The Haunted Castle Schloß Vogeloed 1921

Directed by F.W. Murnau

Produced by Erich Pommer

Screenplay by Carl Mayer

From the book by Rudolf Stratz

Photographed by László Schäffer and Fritz Arno Wagner

Starring Arnold Korff, Lulu Kyser-Korff, Lothar Mehnert, Paul Bildt, Olga Tschechowa, Paul Hartmann, Hermann Vallentin, Julius Falkenstein, Georg Zawatzky, Robert Leffler, Victor Bluetner, Walter Kurt Kuhle and Loni Nest

Released 7th April 1921 (Germany)

Prior to plumbing the depths of revulsion and desperation with such movies as Faust and The Last Laugh, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau tried out the waters with this dark play of a storm-bound manor house and the grisly secret that lingers inside. A hunting party is disturbed by the arrival of a infamous Count (Lothar Mehnert), who's thought to have killed his brother. The unwanted invitee launches a complicated plan to revive the spectres of past times and bring to light the gloomy enigma that dwells at the middle of his brother’s demise.

The fateful ambiance and psychological complexity urged Murnau to dig deeper into the horror genre, which he did the next year, with the godly vampire story Nosferatu made in 1922.

German Silent Films

The Golem 1920

The Golem (1920)


Director: Paul Wegener and Carl Boese


Actors: Paul Wegener, Albert Steinrück, Lyda Salmonova, Ernst Deutsch, Hans Stürm, Max Kronert, Otto Gebühr, Dore Paetzold, Lothar Müthel, Greta Schröder, Loni Nest, Carl Ebert and Fritz Feld.


Writers: Henrik Galeen, Gustav Meyrink and Paul Wegener


Release date: 29th October 1920 (Germany)

Widely accepted as the beginning of the Frankenstein myth, the ancient Israelite fable of the Golem allowed thespian/director Paul Wegener with the content for among the most adventurous movies of the German silent film.

Hurting under the oppressive reign of Rudolf II in 16th-century Prague, a Talmudic rabbi (Albert Seinrück) produces a colossus warrior (Paul Wegener) to protect the safety of his folks. Sculpted of mud and livened by the mystical enigmas of the Kabbalah, the Golem is a apparently undestroyable steamroller, doing acts of eminent gallantry, yet evenly able of awful fury. As the rabbi's helper (Ernst Deutsch) takes hold of the Golem and endeavours to utilize him for selfish gain, the ponderous demon runs rampant, kidnapping the rabbi's girl (Lyda Salmonova) and setting fire to the ghetto.

With its noteworthy conception episode (a blazing fuse of religious belief, black magic and exceptional effects) and the grand-scale demolition of its climax, The Golem was among the largest accomplishments of the fabled UFA Studios, and continues an undeniable turning point in the development of the horror movie.

The Love of Jeanne Ney 1927

The Love of Jeanne Ney (Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney) (1927)

Director: G.W. Pabst

Actors: Édith Jéhanne, Uno Henning, Fritz Rasp, Brigitte Helm, Adolf E. Licho, Eugen Jensen, Hans Jaray, Sig Arno (as Siegfried Arno), Hertha von Walther, Vladimir Sokoloff, Jack Trevor, Mammey Terja-Basa, Josefine Dora, Heinrich Gotho, Margarete Kupfer (as Küpfer), Robert Scholz and Milly Mathis

Writers: Ilja Ehrenburg (novel), Rudolf Leonhardt and Ladislaus Vajda

Release date: 6th December 1927 (Germany)

The Love of Jeanne Ney (Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney) chronicles the times of a woman who is looking for love and happiness around the terrible times of Europe following the First World War. The young woman from France witnesses her own father being murdered by Jeanne's lover, who is a Bolshevik.

Her lover, Andreas, then instructs Jeanne to move to Paris where her family live. He later hopes to be with her. In the meantime, another man Khalibiev, who eventually finds her and murders Jeanne’s uncle and asks for her cousin’s hand in marriage, chases Jeanne to France.

In a tangled web, when Andreas finally reunites with Jeanne in Paris, he is accused of her uncle’s murder. His fate is with the guillotine.

All Jeanne can do is convince Khalibiev to go to the police and give the vital information that Andreas is not the murderer. Khalibiev saw the couple the night of the murder miles from the scene.

Jeanne now discovers the truth and that Khalibiev did in fact murder her uncle.

Pabst directed the film in an American style for the majority of time. This was to calm the producers of the film studio UFA, who now had a big American stake in their company. This was to continue from the late 1920's onwards and German cinema suffered as a result I feel.

However, Pabst still delivers a great film and further cements his place as one of the most revered German directors of his era.

Here is a clip from The Love of Jeanne Ney (Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney) (1927).