Amazon.com Essentials:
G.W. Pabst's 1928 silent masterpiece Pandora's Box
stars the luminous and highly photogenic Louise Brooks. She plays the
irresistible Lulu, a cabaret star who entices, captures, and
eventually destroys all men who cross her path. Her beauty and her
fetching charm draw an assortment of repressed and lonely people;
Schigolch, a boozy old man who pretends he's her father, Geschwitz, a
countess who has also fallen for Lulu, and Schoen, a rich tycoon who
carries on an affair with Lulu even though he's to be married. His
short solution is to put Lulu in his son Alwa's vaudeville show. As
Alwa, too, becomes trapped in Lulu's charms, Schoen's fiancée
catches Lulu and Schoen in a backstage embrace. Lulu quickly takes her
place as Schoen's bride, only to drive Schoen to suicide during their
wedding party. Put on trial for murder, Lulu almost gets out of it by
simply batting her eyes at the prosecutor. Still, she is found guilty,
and Alwa, who has grown increasingly obsessed, causes a distraction to
allow Lulu's escape from the courthouse. Alwa, Lulu, and Schoen become
desperate fugitives, eventually ending up in London where Lulu finally
meets her match: Jack the Ripper. Pandora's Box offers pure
cinematic delights--Pabst's luscious photography, the tense drama of
its story line, and most impressively and importantly, Louise Brooks,
who gives a performance that is certainly one of the best in the
history of cinema. --Shannon Gee
