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Brigitte Helm

An alluringly beautiful German actress, Brigitte Helm made her best-remembered impression with her striking if sometimes overwrought debut performance as both the innocent heroine Maria and her scheming robot double in Fritz Lang's memorable, trailblazing science-fiction epic, "Metropolis" (1926). She would play many vamp and femme fatale roles over the next decade, her icy but sensuous quality helping making her one of Germany's most popular stars of the late silent and early sound years. Helm was the original choice for the role of cabaret singer Lola Lola in "The Blue Angel" (1930) even though her persona was not typically so earthy; when she turned Joseph von Sternberg down he subsequently turned to the more suitably cast Marlene Dietrich. Years later James Whale, recalling her Maria, considered her for the title role of his brilliant horror film, "Bride of Frankenstein" (1935), but the more appropriate Elsa Lanchester finally played the part.