This movie is supposed to be based on a semi-autobiographical drama of the author (Hauptman).. While dramatisation, he has modified quite a few aspects, the poet dramatist Hauptmann has become a Bacteriologist ( Kammacher) and the estranged wife Marie has become insane Angelique.
One of the parts, supposedly forced on by Hauptmann, as a precondition for allowing the drama to be made into a movie was of the un-armed virtuoso Stoss (played by the real life armless virtuoso (Charles Unthan) was extraneous to the narrative, but then it made me aware of the person, and his genius, so I won't bicker on that.
The other part, or rather the actress, that had been forced on the movie, was the cabaret performer Hahlstroem (Orloff), who was the real life flame of Hauptmann for some time.
While changing the actual story to the screen-play, there were some changes made, and that were actually to the detriment of the story. had that been kept to the original, it could have been a far better one.
Despite her bouts of insanity, the hero, Kammacher, loved his wife, Angelique, and he had gone to US, in search of a cure. That aspect had been glossed over, and hence the shock, at the death of Angelique becomes strange. In between his infatuations with Orloff doesn't contradict his love (the opening Spider and moth dance had already delineated that). I wonder how Orloff, it being her real life narrative too, agreed to do the part, which completely lacks sympathy. Though the role wasn't of a spider, more of a social butterfly. In real life too, Hauptmann was attached to his wife Marie, and tried to reconcile, after his affair, not with Orlofff but with his would be second wife, Margaret, became known and she walked away on him.
Had it been handled a bit better, it would have been a master piece. Along with the above, and a few more, disconsonant factors, it also lacked pacing. Some of the reviewers had mentioned it to be slow.I will agree to a certain extent. It was slow at wrong places. Where it should have been slow, to build up the narrative, it went through too fast. For example Eva's character was never properly build up.
Over all, it isn't a bad movie for 1913, in fact it is quite above average, but missed, by just a few notches, to become a masterpiece.
