Barbed Wire (1927)
Channel: The Cinema Cellar
Date: 2023-06-14

'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 1923 novel The Woman of Knockaloe by Hall Caine. Unlike the original novel, which is set at the Knockaloe internment camp in the 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.

Cast
Pola Negri as Mona Moreau
Clive Brook as Oskar Muller
Claude Gillingwater as Jean Moreau
Einar Hanson as André Joseph Moreau
Clyde Cook as Hans
Gustav von Seyffertitz as Pierre Corlet
Charles Willis Lane as Colonel Duval
Ben Hendricks Jr. as Sergeant Caron

Reception
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’.

Directed by Rowland V. Lee
Mauritz Stiller (uncredited)
Written by Rowland V. Lee (adaptation)
Jules Furthman
Based on The Woman of Knockaloe
by Hall Caine
Produced by Rowland V. Lee
Erich Pommer
Jesse L. Lasky
Starring Pola Negri
Clive Brook
Cinematography Bert Glennon
Production
company 
Famous Players Lasky
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date 
September 10, 1927
Running time 7 reels (67-79 minutes)
Country United States
Language Silent (English intertitles)'

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbed_Wire_(1927_film)