Mysteries of a Barbershop

Mysteries of a Barbershop
Karl Valentin as the Barber
Directed byErich Engel
Written byBertolt Brecht, Karl Valentin
StarringErwin Faber, Karl Valentin, Max Schreck, Blandine Ebinger, Josef Eichheim, Annemarie Hase, Kurt Horwitz, Liesl Karlstadt, Hans Leibelt, Carola Neher, Otto Wernicke
Music bysilent
Release dates
  • 1923 (1923) (created, but not released until rediscovered in 1972)
Running time
33 minutes (one reeler)
CountryGermany
Language(subtitles) German

Mysteries of a Barbershop (German: Mysterien eines Frisiersalons) is a comic, slapstick German film of 33 minutes, created by Bertolt Brecht, directed by Erich Engel, and starring the Munich cabaret clown Karl Valentin and leading stage actor Erwin Faber. Brecht reportedly did not write a complete shooting script, but rather produced "notes" and "parts of a manuscript" (according to Faber) for this short, silent film and intended the actors to improvise the action.[1] Although the film was not considered a success by any of its creative team, and consequently was never released as a profit making film to the public, it has been recognized and acknowledged—since its re-discovery in a Moscow archive in the 1970s—as a considerably important German film.[2]

  1. ^ See "A Brecht-Valentin Production: Mysteries of a Barbershop", by W. Stuart McDowell, Performing Arts Journal, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Winter, 1977), p 4.
  2. ^ "A Brecht-Valentin Production: Mysteries of a Barbershop", W. Stuart McDowell, Performing Arts Journal, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Winter, 1977), pp. 5.