Tag Archives: horror films

December 7, 2020 · 10:50 pm

Films of 1920: Genuine, Tragedy of a Vampire

They can’t all be winners.

My last post was about the very successful and acclaimed Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. I’ll look next at two forgotten films that tried to follow in Caligari’s footsteps… and failed.

Genuine: Tragedy of a Vampire

This was a follow up from Caligari‘s director, Robert Wiene, in which he ill-advisedly tried to dial up the weirdness.

First a disclaimer: there are no undead bloodsuckers in this flick. In 1920 the term ‘vampire’ or ‘vamp’ was more commonly used to refer to a seductive femme fatale, which is the case here.

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December 2, 2020 · 11:34 pm

Films of 1920: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

I start my series of posts about the films of 1920 with a real blockbuster…

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, directed by Robert Wiene is one of the most highly regarded artistic works of 1920. Stills from this film are probably familiar to you, most of them featuring spidery Conrad Veidt carrying a limp Lil Dagover around crazily painted sets. Today the film is most famous for the Expressionist art direction. (And for how cool Veidt looks.)

When designer Hermann Warm gave his proposed set sketches to director Wiene and producer Rudolf Meinert, Wiene gave his approval, but Meinert took an extra day to think it over before giving the order: “Do these sets as eccentrically as you can!” *

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