Frank Wedekind’s play Earth Spirit was the other source, besides Pandora’s Box, for G. W. Pabst’s 1929 film.
Pabst’s silent film combines material from two works by German playwright Frank Wedekind: Erdgeist, usually translated as Earth Spirit, and Die Büchse der Pandora, translated as Pandora’s Box. Both plays center on Lulu, a provocative character whose relationships drive the drama.
Wedekind wrote the plays at the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century. Their treatment of sexuality, social hypocrisy, and gender power made them controversial, while also establishing Lulu as one of modern European drama’s most memorable figures.
The film is sometimes described simply as an adaptation of Pandora’s Box, but identifying both source plays gives a more precise account of its origins. Wedekind also wrote Spring Awakening, another important drama, but that is not the second play used for Pabst’s film.