Sumurun (1920)

In an exotic Arabian city, a romantic roundelay plays out: an old hag (Margarete Kupfer) loves a hunchback (Ernst Lubitsch) who loves a dancer (Pola Negri) who is loved by an old sheik (Paul Wegener) but she loves his son (Carl Clewing) who use to love the old sheik's wife (Jenny Hasselqvist) who loves a cloth merchant (Harry Liedtke). Got it? Ernst Lubitsch's colorful fantasy is based on a pantomime by Friedrich Freksa. What's curious is that for the majority of its running time it plays as a comedy with broad slapstick and farcical situations but suddenly in the film's last few minutes it turns into a tragedy with three murders and an unrequited love. The shift in tone is disconcerting. The film is overly long and could have been shorn by a good fifteen minutes. Despite the film's title, which is the name of Jenny Hasselqvist's character, the film belongs to Pola Negri who is pert and lively and so appealing that one can easily overlook the fact that for someone playing a dancer, she's an awfully clunky dancer!