Slapstick, translated at the time as ‘grotesque film’, is a valid definition of these movies: they have the speed and the rhythm. Never before in any art has the human body played such a role, even if only as a shadow, a silhouette. Despite their physical presence, stage actors were mainly loudspeakers after all. In Lubitsch’s German films Emil Jannings is a mass, a lump, like Fatty Arbuckle or Oliver Hardy. Kohlhiesels Töchter becomes cinematic thanks to him alone. Henny Porten as both daughters is a purely filmic gag, and playing with appearances something Lubitsch does better than anyone else.

Frieda Grafe, Ciò che tocca Lubitsch, in Luce negli occhi colori nella mente. Scritti di cinema 1961-2000, edited by Mariann Lewinsky ed Enno Patalas, Le Mani/Cineteca di Bologna, ReccoBologna 2002

Kohlhiesels Töchter is the 44th of the films on which Ernst Lubitsch worked, in a variety of capacities; it is an impressive tally, given that this was achieved in a mere seven years. In an interview at the end of his career, when his contribution to film history amounted to 82 titles, Lubitsch defined it as “A typical German thing”. Such a dismissive comment was perhaps a consequence of the enormous success it met with domestic audiences (for the first time in his career) and the tepid critical response – on various occasions it has been described as being characterised by uninspired direction and coarse humour, far removed from the “Lubitsch touch”.
For the first time since its release roughly 100 years ago, this digital restoration by the Friedrich-Wilhelm- Murnau-Stiftung presents Kohlhiesels Töchter in its entirety and in colour, rather than black-and-white, providing an opportunity to reassess the original critical consensus.
The opening sequence provides the first opportunity for reappraisal. Here, Lubitsch’s undeniable cynicism results in an unlikely exchange between Gretel/ Henny Porten and the peddler under her window and then a fight between one of the best known actresses of her generation and a piggy bank. So unmerited is her victory that she resorts to a puzzled look into the camera – so much for uninspired direction!
Featuring sharp intertitle text and pure slapstick, the film subverts the conventional gender dynamic. The film’s setting, in a small Bavarian village, might be provincial, but its content is anything but.
Three nitrate copies were scanned in 4K and then digitally combined to recreate, perhaps, the elements and characteristics that led to the film’s enormous success with audiences on its original release.

Luciano Palumbo