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The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
(1920, aka
Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari)
A Thrilling
Fantastic Photo-Play
Director: Robert Wiene, Not rated
  Starring:
Conrad Veidt, Werner Krauss, Friedrich Feher, Lil Dagover, Hans Heinrich von
Twardowski, Rulolf Lettinger
DML Rating:
★★★★★★★★☆☆
- great
"Ladies and gentlemen,
Cesare the somnambulist will answer all your questions. Cesare
knows every secret. Cesare knows the past and sees the future.
Judge for yourselves. Don't hold back, ask away!" -
Dr. Caligari
Why watch this? This
early film shocked and created the horror genre.
Plot Summary: In a
shadowy German town, a man named Francis recounts a bizarre tale
of murder and madness centered around a mysterious, possibly
clairvoyant carnival performer, Dr. Caligari, and his
somnambulist assistant, Cesare. Francis begins to suspect the
carnival doctor is behind a series of local killings, driven by
a fear that leads him to investigate the unsettling truth behind
the performers' identities and motives.
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Dad's Preview:
This cinematic horror masterpiece is an incredible feat of
angles, shadows and revolutionary close-up shots. The film's
askew sets remind me of a Picasso-esc expressionist funhouse. The
design is purposeful, to keep the audience feeling out of
place... separate from the normal, ordered world. The story
centers on a strange "Doctor" who presents macabre
sideshow. He uses hypnosis to control a
somnambulist (a person who is always appears asleep), named Cesare.
As expected, there are more nefarious
aspects to the dark plot, and even a few twists that make this
silent film very interesting, especially the ending. Dr. Caligari may be cinema's first mad scientist, leading the way
for Frankenstein, Moreau, and Jekyll. |
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Erich
Pommer, Rudolf Meinert, Decla-Film;
Goldwyn Distributing Co.
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