Many Silent Films Are Gone, a Few Quietly Chilling Classics Remain
Luckily for us today, the previous distribution of the film allowed copies to survive. Now, Nosferatu survives death much as the fictional count survives the grave. Another version of Stoker’s book made it to the screen earlier than Nosferatu. Unfortunately, the Hungarian-made Drakula halÃ?¡la ( or The Death of Dracula ), has disappeared into the movie graveyard and faded amongst the mists.
Luckily, a select handful of silent-era monsters survived that great executioner commonly known as time. They bring to us ghosts of actors and actresses long dead, and their mute voices speak to us through the ages. It is indeed, eerie to watch these celluloid spectres as they traipse across the screen as alive as you and I.
Perhaps some are a bit tame by today’s standards, we can easily recognize these sulking creatures were every bit as frightening as the monsters of today’s jaded film tastes are to some of us. They maintain their eerieness, their deep hatreds for a world that despises them, and their sadness of loss of what they could never have.
Max Shrek stars as Count Orlok in Nosferatu, and is arguably the most naturally sinister actor ever to portray Dracula. His bald head, thin frame, spidery fingers, and odd teeth offer the appearance of a rat or some other unsavory creature of the night. The film is fraught with visual imagery and occult symbols, adding constantly to the story’s mystery. Most people agree that Nosferatu is one silent horror film not to be missed.
Metropolis creates a robot portrayed by Briggitte Helm. Although this mechanical Frankenstein monster is only on the screen for a brief time, its image sticks with this excellent film’s viewers. Along with Der Golem, and Edison’s Frankenstein, it deals with the problems of man creating a creature in their image.
F.W. Murau’s 1926 Faust is an excellent re-telling of the classic story made famous with plays by Christopher Marlowe and Goethe. The visual effects in the film are dramatic, with a particularly eerie piece of puppetry in the opening of the story. The film is beautiful, and the story uncomfortably familiar. Emil Jannings portrays the evil Mephisto with unhampered gusto.
The Student of Prague, another type of Faustian legend, remains for us to enjoy today. Not just one version, either. Firstly, the 1913 version starring Paul Wegener, and secondly the 1926 version starring Conrad Veidt. The monster of this film is a sorcerer named Scapinelli (portrayed by Werner Krauss in 1926 and John Gottowt who also acted in Nosferatu). Scapinelli offers the student Balduin wealth in exchange for anything in Balduin’s apartment. Balduin readily conceeds, and Scapinelli steals the student’s reflection from the mirror. The reflection-doppleganger quickly goes about the work of destroying Balduin, and is very successful in that matter.
Conrad Veidt and Werner Krauss appeared together in the earlier The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Werner Krauss plays the sinister Dr. Caligari while Veidt portrays the sleep-walking Cesare, a somnambulist. This film is fantastic for its use of eerie, impressionistic sets. Because the backers thought the film was too confusing for the audience, an unnecessary introduction and ending were added. It is still a fantastically brilliant film to watch.
John Gottowt joins Emil Jannings, Veidt and Krauss in Waxworks. A visually stimulating film, it tells the tale of a writer working on stories for the wax figures in a display. Waxworks is a brilliantly told set of stories, although it is disconcerting that it confuses Jack the Ripper with Springheeled Jack, as the two legends are quite seperate from each other.
Then there is the man with a thousand faces himself, Lon Chaney. Chaney’s performance in Phantom of the Opera is not easily forgotten. A disfigured creature haunting the Paris Opera House, Chaney’s Phantom is a classic portrayal of the creature, and still considered a classic. Lon Chaney did many frightening roles in his career, including a vampire part in London After Midnight, which exists only in a still-frame recovery format. Unfortunately, the plot falls short of Chaney’s extremely creepy vampire make up.
John Barrymore’s performance in Doctor Jeckyll and Mister Hyde released in 1920 is powerful. Barrymore physically molds his face on its first transformation purely through his skills as an actor. The transformation is astounding, and sets the tone for the rest of Barrymore’s performance in the film. A 1913 version of Doctor Jeckyll and Mister Hyde is presumed lost.
Der Golem starring Paul Wegener survives in its 1920 form, although two earlier Golem movies starring Wegener are presumed lost. Der Golem tell an old tale of a creature built by a Jewish rabbi to protect his people from persecution. When the creature gets out of control, it causes a great deal of havoc in the city of Prague. This film is intriguing, and its portrayal of persecution of Jews is eerie given what was to come to Germany in the next few years.
In the 1915 film A Fool There Was, Theda Bara plays a woman known as the ‘Vampire’. Although she is not a supernatural creature, she sucks the life-blood out of men with equal effectiveness. Her performance is strong and frightening.
Many of these films are available for purchase at a low cost. With access to online DVD rental services, you can likely find them all. Any serious or curious movie-phile would do well to familiarize themselves with these films if they are not already. These movies lead to the very roots of the tree, and are today, as they were then, true works of art.
