Wera Engels (1934) 🇺🇸

To describe Wera Engels as a “German Clara Bow” would indeed be a mistake, for though they both possess chubby, somewhat rounded faces, surmounted by a wealth of flaming auburn hair, the resemblance stops there.

by Dr. Abbuh Randlaw

Even the fact that Fraulein Engels played a “vamp” role as her American film debut offers no medium of comparison, because the German star’s portrayal of the role of Mrs. Norma McGowd in The Great Jasper was that of a sophisticated, yet refined type, — the youthful and attractive wife of a wealthy traction magnate who is starved for lack of physical and spiritual companionship which is the inherent right of those wedded. On the other hand, Clara Bow’s earlier pictures made her out a sort of “Tom Boy,” an irresponsible flapper “vamp” who was forever getting into sin or trouble because of the buoyancy of youth.

Wera  Engels, who speaks almost perfect English and whose voice reminds one of the finer qualities of Marlene Dietrich’s voice, arrived in New York harbor, logically, of course, on the S.S. Bremen. Her bright blue eyes sparkled with delight when she was met, on her arrival, by city officials and by Rutgers Neilson, official “greeter” for the producing organization headed by Merian C. Cooper.

For a week Herr Neilson had the actress in tow, — mornings, afternoons and evenings, and a hectic week it was, — for in that brief span of time she was asked by R.K.O. Radio Pictures not only to make herself pleasantly agreeable to the press of the East, — newspapers and movie magazines, — but to absorb the atmosphere and drama of Manhattan’s giddy life that she might, later on, be able to translate it, in terms of celluloid, to the theatre-going public.

She was originally signed by David O. Selznick, following an exchange of cablegrams between Mr. Selznick and Mrs. William Bolitho, wife of the late newspaper columnist and writer, London representative of RKO Radio, who had been following the career of this attractive German beauty.

Her film fame was actually brought about by a chance stroke of fortune. Miss Engels was born in Kiel, Germany, the daughter of Capt. Edward Engels, of the famed German S.S. Emden, who died prior to the start of the World War. As a child she lived in China and Japan; her father being Governor of the German colony, Tsingtau.

Upon the death of her father in Bremerhaven she was taken to live in Wiesbaden where she attended school. At a Berlin dance festival, surrounded by prominent German society she was chosen by a news photographer for a picture of the most beautiful and best dressed “Fraulein.” When the picture was published she was besieged by countless film and stage offers, but instead, journeyed alone to a film studio near Berlin and was cast for a role in Edgar Wallace’s The Ringer, then in production. Mr. Wallace, with Captain Cooper, was a co-author of King Kong. Wera’s charming personality endeared her to the hearts of the actors and actresses in the German studio, and her acting ability brought her immediate success. Shortly afterwards she signed with a film unit travelling to many of the principal cities of Europe and Asia, including Budapest, Athens, Constantinople, Moscow and Rome for exterior location scenes. Paris was her next stop, and there she appeared in two French films. Success seemed to follow her.

A British film scout signed her and brought her to England to play in The Streets of London. There she met Edgar Wallace, who offered her a role in the London stage presentation of his novel, The Red Ace. Due to previous plans, she turned this down. Upon her return to Paris she was featured in two more French films, English as it is Spoken and The Perfume of the Lady in Black.

When she was approached by Mrs. William Bolitho with an offer for picture work in America, she very jubilantly accepted, for in her own words during an interview aboard the Bremen today, “a screen career was a fixed idea with me ever since I was a child.”

She was highly pleased with Hollywood, but made it a point to avoid the noisier and “questionable” gatherings which sometimes, I regret to say, attract some of the featured players and even stars.

“I intend to give the best I have to pictures,” she said, “and I gladly welcome the opportunity to study and work hard, for later on I may be able to be of some assistance to others, by way of compensating for those who have been so exceptionally kind to me.”

After the way the American girls in the film colony at Hollywood have been raving over foreign actors, and boosting the art of hand kissing, it is refreshing to report that Wera Engels says: “American men, ach! They kiss first and ask questions afterward. They understand that most girls like the kiss after they get it, whether they wanted it or not.”

Paramount, now in bankruptcy, has its Marlene Dietrich; Warner–First National had their Lil Dagover, and now R.K.O. also has a talented German star. Film editor Arthur Roberts prepared her part in The Great Jasper which J. Walter Ruben directed; following that “Maiden Cruise” is to go into production.

In the former picture Miss Engels wore, most becomingly, a blonde wig. In her next film, it is understood, she will appear in her own natural auburn hair. Like Dietrich and Dagover, her German contemporaries, Fraulein Engels received her first American front cover publicity from Broadway and Hollywood “Movies” monthly magazine, and I join the publication in wishing for her every possible degree of success.

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• Richard Dix and Wera Engels
• An intimate portrait of Miss Engels
• Scene from The Great Jasper

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Collection: Broadway and Hollywood “Movies” Magazine, May 1933