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 Sumurun / One Arabian Night (1921)
Cast / Credits / Reviews (From the Turner Classic Movies Database)
One Arabian Night is director Ernst Lubitsch's brilliant German drama Sumurun.
In
what turned out to be his last on-camera appearance (he was
a former slapstick
comedian), Lubitsch stars as Yeggar, a hunchbacked clown who works with a travelling
carnival. Arab sheik Paul Wegener demands that
the troupe's dancing girl Pola Negri
be
sequestered in his harem. Yeggar faithfully follows along, and is a horrified witness as
Wegener kills Negri for presumed unfaithfulness. The wizened clown vows revenge on the
wicked
Sheik. Inspired by the popular stage pantomime "The Arabian Nights",
Sumurun is
the film that encouraged Hollywood to invite Lubitsch into its fold-whereupon
the director abandoned melodrama for good and all and concentrated instead on elegant sex
comedies.
-- Hal Erickson
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