Baker became romantically involved with Giuseppe "Pepito" Abatino, a penniless count from a prominent Italian family. Pepito took over the management of her career and hired tutors to teach her culture as well as the French language. He secured merchandising deals for her in which her name was used to sell perfumes, dolls and a hair product called Bakerfix, increasing her fame and recognition in Paris. Pepito arranged for Baker to star in her first feature film, Siren of the Tropics (La Sirène des tropiques) rightly speculating that the movies would spread her fame on an international level.
Baker starred in the title role as Papitou, the biracial daughter of a white colonist. They live in poverty in the fictional village of Monte Puebla somewhere in the Antilles. Her father is a drunkard in debt to Alvarez (Kiranine), the island's local power broker. Meanwhile in Paris, a young engineer named André Berval (Pierre Batcheff) is in love with the goddaughter of his wealthy employers, the count (George Melchoir) and Marquise Severo (Régina Dalthy). Severo, who has romantic designs on Denise, sends Berval to the Antilles and hires Alvarez to get rid of him resulting in a slew of dramatic consequences.
Baker's fame had been established in "Danse Sauvage" at the Folies Bergère, in which she performed semi-nude in a skirt made of artificial bananas. The frenetic production number included Baker's version of the Charleston as well as other moves designed to exploit her long legs. Her stage persona epitomized, at least to the French, the uninhibited nature of the "primitive" who was liberated from suffocating social mores. The very title Siren of the Tropics reveals the intention to capitalize on Baker's image.
Maurice Dekobra, innovator of what the French called "the cosmopolitan novel," a kind of romantic escapism featuring liberated heroines in a male-dominated society, was tapped to write the script for Siren of the Tropics. Dekobra had no experience in writing screenplays, but three of his novels had been turned into Hollywood films, which helped to secure financing for the film. Pierre Batcheff was hired to play opposite Baker as André Berval. Batcheff was considered a jeune premier, a type of romantic lead who was passive, even fragile, and represented the latest trend in leading men for the French cinema. Actor-director Henri Étiévant, who was in his late 50s, may have been hired because he was a veteran of the film industry who could deliver a project on time and on budget. Mario Nalpas, who was credited as codirector, was friends with both Baker and Pepito. It is likely that Nalpas and Pepito concocted the idea for Siren of the Tropics while socializing at Baker's night spot, Chez Josephine. The most surprising name in the credits is that of Luis Buñuel, who served as assistant director. Buñuel was acquainted with the cameraman, Albert Duverger, who introduced him to Étiévant and Nalpas. The legendary director would later say that the experience was not one of his fondest memories. He was shocked at Baker's behavior, which he considered unprofessional. She often arrived on the set hours late and once threw a tantrum in her dressing room, smashing jars of makeup.
Part of her temperament was likely due to exhaustion, because she continued to appear at the Folies Bergère during the evenings and made appearances at Chez Josephine in the late afternoons. She disliked the nature of filmmaking, with the hot lights and the long waits between set-ups. She also disliked having to hit her marks on the set, which restricted her movements.
The participation of a major movie star, a well-known novelist and a veteran director did not result in the artistic success Pepito and Baker expected. Dekobra's formula for the cosmopolitan novel may have worked for written narratives, but it was reduced to familiar melodramatic tropes in the visual medium of silent film. Baker's character has been criticized as yet another version of the sensual native girl, while her extroverted performing style overwhelmed Batcheff's version of the jeune premier.
Baker was profoundly disappointed in Siren of the Tropics. She did not like Papitou's child-like actions and was offended at the way her character's dialogue was reduced to stereotypical "native English" in the intertitles. Not only does Papitou refer to herself in the third person, but she tends to use verbs only in the present tense. "I don't speak like that," she complained to Pepito. She felt the film misrepresented her and blamed the filmmakers for not getting to know her better before creating the role.
Despite the shortcomings of Siren of the Tropics, the film offers some fascinating ideas involving Baker's persona. During the 1920s, European artists and intellectuals praised Baker's performance style as "natural," referring to an authenticity that they associated with African American music and dance. Likewise, Papitou comes from an authentic natural environment but is able to transgress the boundary between her world and cultured Paris. This idea is reinforced through the repetition of events: Scenes with Papitou interacting with children occur in Monte Puebla and later in France; she dances in her native environment and then performs on stage in Paris; she rescues André in the Antilles and then saves him from Severo again in France. Like Baker, Papitou thrives as an entertainer in the cultured world of Paris without abandoning her naturalness.
Similarly, Baker breached the boundary between race, not only bringing African American culture to Europeans but also making it all the rage. In a sequence now considered controversial, Siren of the Tropics seems to address that idea, albeit awkwardly, through comedy. While stowing away on the ship to Paris, Papitou falls into a coal box, which turns her skin very black. A white passenger runs into her and reports to the porter that she has seen a "black devil." Next, Papitou hides in the flour bin, and when she climbs out, she is completely white, scaring the same passenger. She sneaks into a state room and washes off the coal dust and flour, returning to her "natural" self. Does the sequence suggest that Papitou--and Baker--are neither the blackface stereotype of the American minstrel show nor a copycat of white culture? Or, does the film merely joke about her skin color in a way that some critics and scholars have found racist?
Producer: Louis Aubert
Director: Henri Étiévant and Mario Nalpas
Assistant Director: Luis Buñuel
Screenplay: Maurice Dekobra
Cinematography: Paul Cotteret, Albert Duverger, Maurice Hennebains
Production Design: Eugène Carré and Pierre Schild
Cast: Josephine Baker (Papitou), Pierre Batcheff (André Berval), Régina Dalthy (La marquise Severo), Regina Thomas (Denise), Georges Melchior (Le comte Severo), Kiranine (Le régisseur Alvarez)
By Susan Doll
