In the 1929 film Pandora’s Box, who played Lulu’s lover Alwa Schön?

In the 1929 film Pandora’s Box, Franz Lederer played Lulu’s lover Alwa Schön.

Franz Lederer, later known professionally as Francis Lederer, portrayed Alwa Schön in G. W. Pabst’s silent film Pandora’s Box. Alwa is the son of newspaper publisher Dr. Ludwig Schön and becomes entangled in Lulu’s turbulent personal and social world.

The film adapts Frank Wedekind’s Lulu plays, Earth Spirit and Pandora’s Box, rather than retelling the ancient Greek story directly. Its title evokes the myth as a metaphor for destructive desire and the consequences of opening a dangerous situation.

Lederer was an Austrian-American actor whose career continued well beyond the silent era. The role is sometimes overlooked beside Louise Brooks’s celebrated performance as Lulu, but the character of Alwa is important to the film’s connection with Wedekind’s original dramatic material.