Four Around the Woman (1921) User Reviews

One Of the Most Outstanding Titles Of Lang's First Period.

[FerdinandVonGalitzien · 7/10 · 29 October 2006]

The merchant Yquem buys his dear wife a beautiful jewel with matching earnings in a place where the city's underworld trades in fake and stolen jewelry. By chance, Yquem spots a man with whom his wife had an affair in the past. Yquem follows him to a hotel where he will write him a letter imitating his wife's hand writing. The letter invites the man to a public place where Yquem can spy on them and try to discover whether there is still something between them.

This early Fritz Lang film, "Vier Um Die Frau" (Four Around a Woman) was found by chance some years ago at the "Cinemateca De Sâo Paulo", a great present for the German aristocracy and even for the longhaired moviegoers, because it prefigures much of "Dr. Mabuse", (corruption in the upper class-a very habitual practice-unscrupulous upstarts, blackmail, low class criminals, social tension.) and in the opinion of this German aristocrat, provides one of the most outstanding titles of Lang's first period. This film has excellent editing that gives vigour, speed and emotion to a story of an underworld rife with treachery and betrayal as well as a complex tale of unrequited love. The film builds to a crescendo of narrative strength that reminds one of episodes of "Die Spinnen" made by Herr Lang a year before.

The acting is exceptional and the performers resist the temptation to overacting that might be expected in such melodrama. As the heroine, Carola Toelle is especially good and admirably conveys the doubts, secret desires and frustration that her character suffers. An excellent counterpoint is provided the character of her friend and confidant, a perfect vamp, who provides bad advice and is without scruples, quick to use flirting to build up her social position... Rudolf Klein-Rogge has to be mentioned, as his performance makes one recall the exceptional character Dr Mabuse, that he will immortalise two years later. The excellent main actors are given equally good support in the minor roles.

It is worth mentioning as well the great photography of Otto Kanturek and the film production by Ernst Meiwers and Hans Jacoby. The importance of "Decla-Bioscop"'can be seen in the first rate production values that are so abundant in the film (great manors, hotel lobbies, the stock exchange, etc) and on the other hand the realistic depiction of less auspicious surroundings: ragged and wretched slums streets filled with the kind of characters you might expect in such places. A minor point but also a real curiosity is the inclusion of a poster for another "Decla Bioscop" production that can be glimpsed in a theater lobby.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count is realizing how in tonight's soirée's there are four aristocrats around a fat German heiress with almost the same perverse intentions of those of this Herr Graf towards her.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com/

Upper class and underworld meet confusion ...

[john-2448 · 5/10 · 14 June 2015]

As noted in the specs, the restored version of this film is 84 min long. I had trouble keeping track of the characters. It didn't help that in the very beginning one character we are introduced to almost immediately puts on a disguise, while another arrives just off a boat and once he shaves his beard looks identical to his brother (played by the same actor). And somehow I didn't catch on that the diamond exchange takes place in the backroom of a seedy bar, so I didn't realize the character called Old Upton (The Jeweler) was the rough-hewn bar owner (Rudolf Klein-Rogge). At least everyone buying and selling jewelry has a beer in front of them. Finally I realized it was a "diamond exchange" -- meaning everyone is fencing stolen or fake merchandise.

Later to add more confusion there is a character the sometimes-disguised husband confesses something to who immediately heads off to blackmail the guy's wife and try to lech on her. Once I figured out who everyone was and what was going on, it wasn't terribly interesting. The twin brother mistaken identity plot is largely just a misdirection to keep things moving and pad out the story. I guess the bad guy gets punished, but getting shot for some mild attempted blackmail seems rather harsh. And it only concerns reputation since the husband knows already, and it seems like it was going to fail since the wife tells the blackmailer to get lost.

It's also a little unclear why a successful broker goes to a seedy underworld bar to buy jewelry for his wife. Or why he's so obsessed with an incident that happened years before.

The seedy/underworld characters are interesting -- a Lang specialty. And there were some rather 1920's touches -- wild hats for the ladies, a big worry about reputation and keeping up appearances (something which has completely gone out the window this millennium after being whittled down for decades), plus casual child labor, and the only black character used as comic relief, making wide rolling eyes and such.

It seems rather minor Lang, but the idea of false appearances, corrupt upper class, a seedy underworld which beckons if you know where to look for it, are themes typical of early Lang films.

Functional

[davidmvining · 5/10 · 12 August 2022]

Another movie with male twins fighting over a woman with a heavy use of flashbacks. It's kind of like an improved version of The Wandering Shadow. This is the first of Lang's films in this early period where I feel like his skills have actually improved from one film to the next. The filmmaking is actually quite competent and put-together, but, unfortunately, it's in service of a story that is surprisingly uncompelling. Pulling the focus away from the situation of the previous film and investing more time in character, the film is helped heavily by this emphasis on people and their motives. However, it's still rather overstuffed and omnidirectional with a curious ending.

Harry Yquem (Ludwig Hartau) goes to an underground diamond exchange to find a present for his wife Florence (Carola Toelle) (why he goes here instead of a legitimate diamond exchange is never explained). There he sees a familiar face in another man there who is asking for the creation of a fraudulent ring. That man is William Krafft (Anton Edthofer), a well-to-do playboy who has a twin brother Werner (also Edthofer) who fled the country some years before and has just returned, broke, and looking for help, unbeknownst to William. There are a lot of near-meetings in this melodrama. The fact that both William and Werner both go to the underground diamond exchange the same night but end up missing each other is both coincidental and convenient.

Harry, though, has his eyes set on William, thinking him Werner, because on his engagement night to Florence, Werner showed up at the house where the engagement party was being held Werner showed up, went up to Florence's room with her, locked the door, and, by the time Harry and Florence's father had broken down the door, Werner had tied up Florence and escaped through the window. There's been a shadow of doubt and jealousy over Harry's head regarding his wife's fidelity ever since, though they've been happily married and he goes into underground diamond exchanges to buy her stolen jewels.

When Harry spends the night away from home, Harry's friend Meunier (Robert Forster-Larrinaga) (the fourth of the eponymous four), uses the opportunity to try and get Florence to agree to an affair with him, which she promptly refuses, much to the confusion of her friend Margot (Lisa von Marton), who happily goes out with other men when her husband is busy. In fact, that very night, she has a date with William. Harry, though, is still on William's trail, still thinking him Werner, and forges a letter from Florence to him, asking for him to arrive that very night for a rendez-vous.

The finale sees everyone coalescing at Harry's house with their different motives. Someone is killed. There are protestations of love in a few different directions. William stands apart from it rather ironically after a while. It even includes the diamond dealer breaking in because Harry had given them counterfeit marks. All the while, Werner is desperate to get back to her love who professes her love for...her husband and then the movie is over. Quite literally, it's just suddenly over.

I think the pieces are here for a solid melodrama. The character work is surprisingly strong, especially around Florence (her last minute profession of love for Harry makes sense, it's just structurally weird and counter to some other character journeys), but everything seems to be at odds. Harry's use of counterfeit money to buy a stolen jewel for his wife combined with William's effort to have a ring counterfeited as well seems like they should connect them somehow, but they don't. Werner is off on his own for a while, getting a sympathetic loan that gets robbed from him minutes later, all while he's pining for Florence, and he ends up with nothing in the end. Meunier is a skeevy weirdo that gets what's due to him. William is just out for a good time with some ladies and seems to learn nothing. It feels like at least two different movies' worth of material, clashing horribly against each other.

It feels like a first draft of a script that needed real ironing out. There's no central idea that the characters revolve around, informed it in different ways with their own actions and motives. Instead, it still feels like a series of events just placed next to each other. However, the character work around these people elevates what would have been lesser material into something decidedly okay. It's not worthless, but it's much less than it could have been.

A Few Nice Touches in Early Lang Film

[Michael_Elliott · 29 November 2010]

Four Around a Woman (Vier um die Frau) (1921)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This German film from director Fritz Lang was lost for many decades before a print finally showed up in Brazil. Running a very short 55-minutes, the film tells the story of a woman (Carola Toelle) who was found by her husband tied up on their wedding night. It looked like a thief did it but years later a blackmailer comes forward with the truth so the husband plants a trap to try and find out if his wife has been seeing another man. This early Lang film has a lot of the director's touches but in the end it's just way too confusing and rather bloating to be very entertaining. I think those interested in Lang's career might want to check it out for curiosity sake but all others would probably be best to avoid it. The film opens up with a magnificent shot of a camera zooming in and then doing a circle around a table that really sets up the action that is about to follow. The beautiful shot certain contains that German Expressionism that is so loved in this era. Lang also does a very good job building up the dark, dirty streets where a lot of the crime takes place. As you'd expect, Lang uses dark alleys, dark corners and various shots of shadows to build up this atmosphere and the cinematography perfectly captures all of this. Toelle is very good in the role of the wife as she has no problem giving various emotions and getting them to come across on screen. Fans of Lang will also notice actor Rudolf Klein-Rogge in a small bit here. One could also make the case that his character here might have been an influence on the Mabuse character that he would play for Lang the next year. The rest of the supporting performances are pretty good if no one else really stands out. I think the biggest problem is that there's very little story actually going on and it gets expanded to the point where you feel as if you're just going in circles. At times it's rather confusing to know what's going on but I'm not sure if part of this film is still lost or not. Considering how long most of Lang's films were around this time I have a somewhat hard time believing that 55-minutes is all there is. With that said, it's better to have this print than nothing at all but I think most non-Lang fans will be hitting the stop button long before the finale.

Forgettable early effort from Lang

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 21 December 2016]

"Vier um die Frau" (and there are more than just a few other German- and English-language titles for this one) is a German film from 1921, so 5 more years until it will have its 100th anniversary. This is a relatively early career effort by director Fritz Lang, who was around the age of 30 here, and as usual he also worked on the screenplay. He got help from his longtime collaborator Thea von Harbou in adapting Rolf E. Vanloo's original material. Looking at the age (and at who made it), nobody should be really surprised that this is a black-and-white silent film. There exist apparently several versions as the runtimes here on IMDb are stated as 52 minutes and 84 minutes and the version I saw went on for roughly 80 minutes. The cast includes actors who appeared in other silent films back then, but mostly they aren't that known today and maybe only big silent film buffs will recognize the names. The one exception is probably Rudolf Klein-Rogge who is still considered one of the stars of European silent film from back then.

It is a drama we have here, as mostly with Lang, and there are several subjects dealt with in here. One would be (alleged) infidelity, another would be mental (in)sanity and death always plays a role in Lang's works as well. I personally cannot say that I enjoyed the watch too much or that I would see it as one of my favorite films from the legendary director. But yeah, to his defense you have to say that I have seen many films from him and also that I am not the greatest black-and-white silent film lover probably. There was an okay moment here and there, but overall I found none of the characters or the story interesting enough to recommend checking it out. Anyway, it was pretty difficult to find a version with German subtitles, which is fairly uncommon as most other Lang movies are much easier to find access to. But it's fine as you will not be missing much if you don't see it. I suggest you pick another film if you plan on taking a look at Lang's and von Harbou's body of work.