Barbed Wire | |
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Lobby card
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Directed by |
Rowland V. Lee Mauritz Stiller (uncredited) |
Produced by | Rowland V. Lee Erich Pommer Jesse L. Lasky |
Written by | Rowland V. Lee (adaptation) Jules Furthman |
Based on |
The Woman of Knockaloe by Hall Caine |
Starring |
Pola Negri Clive Brook |
Cinematography | Bert Glennon |
Production
company |
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Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date
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Running time
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7 reels (67-79 minutes) |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Barbed Wire is a 1927 American silent romance film set in World War I. It stars Pola Negri as a French farmgirl and Clive Brook as the German prisoner of war she falls in love with. The film was based on the novel The Woman of Knockaloe by Hall Caine. Unlike the original novel, set in Isle of Man, the film takes place in Normandy, France. Some plot alterations were made in the adaptation, including most importantly the insertion of a happy ending.
Despite the central peaceful message of both the film and the novel, the British audience reacted to the film with an upsurge of anti-German sentiment. Incensed by this, Hall Caine wrote to The Sunday Times objecting to the ‘monstrous’ and ‘malicious’ misrepresentation by ‘certain sections of the press’, which described the plot as ‘pro-German’.