Cheap The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (DVD) (Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Feher, Lil Dagover) (Robert Wiene) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

There is something frightful in our midst!
Filmed way back in 1921, "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" is perhaps one of the oldest horror films ever made. As a viewer, I see this film as a macabre, magnificent work of art. It was probably intended to be that way, since director Robert Wiene was heavily inspired by the German Expressionist movement. With its skewed and handpainted scenery, crooked angles, looming shadows, and ghostly aura, this feature film is an Edvard Munch painting brought to life. More importantly, its simple yet terrifying plotline helped give birth to early cinematic horror, which would forever place Lon Chaney, Bela Legosi, and Boris Karloff on pedestals.
Here is the synopsis: A young man named Francis (Friedrich Feher) plays the narrator, opening his story at a carnival sideshow that opened in the town of Holstenwall. Francis and his best friend Alan (Hans Heinrich Von Twardowski) attended the show to witness a truly strange attraction: An aging scientist named Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss) unveils to an astounded audience a ghoulish sleepwalker named Cesare (Conrad Veidt), who the Doctor solely commands through the power of hypnotism. Under his control, Cesare awakens from his coffin-like box to prophesise people's fates. When an excited Alan asks Cesare, "How long shall I live?" he grimly utters, "The time is short. You die at dawn!" Meanwhile, the town police investigate a string of bizarre murders. Not surprisingly, Alan would end up becoming the killer's next victim!

Devastated by the sudden loss of his friend, Francis seeks aid from the town police. Together, they find clues linking the cold-blooded killings with Dr. Caligari's priceless freak of nature. In the film's latter half, Francis and the authorities read through the Doctor's notes and discover his most fiendish, insane ambition: The old man gleefully named himself after an 11th century monk who once toured across Northern Italy with a somnanbulist at his side. Dr. Caligari's studies reveal how he recruited poor Cesare from an insane asylum and forced him to commit acts of murder and terrorize innocent people! After the awful truth is exposed, justice prevails as the wicked Doctor is bound in a straitjacket and dragged away. Or is he?
I really love how Conrad Veidt's Cesare character is both terrifying and sympathetic. Although he basically wears a black bodysuit, his figure somehow provides the illusion of inhuman strength, like he was carved out of stone. However, that changes later on when Cesare breaks into the bedroom of Francis's betrothed Jane (Lil Dagover). In a state of torment, he raises the knife over his head and stops himself from stabbing the sleeping woman. In that instance, a viewer can realize that Cesare is only human, and that the Doctor is the true monster. The way actor Werner Krauss portrays him, by the way, is quite marvelous. He's clearly the manipulator of the story; a dangerously clever individual who tries desperately not to get caught. Finally, Friedrich Feher's Francis is a not a typical hero, but rather a traumatized young man seeking the truth; it's obvious that he's overcome with grief and driven almost mad. Did I say almost? As a participant in the movie's main action, Francis is both horrified and curious about the Doctor's motives.
This is a movie I definitely recommend to the openly artistic. The DVD is the perfect gift for Tim Burton fans!

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quite fun!
Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (Robert Weine, 1920)

It has occurred to me many times over the years since I read my first book about monster movies how Germany dominated world cinema before World War II, and how that's changed since. Depressing. The Germans could do almost as good a job as the Japanese at expressing postwar angst, one thinks. One wonders why the Japanese have a whole industry of extreme horror and the Germans have, well, Jorg Buttgereit.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is widely considered the world's first horror film. It really isn't (both Fritz Lang and Robert Weine were both making horror movies for years before Caligari came out, along with Lang's stable of directors who did the films his fevered brain turned out he didn't have time to direct), but it may be the first still widely available. It's also a masterpiece of expressionist cinema, and really should be seen by all serious students of film.

The story centers around Francis (Friedrich Fehler, who spent much more time behind the camera than before it), who relates the story of his odd past few days to a man he meets while out on a walk. He, his best friend Alan (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, who made a slew of anti-Hitler films during World War II after leaving Weine's stable), and the woman they both love, Jane (Lil Dagover, one of Germany's most celebrated actresses right up to her 1980 death), encountered an odd sideshow at the town fair. Run by one Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss), it's an exhibition of a somnambulist named Cesare (Conrad Veidt, best known for Casablanca) who has supposedly been asleep for a quarter century, and now can be awakened for short periods by Caligari. The day the fair comes to town, a series of murders begins, and Francis becomes convinced that Caligari is using Cesaire to commit the murders. The truth, however, is far more complex...

Modern viewers who aren't used to silent film will probably be bored, or at least annoyed; depending on which version you get, the background music can be horribly inappropriate for the material, and let's face it, a lot of moviegoers today don't have the patience for subtitles, much less the cards used for dialogue in the silent days. (One longs for someone to do an ambient/gothic soundtrack for this film, as has been done for Metropolis, Nosferatu, and earlier versions of The Phantom of the Opera.) Also, in the silent film days, and especially in expressionist film, facial expressions and gestures are always exaggerated. Caveat viewer, as it were. Those who have gotten used to such things, however (repeated screenings of Shadow of the Vampire should at least give you the idea), will find much to enjoy here.

The main thing to point out is the set design. A thousand-word review cannot even begin to say enough good things about the wonderful sets put together by Herrmann Warm and his colleagues from Die Sturm. Everything in this movie, from the windows to the trees, is completely off-kilter. It's a cubist's worst nightmare; there's not a single right angle to be found anywhere on the set (except, arguably, in Conrad Veidt's lower jaw). The acting gives enough that Weine cold keep the between-scene cards to a minimum and the average Joe can still figure out what's going on, so the film's sixty-seven minutes are far more action than words. Weine weaves together subplot after subplot, and while he could be charged with initiating the idea that love triangles cannot end well in film, it works in the context here.

Yes, there is a great deal to like about The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. It's not as chilling as Nosferatu, but it's certainly capable of grabbing hold and not letting go. *** ½

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Brilliant film but an explanation for all!
It has been rumored for years that when the producers set out to make The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari they intended to end the film with Caligari getting captured and no framing story. Wrong! A first draft of the film's script shows there was always intended to be a framing story. But the one that was first intended was different than the one presented on film. Originally Francis and Jane were supposed to be at a picnic years later and reminiscing about their days in the town when murderer Caligari showed up. This was changed to the looney bin frame story probably so authority woudn't be depicted quite so negatively. Agreed the film is brilliant and powerfully scarey in it's final execution (no pun intended).