At the beginning of 1913 when Pauline Frederick (Pauline Libbey. Boston 12/8/1883 /  Los Angeles 19/9/1938) accepted the advantageous contract offered to her by Famous Players Film, the actress already had a brilliant theatrical career behind her which, begun at the dawn of the century, had led her to become one of the most famous leading ladies on North American stages. Jesse Lasky, head of Famous Players, had convinced Frederick to act in The Eternal City, with the agreement that the film would be shot in Rome. The film was never released in Italy, but it was an enormous success in the States. Frederick thus happily agreed to act in Bella Donna (id. 1915), novel by Robert Hichens transformed into a highly successful stage play three years earlier by Alla Nazimova. In 1920, on the verge of turning forty, she played the leading role in Madame X. (id.), which would later be judged as her best film: based on a despondent melodrama by Alexandre Bisson, Madame X. is the story of a woman no longer in her prime who is unjustly suspected of adultery by her husband, and who will slip further and further into degradation, truly declining into the lowest depths all the way to her agonizing death in the last frames. After this film, Pauline played several roles of a mature woman fated to emotional turmoil, usually on their way to failure. This is clearly seen in Let No Man Put Asunder (1924), as well as the marvelous Smouldering Fires (1925). Though she was very active in cinema during the twenties, Frederick never completely abandoned the stage, where she would continue until her death – which reached her at an early age – to gather applause from a public that had elected her as one of their favorite darlings.

Vittorio Martinelli

Lubitsch’s direction is brilliant firstly for his attention to detail, this being due to his exquisitely good taste, and secondly for the efficient, theatrical speed in the highly dramatic scenes. (…) The name of the extraordinary leading actress must also be mentioned: Pauline Frederick. We already know that she is the best tragic actress of American cinema. But until now, she has never appeared so fascinating and enthralling. And since the time of Pola Negri, Lubitsch has never worked so brilliantly with an actress.

Willy Haas, “Kinematograph”, 1924, in Herbert Spaich, Ernst Lubitsch und seine Filme, Heyne Verlag, München, 1992