THE FILMS OF POLA NEGRI

Pola Negri made 65 pictures over the course of her acting career, which stretched over fifty years, from 1914 to 1964. They divide conveniently into five periods, which are outlined as follows:

1. The Polish Period (1914-1917)
2. The German Silent Period (1917-1922)
3. The Paramount Period (1923-1928)
4. The International Period (1929-1938)
5. The Retirement Films (1943, 1964)

Pola in a publicity still for Sappho (1921).

We agree with Joan Crawford’s assertion in the book Conversations with Joan Crawford (1980) that the director and/or the lead actor are not the beginning and end of a film, but rather that a film is the collaborative effort of many talents both in front of and behind the camera.  This especially holds true in the "assembly line" days of Hollywood pictures, when the director was often little more than a stopwatch keeper and operative supervisor over the entire film-making process rather than the omnipotent overlord of the film that some would like to make him out to be.  Therefore we have included the names of the photographers, scenario writers and sources, music writers, etc. as they have been available for those who care to study the mechanics of Pola’s pictures to see what made them work (or not work).

This is without a doubt the most complete and accurate Pola Negri filmography on the web, but it is admittedly not as complete nor as accurate as we’d like it to be.  It will be updated and revised as we come across more and better information.  If you have anything to contribute (especially on the early Polish and German  films) or notice any errors, please email the webmaster and include your source information.

(Special thanks to Anita Nowacka, Astrid Pohl, Jack Gardner, James de Menna, Professor Steven P. Hill, and Andrzej Kawecki for providing the extra information.)