Eva von Berne

In the quest to discover "another Garbo" M.G.M. production chief Irving Thalberg and his actress wife, Norma Shearer saw a picture in a newspaper of a dancing instructor by the name of Eva Plentzner von Sharneck while on a belated honeymoon to Europe, specifically Vienna in late 1927 - early 1928. The 17 year old Miss Plentzner was signed to a contract and arrived in New York in July of 1928. She spoke only a couple of words of English, but was the beneficiary of extra publicity by the studio's press department who feared a repeat of their overlooking a potential star in the way they had done with Garbo. She was renamed Eva von Berne. Unfortunately, the completely untrained Miss von Berne was not prepared for the requirements and pressures of movie stardom. Her greatest fault was being 20 pounds overweight, causing her debut movie opposite M.G.M.'s top male star, John Gilbert, to be delayed while considering whether to replace the 17 year old actress or not. The cast and crew liked Miss von Berne and vowed to help her during a forced recess in the filming, and have her underweight and skilled enough to resume her ingénue role. She completed "Masks of the Devil" but the damage had already been done, and while the movie was opening in theatres in the fall of 1928, by December Miss von Berne was back in Europe, ostensibly to "learn English" as stated in the studio releases. Her reviews for "Masks of the Devil" were respectable, but, in the US no more than six months, she was sent back to Europe, where she was at least, an American movie star and was cast in a number of German films before her reputed death in 1930. Hubert Voight, a publicist with M.G.M. erroneously released news of Miss Von Berne's death in 1930, a notice which was picked up in a number of American newspapers. In a 1980's article in the magazine "Sight and Sound" he repeated his belief that she had passed, when in fact, she was very much alive. After 1930, Eva worked as an executive in window display for a Vienna department store. During World War II, Eva fled to Salzburg to be with her family. Eva married Helmut Krauss, a former major in the Austrian army. She had a successful career as an artist with numerous exhibitions in Austria. In a telephone interview with German film journalist Toni Schieck in 2006, Miss von Berne said she believe it was fortunate that the world thought she was dead because she didn't have to deal with autograph hunters. It is impossible to determine the quality of Miss von Berne's acting skills as "Masks of the Devil" is a lost film. Tragedy was no stranger to its cast though, as it included John Gilbert who was (one way or another) a casualty of sound and Alma Rubens, an actress reputed to have health issues emanating from a drug dependency.