Wednesday Night Cinema: H. Schwarz – The Wonderful Lie of Nina Petrowna (1929)

However, the Cossack colonel is not prepared to let Nina go so easily. What’s more, life in poverty plunges the young couple into serious difficulties.

The leading lady, Brigitte Helm, appeared on camera for the first time in 1925 – without any formal acting training whatsoever. She made her breakthrough in 1927 with Fritz Lang’s silent film epic *Metropolis*. The role immediately earned her a ten-year contract with Ufa, which systematically built her up as a star. A few years later, she was typecast as the cold, seductive vamp – a role she repeatedly tried to escape.

Directed by Hanns Schwarz, Germany 1929, 117 minutes, starring Brigitte Helm, Franz Lederer, Warwick Ward, Lya Jan, Harry Hardt, Ekkehard Arendt, Michael von Newlinski, Franz Schafheitlin

A film from the collection of the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Foundation, Wiesbaden.

At the Mighty Wurlitzer theatre organ: Sorin Creciun

The Mighty Wurlitzer theatre organ at the Musical Instrument Museum is one of the largest surviving instruments of its kind in Europe. In 1929, it was acquired by Werner Ferdinand von Siemens, the grandson of the company’s founder, from the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company in North Tonawanda, NY. It has four manuals, 1,228 pipes and more than 200 stops. Added to this is a large number of percussion and effect instruments. Thunderclaps and birdsong, wailing sirens and the ringing of bells – the Mighty Wurlitzer’s range of sounds is truly impressive.