Fern Andra

2022-05-01 04:07:49

Truus, Bob & Jan too! posted a photo:

German postcard by Verlag Photochemie, Berlin / GGCo, no. 1885/4. Photo: Fern Andra Atelier.

'Modern' American Fern Andra (1893 - 1974) became one of the most popular film stars of German cinema in the 1910s and early 1920s. In her films she mastered tightrope, riding horses without a saddle, driving cars and motorcycles, bobsleighing, and even boxing.

Fern Andra was born as Vernal Edna Andrews in Watseka, Illinois, USA, in 1893. After a tour as a circus dancer in Europe, she became an outrageous ballerina at the Ragtime Revue in London. In Vienna, she became a student of famed director-teacher Max Reinhardt and appeared in several of his plays and films. In Berlin, French film director Charles Decroix convinced her to start a career in film. He launched her as André Fern, competing with the leading German stars of those days: Asta Nielsen and Henny Porten. Equipped with her aquiline nose, ephebic little body and malicious eyes, Fern showed in short films like Das Ave Maria/The Ave Maria (Charles Decroix, 1913), and Der Stern/The Star (Charles Decroix, 1914), that she possessed a completely 'modern' repertory, mastering tight roping, riding a horse without a saddle, driving cars, motorcycles, slalom, bobsleighing, even boxing.

After 4 or 5 of these films, André Fern left audiences breathless over so much defiance. She changed her name definitely into Fern Andra and started her own company, even directing her own films. Right during the First World War, Fern made one film after another, always about women who are victims of cruel events but who are also determined to settle matters. These films included Eine Motte floh zum Licht/A Moth Flew To The Light (Fern Andra, 1915), and Drohende Wolken am Firmament/Threatening Clouds in the Sky (Fern Andra, 1918). Moonlight romance, theatres burning down, and luxurious parties in aristocratic milieus. Unfortunately, most of these films were never exported because of the war, and most are lost now.

In the early 1920s, Fern Andra's films became more sophisticated. She left direction to directors such as Robert Wiene. He directed her in Genuine (Robert Wiene, 1920), probably her best interpretation. Her costumes in this film, specially designed for her by painter Cesar Klein, turned her mysterious priest of some cult into one of the most stylised characters of German Expressionism. After a role as a femme fatale opposite the Italian apache Za-la-Mort, Emilio Ghione, in Der Traum der Za-la-Vie/The Dream of Za-la-Vie (Emilio Ghione, 1924), she said farewell to the German cinema with Frauen der Leidenschaft/Women of Passion (Rolf Randolf, 1926). Fern Andra married a boxer, went to London to do a few more films, and then moved to Hollywood, where she retired after making only two films. She was married four times; the fourth time to film actor Ian Keith.

Sources: Vittorio Martinelli (Le dive del silenzio - Italian), Wikipedia and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

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