Music Scores

[OKAY, I'M A KNUCKLEHEAD. AFTER SUBMITTING THE BELOW MESSAGE, I DISCOVERED SOME NOTES I MADE AEONS AGO, NOTES I HADN'T EVEN REMEMBERED MAKING. SO I MADE SOME CORRECTIONS.]

The piano score you praise was by Stuart Oderman, composed, recorded, and copyrighted in 1983 for the Janus reissue of that year. That was the score used on the 1986 VHS from Embassy Home Entertainment. However highly you may regard that score, it has one insurmountable obstacle: It accompanied the film as projected at 24 frames per second (90 feet per minute), which gives a running time of about 1 hour 50 minutes. Later video issues of PANDORA'S BOX were all transferred at 20 frames per second (75 feet per minute), which gives a running time of about 2 hours 12 minutes.

By the way, the 16mm Janus print that I saw in 1985 had a piano score by Karl Salke. I don't know when Salke's score was recorded or released, though it certainly pre-dated Oderman's score. The Janus catalogue from 1975 mentioned that PANDORA'S BOX had a running time of 110 minutes (at 24fps) and that it had a recorded music score. Perhaps that score was by Salke? Incidentally, the score appeared only on the 16mm prints; the 35mm prints have always been full-frame silent. If memory serves, Janus once offered a cassette tape of Salke's score to those cinemas desperate/foolhardy enough to think that it would hold synch with the film. I can no longer remember Salke's score, and would love to hear it again.

Some years ago the Zurich-based Stella Video created a VHS edition (which seems never to have been released except as a screener) of the 1997 restoration by the Moscow State Archive, and the accompanying orchestral score was a modernistic creation of Peer Ruben. This transfer and score were later issued on DVD by Umbrella in Australia, and, I think, by Second Sight Films in the UK. The Moscow restoration curiously divides the film into eight acts. There is no indication of such a device in the published script, and it is highly unlikely that the film was originally released with Act numbers. It was surely issued, though, with Part Titles, indicating the beginnings and endings of reels, which don't and can't correspond to any natural divisions of the narrative. (Yes, Part Titles were usually shown on screen, despite what the modern authorities say.)

The Italian restoration (35mm full-frame silent, without, of course, a canned music score), which toured about two or three years ago, seems identical in every way to the Moscow restoration, except that the titles were all put into Italian (some of which seemed to have been mistranslated from the German), and that there were no Act numbers. (Should we ask the logical question about why a restoration should be performed if it is not in any essential way different from a previous restoration? I leave that up to you.) When I saw it, the projectionist set the speed at 21 frames per second (78.75 feet per minute), and that, I think, is just about right, though Kevin Brownlow argues for 22 frames per second (82.5 feet per minute). Official (though certainly not actual) projection speed in those days was 80 feet per minute.

The four scores that accompany the 20fps, 132-minute transfer of PANDORA'S BOX for the new Criterion release are:
(1) An orchestral score by Gillian Anderson. She noticed that contemporary reviews of the film mentioned that the music score derived from classical as well as pop pieces, and Anderson imitated this combination as best as her imagination would allow.
(2) A score consisting of cabaret music, composed by Dimitar Pentchev.
(3) The aforementioned modernistic orchestral score by Peer Raben.
(4) A piano improvisation by Stéphan Oliva.

By far the best score I have ever heard for PANDORA'S BOX was a piano improvisation by William P Perry, which was recorded for a PBS transmission on Christmas Eve 1977. (The best and only time to watch PANDORA'S BOX is on Christmas Eve, with all the lights out and the phone shut off.) Perry's is perhaps the most seductive and haunting music I have ever heard accompany any film, sound or silent. As far as I am concerned, this is the only score that should be used for PANDORA'S BOX. Amazingly, and unusually for the time, PBS ran the film at 20 frames per second, and so Perry's score would almost exactly fit the current video releases. Sadly, this PBS version was broadcast only once. By the time I located the master 2" quad tapes at the Great Amwell Corporation in New York City, almost eight years later, they had already begun to disintegrate. Nonetheless, the folks at Great Amwell graciously agreed to run off a VHS for me, which is one of my prized possessions. The print used for that video transfer was Jim Card's 1973 restoration, which had some missing titles, newly invented titles to cover the missing titles, the final shot of Lulu swinging on Alwa's clothes rod missing, and much flopped footage in the last reel (lefts and rights reversed).

Janus's subsequent reissue, with the Karl Salke score, was essentially the same as Card's restoration, except that it restored the missing shot of the swinging in the closet. The wording in the titles was seldom corrected. By the time of the 1983 release with Stuart Oderman's score, the titles were reset in a somewhat more authentic-looking type font, and Dr Peter Schoen's name was mysteriously changed to Dr Ludwig Schoen. The published script gives the name as Peter.

As the anonymous sex murderer wanders through the London streets, he runs across a public bulletin board announcing: "ACHTUNG! An die Frauens Londons...." That was for the German version. The bulletin board was also printed in English, and it was the English-language poster that was used in the international prints. You can see a publicity still of the English version in the published script (Lorimar, 1971, rev ed 1984, p 117). A bracketed note in the script indicates that the English-language print held at the UK National Film Archive has only a portion of this particular shot. Who wants to search for a better print? (And, no, despite the writings on the film, and despite the inauthentic opening credits at the beginning of modern prints of the movie, there is nothing to suggest that this strange man who wanders the streets at night is Jack the Ripper, who was probably long dead by 1928 anyway. Remember, the movie is not the stage play. Not at all.)

The Jim Card restoration of 1973, the slightly revised Janus restorations over the next few years, the Moscow restoration of 1997, and the more recent Italian restoration, all have some of the same mistakes. For instance, all give the name Alice Roberte as Alice Roberts. This would seem a simple thing to correct, especially as the Louise Brooks interview used as a supplement in the Criterion edition explicitly makes note of this error. The poster, which is briefly shown in the Criterion edition, also gives Roberte's name correctly. There is also still about 800 feet of film missing, mostly during the gambling-boat sequence, which explains why the narrative gets so choppy. The buckling, resulting in wavering focus in a few sequences, as well as the occasional double frame lines, derive from an earlier intermediary print, and can no longer be corrected, unless, of course, more authentic materials are located.

I have never seen the earlier prints of the film. I had a chance, a long time ago, to see the print from Janus that ran about 90 minutes or so, but declined, for I couldn't bear the thought of the film being so cut to ribbons. (That one, too, had a canned music score. By whom, I don't know.) Surprisingly (or not?), even after Jim Card restored the film for Janus in 1973, Janus did not withdraw the earlier and inferior prints, and continued to offer the shorter version. No programmer could know in advance which version of the film would arrive at the cinema!

Not to take anything away from GW Pabst's masterful direction, but I must say that this is not really Pabst's film. Pay attention to the credits: "Manuskript: LAD. VAJDA," which, translated, means "Written by Ladislaus Vajda." Why does no one ever speak of him? Even the published script, which makes it clear that Vajda wrote every word of it, gives the author's name on the spine and cover as GW Pabst. Why? If anyone could tell me more about Herr Vajda, I'd be all ears.

Now you know more than you ever wanted to know about PANDORA'S BOX.

I have had conversations with a couple of friends about this as well as Hugh Munro Neely who runs Timeline Films. When Criterion got in touch with Timeline about putting Pandora on DVD, they never asked for any input from Hugh at all and did exactly what they wanted. I think they should have obtained other input from persons who had been involved with the film and its history.

A friend of mine was able to take the score from the VHS and put it on a DVD copy for me and it seems to be at the correct speed. I am not sure how it was done, but it gave me the score that I wanted with the film on DVD.

This same friend told me of another score for this film, even more rare, by William Perry that appeared on a public television airing of the film in the late 1970's. This is also quite good but I still think the Oderman one is the definitive one.

I think Oderman's music in the comedic scene involving the stage director with the uneaten sandwich is perfect, a complete contrast from dark to light, with the portions of the scene involving Lulu and Dr. Schoen going back to the dark music again.

I have to watch the Criterion DVD again and give the other score you refer to another listen to refresh my memory once again.

Hi, thanks for the prompt response!

That was an excellent suggestion of yours to send an email to the LOC and let the "Pro's From Dover", so to speak, get to the bottom of this matter. Here's is the question I just sent to them:

This question concerns a 1929 German silent film, PANDORA'S BOX (Die Buchse der Pandora), directed by G.W. Pabst and starring Louise Brooks. My question (2 parts) is:

Was there an original musical score commissioned for this film by the director for it's premiere and/or German release, and if so, who was the composer and does any remnants of this score survive in either written or recorded form?

And (since my curiosity monkey is now perched squarely on my shoulder and will not relinquish his grip) I also will take your recommendation of contacting your friend LHL about the previous musical scores. After my previous post, I actually did a search on Ebay and Ioffer to see if anyone had the Kino score for sale, but there were no copies on other site (just some old public domain tapes). Last night I listened to the Criterion commentary track for PB and noticed the Orchestral Score was "forced" into the background of the audio, and even in the background at low volume I still found it intrusive and ill-fitting.

I will return once I get the reply from the Library Of Congress and post their response.