accompaniment. This film was introduced by Akulah Agbami, Director of Sheba Soul Ensemble and BLACK Artists on the Move who explained Baker’s popularity in Europe, the film ran for many months in Paris where she was already famous and was premiered in Stockholm were her “exotic” charm was regarded as very fashionable. The film is probably the first to feature a black actress in a leading role amongst a white cast.

 

Live musical accompaniment was provided by Guenter A. Buchwald on piano and Frank Bockius on percussion, who, in addition to deploying an almost telepathic musical synchronicity, smartly avoided the cliches of cultural referencing. This being one of the great jazz babies, they gave us a rip-roaring, hi-tempo jazzed score that not only kept pace but lifted the film to the vibrational level of its all-powered star. When Baker eventually struts her considerable stuff towards the end of the film you felt that this is the moment the players had been pacing themselves for.

 

This was the musical equivalent of announcing, Ladies and Gentlemen, Miss Josephine Baker… and it was as spine tingling a combination of artists across 94 years as you’d find!

Pierre Batcheff and Regina Thomas

Now there was also a film narrative involved and what a curious thing it was too… All starts in Paris where the rich and ruthless Comte Severo (Georges Melchior) does not take kindly to his goddaughter Denise (Regina Thomas) falling in love with the lowly but pretty, André Berval (Pierre Batcheff). The Count has already told his wife, the long-suffering Marquise Severo (Régina Dalthy) that he wants a divorce for, and I hope you’re sitting down, he wants to marry his goddaughter!

 

Severo talks him round and he seems to accept the match by offering to set up André to manage one of his new mines in the West Indies; he demands a “brilliant situation” for Denise’s husband and tells him to go off and succeed”. How-ever… this is all a ploy to dispose of engineering André and he writes to his man in the Caribbean saying that it would “suit” him very well if Monsieur Berval never returned to France.

 

This absolute rotter’s right-hand rascal is régisseur Alvarez (Kiranine who is wonderfully menacing), who has the good looks of a crumbling cliff face and the charm of stale Roquefort. He will follow his orders to the letter just when he’s finished trying to sexually harass Papitou (Baker) the free spirit who dwells in the colony of Monte Puebla. Papitou climbs up a wardrobe to avoid his clutches and there’s a hand-held camera showing his and her views; the menace is real enough. She calls on her dog to help her jump to freedom and they cower behind a log as Alvarez shoots at them, surely premature assassination?

Georges Melchior and Kiranine - a right couple of wrong 'uns

André intervenes when he finds Alvarez trying to abuse Papitou and she is not only grateful but very much in love… so, when Alvarez tricks the young Frenchman into following him on a trip to the wilds, Papitou follows knowing it’s a trap. Sure enough André is knocked out and left for dead only for his new friend to come to his rescue. Bravely, he sets off after Alvarez and his men who plan to steal more gold and, again with Papitou’s help, stops them.

 

The film decides we’ve spent enough time in “Monte Puebla” as a disaffected Denise – appalled at her godfather’s intentions towards her, heads out to find her true love with Marquise Severo in tow. All are reunited and Papitou learns the disappointing truth that Andre’s eyes are only for his intended. Yet, the French set off back to Paris on a passenger ship, Papitou swims out to stow away and the film enters a more comedic phase in which Baker shows her gift for physical comedy and expression. She ends up in “white face” after being powdered with flour and in the nude, washing it all off in the bath and, again, whilst her race is not specifically part of the plot it is intrinsic to the viewer’s experience. We fill in the gaps, but Josephine just beams and carries on regardless.

 

Papitou learns Christian scripture...

Things will come to a head in Paris of course, but the abiding enjoyment of the film is in Baker’s incredible energy – something she had in common with the best silent stars – as well as her post-modern charm. She’s smiling at us and not just on behalf of her character and she’s making the most of her chances… and when she dances, the room is lit up once again.

 

The Slapstick Festival continues until Sunday 7^th March and you can still catch up on Miss Baker, Clara Bow – the glorious It and rarely screened Kid Boots – Max Linder’s hilarious The Three Must-Get-There’s and much more beside.

 

Full details on the Slapstick website HERE!!