Buy me a coffee
The Last Performance (1927)
One of the strangest crimes of passion ever depicted in DRAMA!!
(Print Ad- Victoria Advocate, ((Victoria, Texas)) 5 November 1929)
The Last Performance is a 1927 American horror film directed by Paul Fejos and starring Conrad Veidt and Mary Philbin. It was the last American silent film featuring Veidt before he returned to Germany. The film’s working title was Erik the Great. Two versions were made – a silent version and Movietone version complete with music, talking sequences, and sound effects (the talking sequences were confined only to the last reel).
Historian Troy Howarth states “Originally planned as part of Universal’s “Super Jewel” series, it was shot in 1927 and got a brief release that same year in New York City. It went into general release in 1929, just as sound films were beginning to catch on.” He continues “Its belated general debut led many to conclude that Last Performance was a follow-up to Paul Leni’s The Man Who Laughs (1928)….However, Fejos’ film was made first.”
The silent version went into general release at the Little Carnegie Theater in New York City in November 1929. Later release prints contained sound effects, and the Hungarian release prints featured Bela Lugosi overdubbing Conrad Veidt’s voice. The Last Performance was shot on the same set as the 1925 film The Phantom of the Opera, and contained an early use of zoom effects. The film received mixed reviews. Troy Howarth states “An interesting rumor has circulated for years among film enthusiasts that Walter Brennan appears in the film as a circus clown, but this is difficult to confirm with any degree of certainty”.
The silent version (with Danish title cards) was released by the Criterion Collection on Blu-ray and DVD with Fejos’ Lonesome in August 2012. The dvd release runs about 59 minutes, so “it seems likely that some significant footage is lost.”
