Hirschfeld is shown here with the German cast of the film "The Big House" (German title:"Menschen hinter Gittern"), which was directed by Paul Fejos and shot simultaneously in three versions: English (the lead character being played by Wallace Beery), French (lead: Harry Baur), and German (lead: Heinrich George).
In our photo, Hirschfeld is shown with some members of the German cast and the director. From left to right: Gustav Diessl, Heinrich George, Hirschfeld, Paul Fejos, Egon von Jordan, Paul Morgan.
The Hungarian-born director Paul Fejos (1893 - 1963) made several silent films in Hollywood, but is today best remembered by his 1931 prison drama "The Big House". His colleague Josef von Sternberg mentions in his memoirs "Fun in a Chinese Laundry" that, shortly thereafter, the well-educated Dr. Fejos, who had a great interest in ethnology, left Hollywood and the movie business to become director of the Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropology Research. He then devoted himself to ethnological studies in South America. It is likely that Hirschfeld and Fejos talked not only about Hirschfeld's own 5 educational films, but also about various ethnological problems in sexology, including sexual customs in Asia, Hirschfeld's next destination. For many years, Hirschfeld had also been greatly interested in the sexual problems of prisoners. His topic had, in fact, been presented in a German dramatic film "Geschlecht in Fesseln" (Sex in Chains). It is therefore possible that Hirschfeld and Fejos also discussed sex in prison. Whether both remained in contact by correspondence during or after this trip, is unknown at this time. In his later years, Fejos made one or two more films in Sweden.