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Libertine's animated avatar of actor Francis Lederer reminded me that several of our members admire the work of this Czech-born actor, beginning with one of his first notable appearances on film as one of the many men ruined by Louise Brooks in Pandora's Box (1929-G.W. Pabst) as Franz Lederer. Do you have a favorite Francis Lederer film?
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Franz Lederer in Pandora's Box (1929).
My current fave would be his portrayal of an Icelandic native in Man of Two Worlds (1934), one of his first American movies, though Romance in Manhattan (1935) with Ginger Rogers was also quite charming, as is his roguish gigolo in Midnight (1939)--though his best American movies may be two that dealt with the rise of Nazism.
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Lederer in Man of Two Worlds (1934). Okay, it's not the ideal Francis Lederer film, but he gave it all he had.
The first is the well-made docu-drama Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939), in which Lederer portrays a man whose intense desire to be perceived as powerful exceeds his intelligence. The other film that is seemingly now forgotten, but allows the actor to display charm as well as menace was The Man I Married (1940), about an American woman (Joan Bennett) whose union with her German-born husband (Lederer) unravels after returning to the Fatherland with him.
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Lederer with Joan Bennett and Lloyd Nolan in The Man I Married (1940).
I would love to see more of his German language films. Here's a clip from Wunderbare Lüge der Nine Petrowna (1929-Hanns Schwarz) with Lederer and Brigitte Helm in a film that is mentioned as a masterpiece of German Expressionism. Has anyone seen this?
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