"The Student Of Prague" and German Expressionist Horror 1913-1926

THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE;
Today German cinema of the silent era is known for it's iconic works of Expressionist Horror such as "Nosferatu", "The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari", "Metropolis" and "Der Golem". In fact the Germans were rather late in producing film works of any note. The early decades of film from the 1890's to just before World War One belonged to the Americans, French, Italians, Danes, Swedes and to lesser extent the Russians while German films were mostly non-nondescript comedies, ribald burlesques and crime stories including several adaptations of Sherlock Holmes. German audiences were also quite happy to devour foreign films like the westerns of Bronco Billy, William S Hart and Tom Mix and the French comedies of Max Linder rather than demand any particularly distinctive homegrown product unlike the Italians and Russians who produced "Art Films" based on historical epics or the Danes and Swedes who produced films based on Nordic folklore and literary themes. These last films came to fascinate many German writers, stage directors and actors who felt a common Nordic kinship known as Expressionism.
Expressionism was a post-impressionist art movement influenced by the Dutch artist Van Gogh and more especially the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch and the playwrite Ibsen which would inspire Germans who strongly identified with their themes of deep emotional turmoil constrained by bourgeois convention, a strong connection with nature and a shared Nordic heritage. They would make these themes their own with a passionate intensity and thoroughness adding to them philosophical strains from Goethe, Schiller, Nietzche and Freud and a willingness to experiment quite lacking in previous German film-makers. This ambitious vision came from stage directors and playwrites like Max Reinhardt and Frank Wedekind who produced ground-breaking plays which attacked bourgeois values as well as challenging conventional stage designs with minimalist sets influenced by constructionist and cubist art, impressionist lighting and dramatic and physical acting styles influenced by modern dance. Previously the Expressionist theatre world had not taken film very seriously as a medium thinking it fit only for low-brow entertainment but the Scandinavian films (which were quite popular in Germany, especially those of actress Asta Nielsen) convinced them of the artistic possibilities.
Max Reinhardt's theatre troupe contained many figures who would become crucial figures in Expressionist films including actors Conrad Veidt, Werner Krause, Emil Jannings, Paul Wegener, Max Shreck, John Gottowt, Lil Dagover ("Caligari"), Greta Schroder ("Nosferatu") and Lyda Salmonova ("Der Golem") along with directors Ernest Lubitsch and Paul Leni and set designer Ernest Stern. Reinhardt's own attempts at film direction starting with "Sumuran" in 1910 were failures. Reinhardt simply did not understand the new medium and merely shot his films with static cameras as if they were simply plays. This sort of approach had already gone out of style in America and France by this time and audiences in Germany, who were by then used to foreign films were bored by such a dull, out-of-touch approach. However some of his younger actors and directors learned these lessons and soldiered on.
The first to successfully make his mark was Paul Wegener with his 1913 film "The Student Of Prague". Wegener was one of Reinhardt's stage actors who had been considering the possibilities of film as dramatic medium capable of portrayal of fantasy after seeing an exhibition of trick photographs featuring a man fencing and playing cards with himself. Clearly the stage would not be up to such effects but film-makers such as George Melies and Segundo De Chomon had already shown how film could be used to create an unreal fantasy world. Melies and other fantasy film-makers were content to engage in childlike magic, however Wegener's aim was to use fantasy to explore expressionist themes of psychological horror. Working with a script written by Hanns Heinz Ewers, a novelist of Gothic horror already known for the novel "Alarune", they came up with a story about a young man selling his soul and revealing his inner demon. The story was based on the iconic (especially in Germany) story of Faust and the Devil along with Robert Louis Stevenson's "Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde", Oscar Wilde's "Dorian Gray", Edgar Allan Poe's "William Wilson", Joseph Conrad's "Secret Sharer" Fyodor Dostoyevsky's "The Double" and a touch of Bram Stoker's "Dracula". Two other novels now forgotten but popular in Victorian times and thus possibly known to the writers might have been the trashy English Gothic potboilers "The Monk" by Mathew Lewis and "Memoth The Wanderer" by the Irish writer Charles Robert Maturin about characters selling their souls.



Wegener brought in director Stellan Rye and one of Germany's best cameramen Guido Seeber along with some other Reinhardt actors including John Gottowt and Lyda Salmonova, who would also be one of Wegener's many wives. The resulting film caused a sensation not only in Germany but also internationally becoming the first German film to do so aside from 1912 "Night And Ice", a well done but conventional docudrama about the Titanic sinking. With it's dark themes of obsession, guilt, greed, lust, betrayal and death the film exposed the hidden tormented soul behind the sober, conformist, respectable German bourgeois in the false dawn before the nightmare of The Great War and became the catalyst for the growth of German Expressionist film after the war.

"THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE" ~ 1913;


CAST;
Paul Wegener ~ Balduin, The Student
John Gottowt ~ Prof. Scapinelli, The Magician
Grete Berger ~ Countess Margit Von Schwarzenberg
Lyda Salmonova ~ Lyduschka, The Servant Girl
Lothar Korner ~ Count Von Schwarzenberg
Fritz Weidermann ~ Baron Waldis-Schwarzenberg
Directed by Stellan Rye
PLOT SYNOPSIS (SPOILER ALERT!);
In 1821 Prague Balduin is a young university student of limited means. He is socially ambitious but rather decadent, preferring to drink, dance and gamble. He is also a champion fencer. Lyduschka is a pretty and flirtatious servant girl at the pub he frequents. She longs for Balduin but he is hoping to find a rich wife. Scapinelli is a magician who makes a deal to find Balduin a likely target. Countess Margit is a wealthy heiress who is already engaged to her cousin Baron Waldis-Schwarzenberg as per her father's wishes although she does not love him. As the Countess and the Baron go off on fox hunt she rides off on her own and falls into a lake where she is rescued by Balduin who has been walking by with Scapinelli. Balduin returns to his small apartment to change and practice fencing where he is met by Lyduschka who gives him a bunch of flowers and flirts with him only to have him ignore her and take the flowers to give to the Countess whose estate he visits. She is there with her father the Count. She is happy to see Balduin but then Baron Waldis shows up with a much larger bouquet of flowers. The Baron is rude to Balduin and the Count quickly ushers him out. A dejected Balduin sheepishly returns home, still with his pathetic bunch of flowers. Scapinelli visits him and makes a proposal; he will pay Balduin one-hundred thousand pieces of gold in exchange for which Scapinelli may take any one item he wants from the room. As Balduin has nothing of value he readily agrees and signs a contract. Scapinelli gestures to a large full-length mirror Balduin uses for fencing practice and states that he will purchase Balduin's reflection. Balduin is dismissive until much to his shock his reflection does indeed step out of the mirror and walk slowly and silently towards the door before simply vanishing. Scapinelli laughs before exiting as well. Balduin is even more shocked to discover that he no longer has a refection in the mirror, although at the time he is inclined to laugh it off and enjoy his new found wealth.
The newly respectable Balduin is invited to a fancy ball where he pursues Countess Margit. He passes her a note asking her to meet him later even though she is to be married. Baron Waldis shows up and angrily pulls her away. Lyduschka has been spying on Balduin and witnesses this. As Balduin leaves he runs into his Doppelganger who mocks him before once again vanishing. Balduin is frightened at first but assumes he has been having a hallucination and laughs it off. Lyduschka has followed Countess Margit home and found the note Balduin gave Margit, she steals it and runs off. Balduin and Margit are having their tryst in a cemetery when the Doppelganger shows up and scares her away before disappearing. Balduin is now frightened.
Lyduschka goes to Baron Waldris' house and gives him the tryst note from Balduin to Margit. Waldris is outraged. He dismissively offers to pay her for the note but she indignantly refuses any money and gives him the note anyway before marching out. Baron Waldris calls on Balduin and challenges him to a duel which Balduin accepts. Count Von Schwarzenberg begs Waldris to call off the duel since Balduin is the finest fencer in Prague but Waldris arrogantly refuses. The Count then calls on Balduin and begs him to spare Waldris as he is the superior fencer and Waldris is both his proposed son-in-law and heir. Reluctantly Balduin agrees. Passing through a forest on his way to the duel Balduin is met by his Doppelganger who tells him he has already fought the duel and killed Waldris. The horrified Balduin runs to the spot of the duel where a crowd is gathering around the body of Waldris. He then rides to speak to the Count who refuses to see him. Balduin tries to forget his troubles by going to a fancy party and drinking alone. Lyduschka is at the party and flirts with him but he rejects her and leaves. Balduin attends a high-stakes card game where he wins until the other players quit and he is left alone. The Doppelganger then enters and sits down and invites Balduin to play him. The terrified Balduin runs away and tries to visit Margit, climbing over the fence of her estate. He climbs a latter into her room where he begs her forgiveness, crying in her lap. She is at first resistant but then relents. They kiss but when they parade together in front of a full length mirror and she discovers he has no reflection she is frightened. Before the distraught Balduin can explain the Doppelganger appears and Margit faints. The terrified Balduin flees out the window.
Balduin attempts to run away but at every turn he finds the Doppelganger impassively waiting for him. Eventually he flags down a coach and flees the city. When he exits the coach he discovers the coachman is in fact the Doppelganger. Balduin runs home, bars the door and arms himself with a dueling pistol. In his room Balduin sits at his desk to write a note (or confession?) when the Doppelganger appears. Balduin shoots him only to have the Doppelganger vanish. Balduin searches the room and finding no sign of his tormentor decides he is dead, especially when he grabs a mirror and discovers his reflection has returned to where it belongs. Balduin is overjoyed until he feels a pain in his chest. Checking it he discovers a bullet hole and crumples to the floor dead. Scapinelli enters the room and seeing Balduin's body takes the contract he had signed from his pocket and laughingly tears it up. Then he gives an elaborate bow before vanishing. Finis.

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The Gothic literary references in this clever story are obvious but ingenious. The "Faust" influence is overt, especially to a German audience, as when Balduin sold his reflection he was actually selling his soul and Scapinelli is obviously the Devil or at least one of his minions. The "Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde" influence is shown as the Doppelganger also reflects (so to speak) Balduin's dark side. The issue of a doppelganger had also been raised in Poes' "William Wilson", Dostoyevsky's "The Double" and Conrad's "Secret Sharer". As the reflection is destroyed Balduin also dies as had Dorian Gray with his portrait. That the soulless Balduin has no reflection is a convention taken from "Dracula". There is a notable difference though in that when Balduin makes his deal with the Devil he does not know who he is dealing with nor does he know he is selling his soul. By comparison Faust, Dr Jekyll, Dorian Gray and even Dracula knew exactly what deals they were making and made them anyway thinking they could handle the consequences. Balduin does not understand what he has sold until it is far too late. This changes the moral dynamic of the fable. Those characters had free-will and chose unwisely because of pride and ambition (Faust), intellectual arrogance (Jekyll), vanity (Dorian Gray) or the promise of immortality and power (Dracula). Balduin is certainly a selfish social climber but since he did not make even a somewhat informed choice he was in effect denied free will which makes him more of a victim than the others. There is no way of knowing if the film-makers Wegener and Ewers considered the ramifications of this change or not when they wrote the script. Were they dismissing or making a mockery of the very idea of free will as Sophocles had done in "Oedipus Rex"? Or did they not notice this at all?



A common theme that would later run through Expressionist film as identified by such influential critics as Fredrich Krakauer (in his landmark book "From Caligari To Hitler") and Lotte Eisner (the equally important "The Haunted Screen") is seen here in the manipulative figures who lead characters astray or control their minds. Characters such as Scapinelli, Dr Caligari, Dr Mabuse, Nosferatu, Lulu ("Pandora's Box"), Lola Lola ("Blue Angel") the mad scientists and magicians in "Der Golem", "Metropolis", "Aralune", "Homonculus", "Genuine" and "Warning Shadows" not to mention the film versions of "Faust" and "The Pied Piper" all show this was a real trend. Krackuer and Eisner saw this as a reflection of the innate German need to follow a strong leader that would later lead to Hitler. It's worth pointing out here that Hanns Heinz Ewers, who wrote the main script (as well as the novel "Alarune" which featured a beautiful, artificially created young (Briget Helm) was also made into a movie twice), would later become an enthusiastic Nazi including writing scripts for Nazi propaganda films and plays including one glorifying the notorious Storm Trooper Horst Wessel.
In fact the film is notable for it's time in having no really sympathetic characters at all. Let alone a hero. Balduin may be a victim but he is also a decadent wastrel, an utterly shameless social climber who makes it clear that he is after the Countess for her money and social position even though the Countess is not even especially attractive compared to the younger, prettier and more flirtatious Lyduschka. The servant girl actually really does love him although it's hard to see why since he consistently ignores her. She is not even motivated by money since when Waldris offers to pay her she indignantly refuses. That's not to forget that Lyduschka is still sneaky, possessive and vengeful as she spies on him and squeals to Waldris which she had to know would end in a duel. Waldris is an arrogant snob who is also marrying Margit for money and status even though she has openly told him she does not love him and is going through with the arranged marriage due to family loyalty which Waldris obviously has no problems with. Neither does her father who is marrying her off to a cousin she does not love to keep the title in the family. Accordingly Margit is more of a victim but she is still cheating on her fiance and quickly forgives Balduin for killing him, although under the circumstances we can probably give her a pass on some of that. Balduin is not a villain as he is not without conscience since he does agree to call off the duel (or at least not kill Waldris) and feels some guilt over his death. Or is that just fear? We don't really know. And Scapinelli is of course the Devil. So that leaves us with no heroes, a strange position for a film of the time but one German intellectuals at least found revelatory. Or liberating.

BALDUIN CONFRONTED BY HIS DOUBLE;


As for the actual film-making, it is pretty conventional and shows little of the innovative camera work or set design that would become the trademarks of Expressionist film after 1919. The direction is perfectly competent and efficient and moves at a quick pace, however there are even some archaic touches such when characters gesture towards the camera as if on stage, by 1913 the Scandinavians and American directors like DW Griffith were discouraging this sort of thing, although it was still common in French films. The rather clunky need to formally introduce each character was also on it's way out although still common in Italian and Russian films. There are some Expressionist touches in the filming however such as in the gambling scene which is shown surrounded by darkness, and the placing of Balduin in settings were he is dwarfed by architecture as the story progresses in contrast with the beginning where he is shown in sunshine and in settings where he seems more imposing. One later trademark of Expressionist film was it's use of elaborately constructed indoor sets which allowed film-makers to control every aspect of design and lighting as well to the extent of sometimes creating fantasy worlds as in "Caligari" and "Metropolis". Wegener would later pioneer this approach with his second version of "Der Golem" (1920) but in 1913 he was still working with natural settings as the Scandinavians had done. Wegener had in fact chosen Prague as a setting for both films because he felt the city's old quarter would be have suitable atmosphere, especially for a scene in a Jewish graveyard with some large primal looking tombstones. While Wegener was giving some thought to setting a proper atmosphere he was not yet taking control of his environments yet to set the mood. Ironically the Rabbis denied permission to film in the graveyard so he had to build a fake one. By the time he was making the second version of "Der Golem" he was building an entire town as a set. The double exposures where Balduin is confronted by the Doppelganger were not really a new process but they are well done and must have impressed audiences at the time. Such trick shots would also become a standard feature in German films.
Wegener would normally be an odd choice for the role of the student, he is a stocky, even bulky man, with heavy features and although he is actually more physically gracefull than he appears as when he fences, scurries up and down ladders and scampers over a high fence with evident ease, he is still clearly too old to be a student. One suspects that if he had not been in charge of the project he would not have been cast in the lead role. Still he was a thoughtful actor who had given much consideration to the new medium (he would also give lectures on the subject of film acting) and he is a confident presence who can display some subtlety. This is important since he is able to convey the two distinct but identical characters successfully even though he would have actually be acting to a blank wall at the time. His skill compares well to the actress playing the Countess who is still bound by the conventions of the stage. By contrast Lyda Salmonova as Lyduschka, is pretty, lively and flirtatious and comfortable on film. The most impressive performance is John Gottowt as Scapinelli, he gets the best costume; dressed in a frock coat, top hat, drape pants and spats with a bald vulture head. He minces with birdlike movements and perches on Balduin's desk like a vulture. If he were more chubby he could be the model for the Batman villain The Penguin. His appearance and style would be shown again in the 1919 film "The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari" (although the actor himself was not) as both Werner Krause's title character as well as the sneering clerk perched on his impossibly high desk. Gottowt would become an excellent character actor and would play another similar looking devious old man in "Genuine" as well as the Renfield character in "Nosferatu" and yet another creepy old clerk in "Waxworks".

BALDUIN MEETS SCAPINELLI;


Paul Wegener would become one of the founders of Expressionist Horror following up the next year with the influential "Der Golem" (now unfortunately lost aside from the last few scenes) which he would remake (as both actor and director) in 1920 as one of the most important horror films of all time. He would also fire off a critically acclaimed version of "The Pied Piper Of Hamlin" which has also been lost, and a version of Hanns Ewers mad scientist novel "Alarune" in 1928 among many other film credits. He would cast his then wife Lyda Salmonova as the female lead in both versions of "Der Golem" and "The Pied Piper" although they would later divorce and he would marry six times, once to Greta Schroder from "Nosferatu". He had a short career in Hollywood playing mad scientists before returning home when sound films came in. After that the rather rotund actor's days as a leading man were clearly over but he continued to act as a supporting player into the sound era even after the Nazi's took over. Unlike many other Expressionist artists and film-makers he did not flee Germany and continued to work including in some notorious propaganda films, including "Kolberg", generally seen as one of the most expensive disasters in film history. Unlike Hanns Ewers, Wegener was no Nazi though, (he had of course already used a Jewish story and characters with respect in "Der Golem") he reportedly gave money and some assistance to the underground although how much is impossible to know. He managed to avoid being swept up by the Gestapo purges after 1944 so they obviously did not see him as a real threat although his celebrity may have given him some protection. At any rate the post war West German government had no problems with him and he continued to play an elder statesman role in German film and stage including reviving a Jewish play in Berlin and doing charitable work until his death after having a heart attack on stage while acting in a play. He died two months later in 1948 aged 78.
Besides the movies Lyda Salmonova, a former stage actress and dancer originally from Czechoslovakia, made with Wegener she also appeared in a now lost if minor FW Murnau horror movie "The Hunchback & The Lady" with Werner Krause (of "The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari" and the 1926 "Student Of Prague" remake) and John Gottowt. She also appeared in some big budget historical epics like Lucrezia Borgia (1922) (starring Wegener and Conrad Veidt) and "The Loves Of The Pharaoh" (directed by Ernst Lubicsh and starring Emil Jannings)as well as in "The Pied Piper Og Hamlin" with Wegener. However she and Wegener divorced in 1924 and she retired to become an acting teacher. After the war she returned to Czechoslovakia and died in 1968.
John Gottowt's fate was considerably darker. He did appear in a few other important films horror including as the Renfield character in FW Murnau's iconic "Nosferatu" along with Robert Weine's "Genuine" and Paul Leni's "Waxworks" as well as Murnau's "The Hunchback & The Lady". However the rise of the Nazis led to his fleeing Germany as he was Jewish. He fled first to Denmark but then to Warsaw (which had a thriving Yiddish theatre and film community) which turned out to provide little shelter after the Nazi tanks rolled in. He was murdered in 1942 by the Nazis.

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THE 1926 REMAKE;



In the aftermath of World War One German film developed (to coin a phrase) with surprising speed, taking up the themes explored by Wegener's early films. He had followed up "The Student Of Prague" with other supernatural stories "The Pied Piper Of Hamlin", "The Yogi" and "The Golem" (1917). Unfortunately none of these films survive aside from a few stills and the last few minutes of "The Golem" which surfaced a few years ago. These films would inspire even darker films with more imaginative direction, lighting, and set design starting with Robert Wiene's "Cabinet Of Dr Caligari" in 1919 and his followups "Genuine" and "Rashkoliov" (AKA "Crime And Punishment"), FW Murnau's "Nosferatu" (1920) and Wegener's own remake of "The Golem" in 1920. These films would establish the Expressionist template; harsh contrasts in lighting and jagged editing to set a world of dreams and nightmares, elaborate and often fantastic sets, deeply emotional and sometimes stylized acting and story-lines that probed the darkness of the human psyche with themes of alienation, fear and guilt. It was inevitable that the film that effectively started the genre would be remade using proper expressionist techniques although it's a little surprising that Wegener himself didn't do it. Perhaps by 1926 the now 52 year old no longer had the clout to helm his own projects, he was certainly too old to play Balduin.
The film would be directed by Henrik Galeen who had previously worked with Wegener on as writer on "The Golem" and with Murnau on "Nosferatu". In the cast would be two iconic figures of Expressionist Horror, Conrad Veidt as Balduin and Werner Krause as Scapinelli. Veidt had played Cesare the Sleepwalker in "The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari" as well as Orlock in "The Hands Of Orlock", Ivan The Terrible in "Waxworks" and numerous other films. Krause had also been in "Caligari", as the title role and later in "Waxworks" as Jack The Ripper. The film would show that they had fully absorbed the lessons of expressionism in full flower.

"THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE" (1926);


CAST;
Conrad Veidt ~ Balduin
Werner Krause ~ Scapinelli
Elizza La Porta ~ Lyduschka, A Flower Girl
Agnes Esterhazy ~ Countess Margit Von Schwarzenberg
Fritz Alberti ~ Count Von Schwarzenberg
Ferdinand Von Alten ~ Baron Waldis
Leni Reiefenstahl ~ Unknown
Host Wessel ~ Unknown

Directed By Henrik Galeen

PLOT SYNOPSIS (SPOILER ALERT!);
The basic story in the changes little from the first film however the later film is twice as long as the first which gives Galeen more time to flesh out the story and characters. The story opens with foreboding with a shot of a tombstone in a Jewish cemetery with the epitaph "Here lies Balduin; He challenged the devil and lost. Since the German audience was already quite familiar with the story from the first film this would not have seen as a spoiler. There is a longer sequence introducing Balduin as student, drinking and fencing with his happy-go-lucky mates at a pub. Balduin himself is a dour, somber loner worried about his poor prospects. Lyduschka is once again carrying a torch for Balduin. After he rudely snubs her she publicly responds him with a song mocking his lack of money. Scapinelli is at the same pub and witnesses this. He offers Balduin a loan by Balduin brushes him of saying he needs a wealthy heiress to wed. Scapinelli vows to find him one. Balduin fences with a fellow student who had been laughing at him and wins
Meanwhile Countess Margit is shown at a fancy party and heading off with Baron Waldis on a fox hunt. As they ride Scapinelli watches from a hill top. He appears to command the fox to lead the riders through obstacles which cause Margit to fall from her horse in front of Balduin who runs to her rescue. She is smitten by him and gives him her cross pendant which had been knocked off. Baron Waldis rides up and fetches her. Balduin returns home a practices his fencing before storming out just Lyduschka has come to visit giving him a flower. He takes them and walks off. She sneaks into his room and begins cleaning up and polishing his boots. Balduin has gone to visit Countess Margit and her father the count. She is happy to see him and he is about to give her his solitary flower when Waldis shows up with a large bouquet to be welcomed by the Count. Balduin sheepishly shoves his own flower in his pocket and leaves. He arrives home in a bad mood to find Lyduschka still there. She tries to comfort him but he rebuffs her. She leaves dejected after she finds the flower he gave her tossed in the gutter. Scapinelli enters and makes the offer of 600,000 florins in exchange for anything he wishes from the room. Balduin laughingly agrees and signs the contract. When Balduin demands the money Scapinelli produces a small purse from which a seemingly endless rain of coins falls on the table. Balduin is shocked but accepts the money. Scapinelli then gestures to the full length mirror and invites Balduin's reflection to step out of the mirror which it slowly does.
A now wealthy Balduin is hosting a party at his lavish new house. While dressing he discovers he has no reflection in the mirror. He orders a massive bouquet of flowers and sends it to Countess Margit with and invite to his party which she accepts. Balduin enters the party while Margit is playing the piano, he gives her a flower. Baron Waldis is also in attendance, he angrily grabs the flower from Margit and crumples it. She storms off. Standing on a balcony she discovers a note from Balduin asking her to meet him and she agrees. Lyduschka sneaks into the party and witnesses this. Scapinelli also creeps in, in shadow form, and seizes the note without Balduin or Margit noticing and tosses it to Lyduschka who runs off. After Margit returns to the party and Balduin is left alone he is confronted with his Doppelganger who slowly stalks off with out speaking to the horrified Balduin. Margit and Balduin have a clandestine meeting in a cemetery during which he begs her not to marry Waldis and pledges his love. While they are embracing the Doppelganger arrives frightening Balduin but not Margit who does not see him. Lyduschka confronts Waldis and gives him the note from Baldin to Margit. Waldis angrily rides off to find Balduin and strikes him his sword. Balduin challenges him to a duel which Waldis accepts. Count Von Schwarzenberg implores Waldis to cancel the duel as Balduin is the finest fencer in Prague. Waldis refuses but allows Count Von Schwarzenberg to intercede with Balduin who he begs to spare Waldis. Balduin reluctantly agrees. Margit finds out about the deal but is assured Balduin will spare Waldis. At the duel site Balduin is late because his carriage has lost a wheel in a ditch so he sets off on foot. He meets his Doppelganger who informs him that the duel has taken place and Waldis is dead. Balduin is terrified and runs to the scene to find a crowd around Waldis' dead body. A depressed Balduin returns to see the Count and Countess but they refuse to see him. Balduin goes to a pub and drinks heavily while Lyduschka watches. He grabs and kisses her and becomes more rowdy throwing items around the pub and encouraging the other patrons to further debauchery finally trashing the pub. As the revels get out of hand Balduin becomes upset and leaves. The next day he is expelled from university. Balduin is winning money gambling with is friends when the news of his expulsion arrives and they all walk out. A dejected Balduin returns to his home and climbs into bed. Lyduschka enters and climbs into bed with him. At first he allows her to embrace him but when she asks him for Margit's cross pendant which he is still wearing he throws her out. Balduin leaves and wanders out in a stormy night to visit Margit. He tells her about his Doppelganger and shows her his lack of reflection. She is horrified and faints. The Doppelganger appears and confronts Balduin who runs away. The Doppelganger follows as Balduin first attempts to kill him with a club the Doppelganger simply vanishes. Balduin runs home through the storm but at every turn the Doppelganger is waiting for him. When Balduin gets home he locks himself in and arms himself with a dueling pistol. The Doppelganger appears and dares Balduin to shoot him which he does. The Doppelganger disappears while a full length mirror he had been standing in front of shatters. Balduin looks in the remaining shards of the mirror and discovers his reflection has returned. He is overjoyed but then feels a pain in his chest and finds a bullet hole. He collapses and dies. The film cuts to the opening shot of Balduin's tombstone again.
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By the time of the remake's filming in 1926 Expressionism was an established style with a visual language of it's own some which is used here to good effect. The entire final section where Balduin staggers and later flees through a raging storm past barren trees is almost perfectly Expressionist. Likewise the scene of Balduin crouching to see and finally caressing the reflection in the broken mirror and the final appearance of the Doppelganger in front of a now broken window pane with billowing curtains. There is also the scene where Scapinelli takes control of the fox hunt. He is shown on a hill-top silhouetted against a stormy sky with a twisted tree stump wearing a frock coat and top hat and umbrella looking distinctly demonic. In fact this version makes Scapinelli's demonic nature more explicit in this scene where he appears to have power over the fox and hounds as well as the elements. In the first film Margit simply falls off her horse into a pond but it is not made clear that any magic was involved. Similarly when Scapinelli dumps his endless shower of coins from his purse it should be obvious that this is magic since no small purse could possibly hold so many coins. Balduin seems to notice this but is overcome by greed as his only comment is; "Is that all for me?". On the other hand Galeen passes up two obvious chances for supernatural horror from the first film. One is when the Doppelganger steps out of the mirror for the first time. In the Wegener film the double strides around the room before the shocked Balduin before disappearing while in the second the scene simply ends as soon as he steps out. A bigger omission is the scene in the first film where the Doppelganger appears at the poker game to challenge Balduin to a game. Since a similar scene had also turned up in Fritz Lang's "Dr Mabuse, The Gambler" Galeen may have decided the audience would see it as derivative but it's still a glaring loss.

SCAPINELLI STALKS THE HUNT;


Notwithstanding any such minor reservations Galeen does a good job here and there are some good Expressionist effects using a moving camera following Balduin as he flees down the desolate road (that shot should have really gone on longer), a spinning camera during Balduin's drunken revels at the pub to show his disorientation and a later brilliant shot directly after where a shot of wildly sawing blade is superimposed over his head. The film also makes use of another expressionist standard, the symbolism of inanimate objects, Scapinelli's umbrella is a stand-in for a magic wand, the flowers which are given, refused and finally discarded, and of course Balduin's sword which allows for a clearly sensual subtext when Lyduschka caresses it lovingly while cleaning his room. The art direction was by Hermann Warm who had worked on the iconic Expressionist film "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", Fritz Lang's 1921 film "Destiny" and later the 1931 Danish horror classic "Vampyr".

SCAPINELLI'S SHADOW STALKS BALDUIN;


The biggest change from the first film is really the acting however. Paul Wegener was solid enough but by 1926 Conrad Veidt was one of the finest actors in Germany if not the world. His sensitive portrayals of tortured souls like Cesare (from "Dr Caligari"), Orlock ("Orlack's Hands"), Ivan The Terrible ("Waxworks") and numerous others helped set the standard for the doomed expressionist hero. He wears his emotions on his sleeve; guilt, terror, dejection, frightened relief, desperation all come off him in waves. His face, with his oddly high domed forehead, wild shock of hair, enormous eyes and nervous shark-like grin is is highly expressive and the opposite of Wegener's impassive glower. He also has great physical grace as he had already displayed in his earlier films. When he is terrified or dejected it seems to rock or drag down his entire body. Such emotional physicality had become a standard motif of Expressionist film as seen in scenes where Balduin kneels in front of Margit begging forgiveness and placing his head in her lap while she caresses his hair, a common image in German film of the era. Veidt's wonderfully expressive face is shown to full effect (as for that matter are Werner Krause, Elizza La Porta and Grete Berger) by the films use of closeups, something lacking in the first film.

CONRAD VEIDT;


Werner Krauss as Scapinelli was the other well known star here having appeared as Dr Caligari as well as Jack The Ripper in "Waxworks". He is suitably menacing here but does not have the hunched, crab-like posture of Dr Caligari. He is actually more naturalistic than the lesser known John Gottowt from the earlier film both in his manner and his wardrobe. Eliza La Porta as Lyduschka actually looks like Lyda Salmonova from the first film and behaves in much the same flirtatious way although she is more given more to do here and her obsession with Balduin is made more explicit. Similarly Agnes Esterhazy is given slightly more to do than Grete Berger as Margit. She is also younger and more attractive although I'm not sure that is an improvement since Balduin's attraction to her as opposed to the prettier Lyduschka is clearly due to her having money and social status.

A note that two other actors reportedly appear in minor roles, perhaps little more than extras, who would later go on to greater fame or infamy. Leni Reiefenstahl, later the documentary director of Nazi propaganda films "The Triumph Of The Will" and "Olympia" was at this point an ambitious and strikingly attractive up-and-coming actress who had already appeared as little more than a model of physical perfection in one other movie documentary, with her first starring role later that year, she is presumably one of the women at one of the parties. Horst Wessel was at this point a university student and member of various far-right groups, while he was not an actor he was an amateur musician and poet who was also a member of fencing and boxing clubs and could be one of the group of rowdy students or musicians. In another year he would join the Nazi party's Brownshirts and take part in their street brawls until 1930 when he would be murdered in one of them. A song he wrote for the Brownshirts would then become their anthem as "The Horst Wessel Song".

BALDUIN MEETS HIS DOUBLE;


An additional note here is that while both films have clearly Jewish characters they are in no way anti-Semitic. In fact it's worth pointing out that while Balduin, and presumably the other main characters, are not only Jews but respectable members of the lower aristocracy and no different than any proper German junkers. Lest this be seen today as odd coming from a German film of the era it should be noted as well that Wegener also dealt with even more explicitly Jewish characters and settings in "Der Golem" (where the Imperial Austrians are the actually the villains) and Veidt would do the same in the 1936 British version of "Jud Suss" (as opposed to the hateful 1940 Nazi version) and he would also play sympathetic gay characters in a few films. Veidt's wife was also Jewish as was one of Wegener's six wives wives That Weimar culture could allow for such openness while Hollywood was still trading in racist stereotypes of all sorts is worth remembering.
Conrad Veidt would continue to make successful films in Germany until he was lured away by German director Paul Leni when he moved to Hollywood. Leni cast Veidt in the Gothic horror film "The Man Who Laughs" in 1928 and when Leni was given the job of bringing Dracula to the screen he immediately saw Veidt in the title role. Unfortunately Leni died suddenly in 1929 and with his patron and fellow countryman dead, Veidt, speaking little English and worried about typecasting dropped out and returned to Germany. After much searching the role of course went to Bela Lugosi leaving us to wonder what kind of brooding intensity Veidt might have brought to the role. In Germany he continued his career until the Nazis took power in 1933 and Veidt, whose wife was Jewish, fled back to Hollywood. He learned English and returned to the screen in films like "Jud Suss" and "Under The Robe" (as Cardinal Richelieu) before scoring the most famous sound roles as evil Nazis including the major in "Casablanca". His career seemed assured when he suddenly dropped dead of a heart attack while playing golf in 1943. He was only 50 years old.
Director Henrik Galeen would finally work with Paul Wegener in "Aralune" (1928) another horror film about a mad scientist creating artificial life also starring Brigitte Helm of "Metropolis" fame. However he as also a Jew and like Gottowt had to flee Germany after the Nazi takeover. He fled first to Sweden, then Britain before finally landing in Hollywood but did nothing of note before dying in 1949.
Werner Krauss would have very different career, and one far less honorable. Unlike Veidt and other German film-makers and actors such as Marlene Dietrich, Fritz Lang, Paul Weine, Douglas Sirk, Briggitte Helm, Asta Neilson and Hans Richter, he stayed in Germany after Hitler came to power. Also unlike some who also stayed, like Paul Wegener, Krauss became an avowed Nazi. Thus he had no problem finding work during the Hitler years. In fact he was named as Reichskulturkammer theatre department and a "Cultural Ambassador" for Nazi Germany. However none of the many movies the Nazis made were of much note and it mostly as the iconic Dr Caligari he is remembered today. After the war he spent some years in disgrace due to his Nazi past but was eventually considered rehabilitated enough to rejoin the German film community, more as a respected figure of the past than as a real creative force. He died in 1959.

BALDUIN TRIES TO FLEE THROUGH A TYPICAL EXPRESSIONIST URBAN SET;


"The Student Of Prague" would get a German sound remake in 1935 directed by Arthur Robison and starring Anton Walbrook.

Genuine ~ Robert Wiene's Sequel To The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari

"Caligari" is one of the most important films of all time, codifying Expressionism as a visual style of claustrophobia and nightmares. The most film's most distinctive effect was the use of elaborate and bizarre sets, backdrops and costumes which were entirely constructed on an indoor stage set by set designers from the Bauhaus theatre design school which included jagged and elongated walls and furniture. Windows were out of symmetry, doors hung jaggedly out of kilter, people perched precariously on chairs which leaned mantis-like over cramped desks. Stairways and causeways sprang out of nowhere stretching haphazardly into the shadows. Trees and lamp-posts made out of plywood loomed jaggedly overhead like spiderwebs. Harsh shadows were painted on the floor at random. The film was simply full of iconic horror imagry. The rickety merry-go-round at the fair, the arrogant town clerk perched at his desk like a decrepit vulture, the somnambulist Cesare (the great Conrad Viedt) sleeping in his coffin aboard Dr. Caligari's (Werner Krause) jack-in-the-box caravan, and Cesare's oddly elegant spider-like stalk across the maze of rooftop gables carrying the damsel in distress (Lil Dagover), Dagover's ghostly walk through the gardens. Caligari was one of the few films of which it can truely be said that there was never anything quite like it. Hugely influential on later Gothic horror, fantasy and film noir, not to mention music videos and perfume commercials. And yet for such an iconic film one has to wonder why there was no followup. Turns out that there was.



Much like Kubrick's "2001", "Caligari" was not only a ground breaker but a cul-de-sac. It's visual style was just too distinctive to imitate without looking like a carbon copy and the great German Expressionists like FW Murnau, Fritz Lang and Paul Wegener soon found other ways to achieve the nightmare effect they wanted, although echos can be found in Lang's versions of "Faust", Murnau's "Nosferatu" and Wegener's "Der Golem". The challenge of how to answer Caligari fell heaviest on it's director Robert Wiene. Actually Weine was thought of as a talented journeyman director who came from a theatre family rather than a full-fledged expressionist like Murnau, Lang or Wegener, or even his actors Veidt and Krause. His previous work from romantic melodramas to domestic comedies with no noteworthy style or flair. In fact many of the visual trademarks of "Caligari" were partly forced on Wiene by the low budget and short shooting schedule that he was saddled with in the economic crisis of post WW1 Germany. This meant he he had no choice but to shoot the entire film indoors in a converted warehouse using plywood stage sets. This made him open to experiment with the expressionists from the Bauhaus school which he might not have otherwise done. Wiene has come into some criticism from those who said that he did not really understand the genre he helped to launch and who resented the changes he was forced add to give the film a happy ending. He is most often dismissed as "over-rated". But it must be said that while he may have been a late convert he dove in with both feet. After "Caligari" his first followup was "Genuine; "Story Of A Vampire".

In 1921 the "vampire" in question was not a bloodsucking undead that we expect but a "vamp", a mysterious and exotic woman who seduces men and destroys men for the sheer joy of doing so. Genuine was the name of the vamp in question, a native girl in some Mid-Eastern slave market who is bought by a European tourist who keeps her captive in a glass birdcage until she lures another young man to kill the older man and release her. Upon which she proceeds to seduce and destroy various men until she meets her demise. And that's about it. The film was a collaboration between Carl Meyer, a respected Expressionist screen writer and painter and Bauhaus set designer Cesare Klein. Meyer would have many important films to his credit notably his later work with Murnau on "The Last Laugh" but the simplistic and plot of "Genuine" was not his best work, especially to modern eyes.

"GENUINE" (full film);


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PLOT (SPOILER ALERT);
Cast;
Fern Andra ~ "Genuine"
Hans Heinz Von Twardowski ~ "Florian"
John Gottowt ~ "Guyard"
Louis Brody ~ "Manservant"
Harald Paulsen, Ernst Gronau ~ Roles unknown, presumably "Percy" and "Henry" or "The Barber"

Percy, a painter is dreaming of an exotic girl named Genuine whose life-size painting is on his library wall. As he sleeps the girl comes to life and steps out of the painting.
Genuine is a High Priestess of a tribe in the Mid-East who is captured when her tribe is attacked by a rival tribe and she is taken to a slave market. She is bought by Guyard, an bald old rich European wearing a long black jacket, white gloves and spats. He is warned that she is savage and dangerous. He buys her anyway and takes her to his mansion where he lives with an intimidating black manservant who wears a turban, Turkish pantaloons and a curved dagger. Guyard's mansion is decorated with sinister artwork including a skeleton grandfather clock. Guyard keeps Genuine captive in a giant glass birdcage where she longs for freedom.
Guyard has a barber visit him each day at noon to give him a shave while he dozes in his chair. The other villagers are suspicious of Guyard and ask The Judge to summon the Barber to explain what Guyard is up to in his mansion. The Barber must therefore send his nephew Percy to substitute for him at Guyard's the next day. Guyard gets a letter from his grandson, Percy, announcing that he will coming for a visit. The next day Florian arrives. he is a pale nervous youth wearing kneepants and effeminate clothes and hair. While he is giving Guyard a shave and Guyard dozes Genuine escapes and creeps into the room. She lures Percy into killing Guyard with his straight-razor. Guyard's manservant bursts in and draws his knife to attack Percy. However Genuine has already told Percy that Guyard had been controlling the Manservent with his magic ring. Percy puts on the ring and orders the Manservent to exit the room, which he does.
Genuine and Percy are in bed, she is asleep while he moons over her. He is smitten but he is also racked with guilt over Guyard's death. Genuine awakes and orders Percy to prove his loyalty by killing himself. Percy is distraught and flees, Genuine orders the Manservent to kill him.
Percy arrives and is seduced by Genuine. He falls in love and writes a letter to his friend Henry asking him to visit and bring gifts for his upcoming wedding. Genuine is enjoying her control over Percy and urges him to kill himself.
Meanwhile Florian, who has not been killed by the Manservant, runs to his father the Barber and confesses to the murder of Guyard. The Barber runs to The Judge and demands that Guyard's mansion be searched.
When Henry arrives Percy tells him that Genuine has cast a spell on him and wants him dead. Henry confronts Genuine and tells him that Percy is dead, Genuine is upset and says she really loves Percy. Henry then reveals that he had lied and that Percy is in fact still alive. Genuine is overjoyed. Henry reunites Genuine and Percy, they decide to run away together.
The Barber has incited an angry mob of villagers armed with pichforks, scythes and flails to attack Guyard's mansion. The Manservant tries to stop the mob but is killed. On his own Florian has also run to the mansion. Genuine tries to hide but is confronted by Florian, she suddenly dies in his arms as the Barber as the mob bursts in.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One problem with the film as it exists today is that it is incomplete. Like most films of that era some of it has been lost, perhaps a full reel. All that remains is approximately forty minutes worth, enough for a reasonably coherant plot line and certainly enough to get a feel for the film's sense of style but the film is obviously truncated and full of loose ends. For example why does the Manservant fail to kill Percy? Did Percy escape somehow or did he use the ring to ward him off? Or did The Manservant refuse the order since she did not have the ring? If so why does he remain and risk his life to protect her? For another matter who exactly is Henry? He is the only character strong enough to take charge and resist Genuine's charms and he looks imposing when he confronts her but we know nothing about him. He also disappears without explanation. For that matter so does Percy, which is strange considering the whole film is supposed to be his dream. Speaking of which the film just stops without returning from Percy's dream to the real world at the beginning. Actually considering that the story is supposed to be Percy's dream why do so many events have nothing to do with him and in fact cover events he could not possibly know? The additional fifteen or twenty minutes that are missing might explain all of this.



Even without this there are problems with the story that expressionist writers noted even then, let alone now. The character of Genuine is supposed to be a villian who destroys men just for the Hell of it. But considering that she starts as a slave girl who was being passed back and forth and held captive in a cage by the creepy old Guyard she seems more of a victim. Modern audiences should understand that the "Vamp" character was actually a popular stock villain of the 1910's film era. The Vamp was a common character in the early years of film, often played by the likes of Theda Bara, Alla Nazimova or Pola Negri, usually dark haired and wearing elaborate "Eastern" gowns and robes, bejeweled and feathered, chain smoking long filters and fixing her prey with a cold disdainful glare through dark ringed eyes and fluttering lashes. The Vamp characters, so popular to audiences, perhaps showed the hangover of the prudish post-Victorian era and their fear of liberated women and sex in general, particularly amongst poorly educated working class, small town and immigrant audiences. Today however the Vamps seem at best naive and silly and at worst sexist and even misogynistic. Actually some of the more sophisticated artists and intellectuals of the day thought much the same thing and the Vamp character was already going out of style. It would seem that Wiene and Mayer intended the character of Genuine to be a female version of the evil, manipulative Dr. Caligari from the previous film, however since she spends the first part of the film as a victim and the last part professing her guilt she is not much a villain. Unless we are to believe that her repentance at the end was not sincere. Is that why Percy disappears at the end? Did she send him away? Did he sacrifice himself to the mob as The Manservant did? Or did he burst in at the end after her death in a part that has been lost? Does he awaken at the end and did that part also get lost? At any rate the central theme of "Caligari" was one of the danger of a manipulative leader who leads his followers to their doom is muted if that leader is not really evil.

Other Expressionistic writers also complained that the film lacked the basic themes of the genre; alienation, confronting emotional depth through dreams and the very German conflicts of obedience to authority and self expression. The question of Percy's dream is actually important here, especially in the light of what happened in the previous film "The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari". As anyone who has seen "Caligari" will know the entire film is presented as a dream had by the narrator. This was not in the original screenplay written by Carl Mayer and Hans Janowitz but was added by Fritz Lang who was originally supposed to direct the film until he dropped out and was replaced by Robert Wiene. Wiene continued on with Lang's notes over Mayer and Janowitz's objections. Lang and Wiene's assumptions were at least partly the belief that the film would not be accepted by the studio or the public without an ending that was more upbeat. Many writers then and now have criticized for this as undermines the message of the film as being a warning about the evils of authority figures who demand unquestioning obedience from their followers. This was certainly Mayer's main complaint. However some writers have noted that the framing sequences in "Caligari" actually use the same bizarre sets and makeup as the rest of the film's nightmare sequences which in turn undermines the entire "It was all a dream" concept. Was it a dream after all? It's one of the many enigmas of "Caligari". On the other hand in "Genuine" the framing sequence at the start uses a realistic set and makeup that is distinctly at odds with the rest of the film and states up front that the story is a dream which further confuses whatever message the film has, especially since the surviving print seems to end so abruptly.

Those writers (including Mayer) who criticized "Caligari" and "Genuine" for muting the message by making it into a dream inevitably blame Wiene for not understanding the purpose of expressionism. Even setting aside fact that he was working from Fritz Lang's notes with "Caligari" we should consider the fact that after even complaining about the changes made to "Caligari" Mayer quickly worked with Wiene again and he not only wrote this film but once again made it into yet another dream fantasy.



The film would not be remembered for it's plot anyway but for it's look. Weine and set designer Cesare Klein clearly decided to take the nightmare world of "Caligari" to further levels and this time they had the time and budget to do so. However this time the effects were judged by many as not a success. The more elaborate sets of "Genuine" seemed to overwhelm the cast and the exotic costumes were simply a distraction. Where "Caligari" was stark and moody, "Genuine" was too busy for it's own good. Conversely many felt that the flat plywood and canvas sets also lacked lacked depth. The same was also true of "Caligari" but the sheer novelty of the first film had caught the imagination of most viewers, somehow the second time around a similar style now seemed a cliche. Most of the actors fade into the wild backgrounds and they suffer even more from the frequently ridiculous costumes and hairstyles they wear. Fern Andra as Genuine wears a typical "exotic" Vamp costume of the time which contemporary audiences probably felt was not too over-the-top more or less, ditto for the black Manservant's Turkish costume. However Percy's Buster Brown kneepants and schoolboy outfit just look silly and the absurd hairstyles that he and The Barber wear make them look like they wandered over from a Flock Of Seagulls video. I doubt that 1920 audiences felt much different. They have better luck with Guyard; his hunched shoulders, bald head, long tight black jacket, white gloves with black lines on the back and spats over Cuban heeled shoes, he looks like a combination of Dr Caligari and Nosferatu. Similarly Henry, looming tall and dressed in black from head to foot looks imposing enough to standout immediately.

This brings us to the other quality lacking in "Genuine", the acting. In "Caligari" Wiene was blessed to have some of the finest German actors of the age. The brilliant Conrad Veidt was haunting as Cesare and Wener Krause as Dr.Caligari made an iconic villain while Lil Dagover was a definitive Gothic damsel in distress. Besides the leads each of the other players (who also included Rudolph Klein-Rogge, who would go on to appear in classics like "Dr Mabuse", "Spies", "Die Nibelungen" and "Metropolis") gave sharply etched characters that easily overcame the limitations of silence and stood out from as rather than fading into the weird sets and costumes. In Genuine the only holdover from "Caligari" was Hans Heinz Von Twardowski, who had played the doomed Alan in the earlier film and now played the hapless Florian. This time he seemed simply callow and pathetic and he was given more room to overact in ways that seem more blatant to modern eyes than perhaps at the time. Similarly there is Fern Andra as Genuine. She was actually an American named Vernel Andrews (born 1893) who had started her career as a dancer, circus tighrope walker and trapeze acrobat before moving to Germany where she started a film career as an exotic Theda Bara/Mata Hari type Vamp. However she tends to overact, at any rate she lacks the Vampish menace of a Pola Negri, Alla Nazimova or Theda Bara who had a better understanding of their roles. It is simply never clear exactly why men are supposed to find her so seductive when she merely looks basically attractive but not especially charismatic. Nor does she make a very compelling victim, which given all the terrible things that happen to her is a problem. Although given the contradictions of her character that's may not be entirely her fault. She is simply a stock "Vamp" plot device audiences were expected to accept as irresistible to all men by definition, something they were less likely to do than would have been the case a few years before when Teda Bara was in her heyday.



There are a few good performances though; John Gottowt as "Guyard" is creepy enough, although he lacks the menacing presence of Werner Krause stalking through the narrow streets in "Caligari". By contrast Guyard's hunched shoulders and mincing steps would make him a better henchmen and in fact FW Murnau would use him to good effect as the Renfield character in "Nosferatu" two years later. He had already appeared in another classic horror film, the 1913 version of "The Student Of Prague" (with Paul Wegener) and he would later appear in "Waxworks" in 1924 with Conrad Veidt. The unknown actor playing "Henry" has enough stage presence to stand out from the busy sets and dominate Andra in their scene together and he would actually have made an excellent villain. It's too bad he gets so little screen time and we know nothing about him. Louis Brody the black actor playing the Manservant has the presence to be serviceable enough in the role. As an aside it is worth noting the irony that European films of the 1920's usually used actual black actors on the rare times they were called for rather than white actors in blackface as in most American films and while they were invariably stock characters and extras they were not used in the sort of demeaning "Sambo" roles either.


GENUINE IN THE SLAVE MARKET

Despite it's flaws "Genuine" is still worth seeing for any fan of Expressionism as pure example of the genre, and the sets, while at times a little too busy for their own good, are still eye-catching, especially to modern eyes which rarely if ever see such a riot of out of control design. The current film's short forty minute run time, while leading to all sorts of plotting problems as stated above, does at least have the bonus of making it easy to sit through, always a consideration with silent films for some.

After "Genuine" Carl Mayer would go on to a respected career as an Expressionist screenwriter with several well regarded films to his credit, including collaborating with FW Murnau on the classic "The Last Laugh" in 1924. Ironically that film had yet another dream sequence tacked on to the end, this time apparently by Murnau himself at the orders of the studio. Cesare Klein would continue his career as a painter and theatre designer.



Of the cast Fern Andra would have a suitably dramatic life with successful film career in Germany and some high profile affairs. The same year as "Genuine" was made her current lover, Lothar Von Richtoffen, who happened to be the brother of the actual Red Baron, they were in a plane crash in which Lothar was killed and Fern was widely reported dead but the cosmically lucky Fern survived. She would marry four times, twice to the same guy, American actor Ian Keith. When Hitler came to power she could have probably have continued her career but she left Germany and returned to America where she continued her eccentric career on stage dying in 1974 aged 80.



Hans Twardowski, who was gay, also fled to Hollywood when the Nazis took power where he found work in supporting roles into the War years where he became stereotyped playing Nazi roles including in "Casablanca" along side his old "Caligari" castmate Conrad Veidt. After the war typecasting limited his roles and he turned to the stage dying in 1958.


HANS TWARDOWSKI
John Gottowt would have a much more tragic fate. He was Jewish also had also had to flee Germany after the Nazis took power in 1933, he fled first to Denmark but then moved to Poland (where there was a thriving Yiddish theatre and film scene) where he was captured and murdered by the SS in 1942.


JOHN GOTTOWT

Louis Brody, the black actor who played the hulking loyal manservant, would also have a dramtic life. Born in the then German colonly of Kamerun (now Cameroon) in 1892 and moved to Germany before World War One and worked as a boxer, singer and actor with a long film film career. He was also a political activist as one of the founding members of Liga zur Verteidigung der Negerrasse, a civil rights organization for the Black citizens of Germany's African colonies allied with the Communist Party. Not surprisingly when the Nazis took power they banned the League but somehow Brody escaped arrest and was allowed to continue his career which he did through the war years and afterwards dying in 1951.


LOUIS BRODY

As for Robert Wiene; after the relative failure of "Genuine" he did not give up on Expressionism as a genre. In 1923 he traveled to the USSR, where his work was highly regarded, to do an adaptation of Dostoyevsky's "Crime And Punishment" (sometimes found under the alternative title "Rashkolinov") using an all Russian cast. He was still wedded to the pure Expressionist style he had laid down in "Caligari" but he had listened to the criticism of "Genuine" and taken note of Paul Wegener's film "Der Golem". This time he made the sets more three dimensional which gave them more depth while toning down the outlandish costumes. The result was a better balance of fantasy and reality which got the film better reviews, especially in Russia. Although the film is not well known today and rarely seen, copies can still be occasionally found on DVD. In 1924 he reunited with "Caligari's" Conrad Veidt for "The Hands Of Orlock" (AKA "Orlock's Hands") an influential horror classic which was later remade in an inferior sound version. "Orlock" is currently available on DVD from Criterion and is highly recommended. After that he settled back into mainstream work like "The Duchess Of The Folies Bergeres". For this he has been roundly dismissed as little more than a hack, although few people criticism Fritz Lang for his similar mercenary films and lapses in taste. After Hitler came to power the Nazi's banned Wiene's three Expressionist films and he quickly fled the country to the USA where he was considering a sound remake of "Caligari" when he died in 1938. There would in fact be a B Movie quickee remake of Caligari in 1962 which has been richly forgotten. There would also be an interesting shot by shot sound American remake in 2005 which is currently available on DVD and is worth checking out.


ROBERT WIENE

There would in fact be a B Movie quickee remake of Caligari in 1962 which has been richly forgotten. There would also be an interesting shot by shot sound B&W American remake in 2005 which also replicates the sets of the original which is currently available on DVD and is worth checking out.