Arme Lena

"Arme Lena" (Poor Lena, 1918) is a light-weight German film that premiered on November 1. 1918, 10 days before the ending of World War I. It offers the audience sunshiny escapism, but also a moral. The film is by director Otto Rippert, who directed 64 films between 1913 and 1925, none of them well remembered.

The film has four acts, and is about a dancer Lena (Ressel Orla), who wins 10.000 in the lottery, and goes on holiday to a seaside resort. There she meets a painter (Kurt Ehrle), and they have a romance that advances very quickly. Unfortunately the man is only after Lena's money.

This film is very basic, and offers no surprises. We have all seen the same morality play done better by later film-makers, for instance William Wyler's classic "The Heiress" (1949). The two stars are nice looking people, but can't keep this film interesting for 45 minutes. The film's sunny reality really doesn't represent the Europe of 1918 at all, but possibly relays a message that there has been enough war, and it is time things returned peaceful.