Appearances Are Deceptive (1914) A Silent Film Review

A night at the opera goes very wrong when a husband walks in on the maid trying on his wife’s clothes. The wife enters, sees the undressed maid, and immediately demands a divorce. The husband needs to do some fast thinking to save his marriage.

Home Media Availability: Stream for free courtesy of EYE.

Lingerie like a Cuirass

When we talk about German silent films, most people would immediately think of Expressionism, extremely stylized acting and cinematography, science fiction and mythical elements or Louise Brooks. Some might also think of Ernst Lubitsch, younger and bawdier in his German career, but he wasn’t the only purveyor of bedroom farces.

Appearances Are Deceptive was released just before the outbreak of the First World War and reflects the kind of farce that was internationally popular at the time. In fact, the often-warm operettas of Germany and Austria were wildly popular in Hollywood for years to come, often Americanized for a local audience, of course.

Speaking of localization, the copy of the film that I viewed had its titles translated into Dutch for release in the Netherlands and the names were switched a bit as well. This was very common and I will wager that the central couple were not “van” in the original German but, unfortunately, I could not find an original cast list, so I will stick with the Dutch (and possibly German) names for this review.

Kurt van Erlberg and his wife (never given a name, so I will call her Dear) are preparing for an evening at the opera when a stray cigarette ash sparks on his shirt front and burns it noticeably. Kurt seems to be wearing a detachable shirt front, so he offers to run inside to change while Dear waits in the car.

Meanwhile, Liesje, Dear’s maid, has arranged a date with her boyfriend while her employers are out and is in the middle of putting on her mistress’s clothes for the occasion. The scene of Kurt walking in on Liesje has been cut out, possibly be censors but more likely cannibalized for a stag reel. We only see the aftermath.

Kurt, who has already taken off his coat to change, demands to know what Liesje is doing undressed in his wife’s boudoir. Meanwhile, Dear wants to know what is taking so long and enters the room. Finding her husband and Liesje undressed, she immediately jumps to the obvious conclusion and demands a divorce.

Meanwhile, Paul, Liesje’s boyfriend, is waiting in his rented room. The postman arrives with a letter but Paul has no money, so he pays in cigars. He brandishes a pistol, which alarms the postman, but quickly reveals that it is a novelty cigar cutter and all is well. The letter is from Liesje, asking him to come over while her bosses are at the opera.

Paul steals into the house, finds Liesje crying and announces that he will kill Kurt for the offense, brandishing his cigar cutter. Kurt enters with a real pistol and Paul’s courage evaporates but Kurt has a plan. He will pay Paul a generous amount of money if he… undresses and hides in the wardrobe. (The actor playing Paul’s response to this is “Kinky but okay” and his entire performance is a delight.)

The plan, of course, is to wait for Dear to strip down to her battle armor-type lingerie and then have Paul jump out of the wardrobe in order to demonstrate that appearances can be deceptive and who are you going to believe? Your husband or your lying eyes?

All ends in hugs and reconciliation, of course, but I have to wonder if perhaps this film was made by a man who was caught in a compromising situation and hoped to convince his wife that it was all a terrible misunderstanding. I suspect that to be true.

I loved this little film. The actors play in the slightly heightened manner expected in a farce but they are also natural and are clearly having a good time with the material. As mentioned above, I particularly liked Paul and appreciated him as an early iteration of German cinema’s longstanding love of Weird Little Guys.

I would love to credit the actors but I can find little information about the cast or crew of the film. The Eiko company ads for the film also touted Amerika-Europa im Luftschiff, a zeppelin melodrama that I knew Universal had imported as The Sky Monster. (Carl Laemmle never lost his love for the old country.) I checked to see if Universal had taken Appearances Are Deceptive as well and they had, awkwardly retitling it Appearances Are Often Delusive.

The clunkiness of the title must have been immediately obvious as the British trade magazine, The Bioscope, shortened it to Appearances Are Delusive before finally settling on Appearances Are Deceptive, a much better title. The film was praised as a fresh and amusing comedy that did not rely on knockabout stunts and the actor playing Paul was particularly and rightly singled out for praise. I figure if you impress British critics with your sex farce, you’re doing something right. Alas, no names were provided and I suspect the answers I seek are only to be found in academic German resources.

Here is the entire Bioscope review. Most enjoyable.

“Here is a delightfully bright and novel little farce which is reminiscent in character of these vastly amusing; sketches with which the late Mark Melford used to delight music-hall audiences, but which is entirely original as far as its plot is concerned. It is rare indeed to find a comic film which depends upon something more than a knockabout chase for its humour, and one is, therefore, all the more ready to welcome the present picture, which is full of ingenious situations, cleverly contrived and effectively worked out. It is admirably acted in a brisk and breezy fashion by a small but select company, which includes a particularly funny ‘eccentric comedian,” and although it is essentially a farcical trifle, it is played for the most part in quite a “straight’’ manner. Immensely entertaining, with just a trace of what is known as “spiciness,” it should make a popular item in almost any programme. (Universal Film Company, Limited. Eiko film. Released May 25th. Length 1,000 ft.)“

(Melford was a legend of farce comedy, as well as a suffragette supporter and animal rights activist.)

So, there we have it. Appearances Are Deceptive is an amusing comedy with a game cast but it’s even more fun to imagine the potential real life circumstances that could have led to it being made. Please let me know if you have any insight on the cast and crew, I like them so much that I would be very happy to see more of their work.

Where can I see it?

Stream for free courtesy of EYE with Dutch intertitles.

☙❦❧

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