Amazon.com video review:
Three seminal works in one package make this an ideal choice for film buffs and horror fans. The Masterworks of the German Horror Cinema contains three influential masterpieces from the early 1920s: The Golem, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Nosferatu. All three films are excellent, and their influence on later works, most notably Frankenstein, is clear. Nosferatu, directly plagiarized from Bram Stoker's Dracula, is by far the scariest of the three. Max Schreck's bizarre, creepy performance as the vampire is still surprisingly effective. The Golem is a retelling of the Jewish legend of a rabbi who dabbles in the black arts to protect the inhabitants of the ghetto. He makes a man of clay and brings him to life, with dire results. Though all three have gorgeous images, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the tale of a mysterious mesmerist, is the most interesting as a prime example of German expressionism. The swooping, distorted sets are brilliantly nightmarish. The three silent films are best enjoyed with the volume turned all the way down. While The Golem is presented in silence, by far the most satisfying option, the music soundtrack tacked onto Caligari is unnecessary at best, and the score Nosferatu has been saddled with is absolutely dunderheaded. Bonus material includes stills and poster art from all three films and a clip from the lost film Genuine: A Tale of a Vampire. --Ali Davis
Amazon.com Essentials:
As noted critic Pauline Kael observed, "... this first
important film of the vampire genre has more spectral atmosphere, more
ingenuity, and more imaginative ghoulish ghastliness than any of its
successors." Some really good vampire movies have been made since Kael
wrote those words, but German director F.W. Murnau's 1922 version
remains a definitive adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Created when
German silent films were at the forefront of visual technique and
experimentation, Murnau's classic is remarkable for its creation of
mood and setting, and for the unforgettably creepy performance of Max
Schreck as Count Orlok, a.k.a. the blood-sucking predator
Nosferatu. With his rodent-like features and long, bony-fingered
hands, Schreck's vampire is an icon of screen horror, bringing
pestilence and death to the town of Bremen in 1838. (These changes of
story detail were made necessary when Murnau could not secure a
copyright agreement with Stoker's estate.) Using negative film,
double-exposures, and a variety of other in-camera special effects,
Murnau created a vampire classic that still holds a powerful influence
on the horror genre. (Werner Herzog's 1978 film Nosferatu the
Vampyre is both a remake and a tribute, and Francis Coppola
adopted many of Murnau's visual techniques for Bram Stoker's
Dracula.) Seen today, Murnau's film is more of a fascinating
curiosity, but its frightening images remain effectively
eerie. --Jeff Shannon
Amazon.com Essentials:
F.W. Murnau changed the name and ghastly appearance of his
villain, but this unauthorized version of Bram Stoker's
Dracula couldn't
fool the Stoker estate, and it became the center of a lawsuit that
almost resulted in its complete destruction. Thankfully this
masterpiece survives (though in a somewhat altered form), for despite
its liberties with the novel, this 1921 horror classic remains the
most beautiful and resonant interpretation of Stoker. Though the plot
remains essentially the same--naive real-estate clerk Thomas (Gustav
von Wangenheim) is sent abroad to finalize a sale with the nocturnal
Count Orlock (the hideous-looking Max Schreck), who imprisons Thomas
and travels to England to claim Thomas's beautiful young wife, Ellen
(Greta Schroder), as his own--the visual realization creates a very
different story. Schreck plays the vampire as a grotesque demon, with
his claw-like hands, bald head and sharp, bat-like ears, and he rises
from his coffin with an supernatural stiffness, like a tent pole
pulled upright. When the eerily empty ghost ship carrying his coffin
arrives in Thomas's home port, a river of rats pours out and spreads
through the town like a plague. Perhaps the most noticeable changes
from the novel are the absence of Van Helsing and the richer
realization of Ellen, the would-be victim, whose innate sensibility
and solemn spirituality give her a spooky connection with the
vampire. With his stark, symbol-laden visual scheme and sacrificial
conclusion, Murnau creates a more mythic tale than any subsequent
adaptation of Stoker's novel. --Sean Axmaker
