06 March 2019

Mouschy (1918)

German actress, writer and producer Hedda Vernon starred in more than 60 films of the early silent period. During the 1910s she was such a popular film star that she got her own Hedda-Vernon serial. One of her hits was Mouschy aka Mouchy (Hubert Moest, 1918), an Eiko Film production in which her co-star was Paul Hartmann.

Hedda Vernon in Mouschy (1918)
German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 518/1. Photo: Eiko Film. Hedda Vernon and probably Theodor Becker in Mouschy aka Mouchy (Hubert Moest, 1918).

Hedda Vernon in Mouschy aka Mouchy
German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 518/3. Photo: Eiko Film. Hedda Vernon and probably Theodor Becker in Mouschy (Hubert Moest, 1918).

Under the direction of her husband


In Mouschy (Hubert Moest, 1918), Hedda Vernon plays an orphan girl who is in love with a count (Theodor Becker). But he needs to marry rich. So Mouchy becomes the wife of the forester (Paul Hartmann). The script was written by Ruth Goetz and director Hubert Moest.

In 1913, Vernon had married Hubert Moest, who was also working as an actor. She was signed by the Eiko film and worked until the end of the First World War, mainly under the direction of her husband.

He founded in 1919 his own production company Moest production. For the Moest films Die roten Schuhe/The Red Shoes (1917) and Das Todesgeheimnis/The Death Secrets (1918) ,Vernon also wrote the screenplay. In 1920, her marriage to Moest ended in a divorce.

In Mouschy (Hubert Moest, 1918), but also earlier in Zofia (Hubert Moest, 1915), Hedda Vernon played a fifteen year old girl although she was double that age at the time. On the postcards it looks a bit silly. However, such ‘child parts’ were normal for actresses in the 1910s and 1920s.

In the cast of Mouschy were also Friedrich Kühne and Eva Speyer. Producer was Franz Vogel and the cinematography was done by Hans Karl Gottschalk. Not much more is known about the film.

Mouschy (Hubert Moest, 1918) premiered at the Berlin Tauentzienpalast in August 1918, only a few months before the end of the First World War.

Hedda Vernon and Paul Hartmann in Mouschy
German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 518/4. Photo: Eiko Film. Hedda Vernon and Paul Hartmann in Mouschy aka Mouchy (Hubert Moest, 1918).

Hedda Vernon and Paul Hartmann in Mouschy
German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 518/6. Photo: Eiko Film. Hedda Vernon and Paul Hartmann in Mouschy (Hubert Moest, 1918).

Sources: Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.

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