T.O.Samurai.... thanks!

[David Blair]

thank you to everyone for such a fruitful response to my query!!

Janine, it is clear that your book would be extremely interesting and a
great read to boot, but unfortunately German is rather mysterious to me, so
I have taken your suggestion and sent off for "In Praise of Film Studies" ,
which in my usual insularity I did not realize was actually "In Praise of
Film Studies: Essays in Honor of Makino Mamoru" . 

My guess is that the cutter you mention is in fact Makino's famous friend.
? She told me that "Samurai" was the last picture she worked on before
going -home- to Manchuria to work for Manei with her brother.... who had
learned the camera trade in Los Angeles when the father ran a bus service
there, must have been the mid to late 20's... which story added to the
shock of seeing Sessue Hayakawa starring.

Can I ask... is Ruth Eweler's character some sort of
fiction-is-stranger-than-truth version of Lene Reifenstahl? 

Roland, thanks for bringing up Kawakita. I had forgotten that following his
trail brought me to this film. It is enlightening to hear that that he
agreed with Fanck.... there's many things to the official history don't fit
tight. Incidentally, I think that the name of the director was Gertrude
Wolfson [I am separated from my notes at the moment]. She worked at UFA as
an assistant director, and had a letter of introduction, apparently from a
family friend [meaning her family worked at UFA as well?] which she
presented to Kawakita when she arrived, which must have been rather late,
since she was shut down in early 42. She moved to LA or SF after the war. I
heard a different name to the movie, but since it wasn't finished, who
knows what it was called.

Anyway, maybe she met Amakasu during his famous Babelsberg visit, and he
wrote the letter. 

Bad joke. 

Finally, Yow, Wow, thank you Michael for the amazon.jp url.... I would not
have been able to find it otherwise!  

best,
David






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-------------------------------------------------------
David Blair