The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Release date: 1920-02-27
Votes: 1727
Genres: Drama, Horror, Thriller, Crime
Francis, a young man, recalls in his memory the horrible experiences he and his fiancée Jane recently went through. Francis and his friend Alan visit The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, an exhibit where the mysterious doctor shows the somnambulist Cesare, and awakens him for some moments from his death-like sleep.
Reviews
CinemaSerf
This is a seriously creepy affair that follows the story of the young "Franzis" (Friedrich Feher) who goes to a fairground one night with his friend "Alan" (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski). They happen upon the performance of the coffin-dwelling somnambulist prophesier "Cesare" (Conrad Veidt) and his spooky master "Dr. Caligari" (Werner Krauss). "Casare" - who is all but skeletal in appearance, portends looming disaster for "Alan", and when he is found murdered next morning suspicions turn to this enigmatic pair- even though there is no real "evidence" at all! Things take an even darker twist when the anaemic seer predicts that "Jane" (Lil Dagover), a gentle creature admired by both the deceased and his surviving friend, is not long for this mortal coil either... It falls to "Franzis" to solve the mystery and save his love from... The story is bleak at times, the settings stark and angular, frequently almost abstract in appearance. Veidt is outstanding, as if he were in a nightmare in an Escher drawing, or some other such challenging structure for our minds to comprehend; and Krauss, too, with his maniacal eyes and almost orchestra leading hand gestures is wonderful too. The photography has a tendency to draw out the shots a little too much, but again - they help create a genuine sense of scariness. Nothing gory, or bloody - just eerie, and enormously effective. Unlike so many films that have attained critical acclaim, or cult status, this is actually a really good story with strong acting talent and wonderfully vivid visuals from Robert Wiene (and Willy Hameister) that really is amongst the best of it's - or any other - genre..
Horseface
This is the worst movie I've ever watched 15 minutes of. Lars von Trier once said he knew at the latest fifteen minutes into a movie whether it was worth continuing, and I took that advice to heart, so here we are. Okay. Seriously. SERIOUSLY? Yes, 102 years ago, "cinema" was in its early years. Silent movies, someone on a piano going plonkty plonk while people were drinking moonshine, smoking plutonium and coughing up pneumonia. Great. How fantastically interesting in a historical perspective. (Seriously, though, it is.) But hello, and welcome to reality in the now. This is absolute garbage. The only way this is useful in any way is as a source for memes. I'd like to see this with a death metal soundtrack. Or in MST3K form. Anything. Or simply as something displayed on the wall at a rave, for kitsch. This is TERRIBLE. Anyone who rates this more than 1 stars is either a movie historian (thumbs up, dudes, I do appreciate you work, whatever it is, maybe not actually) or a pretentious dumbbell, who has never enjoyed a movie in his or her life for fear of being wrong about enjoying it. Christ on a mongoloid horse. Garbage.
Movie Recommendation
Nosferatu1922-02-16The mysterious Count Orlok summons a happily married real estate agent to his castle, located up in the Transylvanian mountains, to finalise a terrifying deal.More...
The Great Train Robbery1903-12-07After the train station clerk is assaulted and left bound and gagged, then the departing train and its passengers robbed, a posse goes in hot pursuit of the fleeing bandits.More...
The Golem: How He Came Into the World1920-10-29In 16th-century Prague, a rabbi creates the Golem - a giant creature made of clay. Using sorcery, he brings the creature to life in order to protect the Jews of Prague from persecution.More...
One Week1920-08-29Newlyweds receive a build-it-yourself house as a wedding gift—and the house can, supposedly, be built in "one week". A rejected suitor secretly re-numbers packing crates, and the husband struggles to assemble the house according to this new 'arrangement' of its parts.More...
Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler1922-04-27Dr. Mabuse and his organization of criminals are in the process of completing their latest scheme, a theft of information that will allow Mabuse to make huge profits on the stock exchange. Afterwards, Mabuse disguises himself and attends the Folies Bergères show, where Cara Carozza, the main attraction of the show, passes him information on Mabuse's next intended victim, the young millionaire Edgar Hull. Mabuse then uses psychic manipulation to lure Hull into a card game where he loses heavily. When Police Commissioner von Wenk begins an investigation of this mysterious crime spree, he has little to go on, and he needs to find someone who can help him.More...
The Phantom Carriage1921-01-01An alcoholic, abusive ne'er-do-well is shown the error of his ways through a legend that dooms the last person to die on New Year's Eve before the clock strikes twelve to take the reins of Death's chariot and work tirelessly collecting fresh souls for the next year.More...
The Hero1966-05-06Arindam, a matinee idol, is going by train to collect an acting award. On the train, he is confronted by Aditi, a journalist who somewhat unwillingly starts to take his interview. Arindam, won over by Aditi's naivete, starts to disclose his past, his fears and his secrets.More...
Safety Last!1923-04-01When a store clerk organizes a contest to climb the outside of a tall building, circumstances force him to make the perilous climb himself.More...
Freaks1932-01-01A circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.More...
Battleship Potemkin1925-12-24A dramatized account of a great Russian naval mutiny and a resultant public demonstration, showing support, which brought on a police massacre.More...
The Kid1921-01-21A tramp cares for a boy after he's abandoned as a newborn by his mother. Later the mother has a change of heart and aches to be reunited with her son.More...
Vampyr1932-05-06Allan Gray, a young man fascinated by the supernatural, goes to a small village where he feels a sinister force descending upon him. There, Allan meets an old man who asks him to protect his two daughters, for one of them has been bitten by a vampire.More...
A Trip to the Moon1902-06-15Professor Barbenfouillis and five of his colleagues from the Academy of Astronomy travel to the Moon aboard a rocket propelled by a giant cannon. Once on the lunar surface, the bold explorers face the many perils hidden in the caves of the mysterious planet.More...
Decalogue VI1989-09-04A teenage postal worker, Tomek, routinely spies on his older neighbor Magda, a sexually liberated artist who lives in the apartment across the courtyard from his. As their private worlds merge, fascination turns to obsession, and the line between love and curiosity becomes violently blurred.More...
The Mercenary1968-12-20While a Mexican revolutionary lies low as a U.S. rodeo clown, the cynical Polish mercenary who tutored the idealistic peasant tells how he and a dedicated female radical fought for the soul of the guerrilla general Paco, as Mexicans threw off repressive government and all-powerful landowners in the 1910s. Tracked by the vengeful Curly, Paco liberates villages, but is tempted by social banditry's treasures, which Kowalski revels in.More...
Ratcatcher1999-11-12James Gillespie is 12 years old. The world he knew is changing. Haunted by a secret, he has become a stranger in his own family. He is drawn to the canal where he creates a world of his own. He finds an awkward tenderness with Margaret Anne, a vulnerable 14 year old expressing a need for love in all the wrong ways, and befriends Kenny, who possesses an unusual innocence in spite of the harsh surroundings.More...
Scent of a Woman1974-12-20An army cadet accompanies an irascible, blind captain on a week-long trip from Turin to Naples.More...
A Day in the Country1946-05-21The family of a Parisian shop-owner spends a day in the country. The daughter falls in love with a man at the inn, where they spend the day.More...
The Hands of Orlac1924-09-24A world-famous pianist loses both hands in an accident. When new hands are grafted on, he is horrified to learn they once belonged to a murderer.More...
Frankenstein1910-03-18Frankenstein, a young medical student, trying to create the perfect human being, instead creates a misshapen monster. Made ill by what he has done, Frankenstein is comforted by his fiancée; but on his wedding night he is visited by the monster.More...
Similar Movies
Watership Down
1978-10-14When the warren belonging to a community of rabbits is threatened, a brave group led by Fiver, Bigwig, Blackberry and Hazel leave their homeland in a search of a safe new haven.Dracula
1958-04-21After Jonathan Harker attacks Dracula at his castle, the vampire travels to a nearby city, where he preys on the family of Harker's fiancée. The only one who may be able to protect them is Dr. van Helsing, Harker's friend and fellow-student of vampires, who is determined to destroy Dracula, whatever the cost.Er kann's nicht lasse...
1962-10-19Father Brown is only too happy to interfere with the work of the police in solving tricky criminal cases, usually with resounding success. That's why the clergyman is transferred to a sleepy island called Abbott's Rock. At first, nothing happens there, but somehow Father Brown seems to be attracted to crime: Soon a gang of thieves is up to no good on the island. So Brown makes the headlines again, and is punitively transferred once more. This time he finds himself in a quiet Irish millionaire community.Yojimbo
1961-04-25A nameless ronin, or samurai with no master, enters a small village in feudal Japan where two rival businessmen are struggling for control of the local gambling trade. Taking the name Sanjuro Kuwabatake, the ronin convinces both silk merchant Tazaemon and sake merchant Tokuemon to hire him as a personal bodyguard, then artfully sets in motion a full-scale gang war between the two ambitious and unscrupulous men.Dog Soldiers
2002-05-10A band of soldiers is dispatched to war games deep in the woods. When they stumble across a rival team slaughtered in camp, they realize they're not alone.Miracle on 34th Stree...
1947-06-04Kris Kringle, seemingly the embodiment of Santa Claus, is asked to portray the jolly old fellow at Macy's following his performance in the Thanksgiving Day parade. His portrayal is so complete that many begin to question if he truly is Santa Claus, while others question his sanity.Suspiria
1977-02-01An American newcomer to a prestigious German ballet academy comes to realize that the school is a front for something sinister amid a series of grisly murders.Invasion of the Body ...
1956-02-05A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.Class of 1984
1982-08-20Andy is a new teacher at an inner city high school that is unlike any he has seen before. There are metal detectors at the front door and the place is basically run by a tough kid named Peter Stegman. Soon, Andy and Stegman become enemies and Stegman will stop at nothing to protect his turf and drug dealing business.Malvarosa
1958-05-19A poignant story of a family’s struggles in life. It tells of Rosa, who lives in the slums near the railroad tracks, with her mother and five brothers. Her mother wallows in guilt and depression when her drunkard father is run over by a train. Though she is set to marry her fiancé, Rosa chooses to put her family’s needs before her own. Rosa’s brothers also carry their own burdens, except for one, the youngest, Avelino, who helps his sister shoulder the weight of the family’s problems.Kes
1970-04-03Bullied at school and ignored and abused at home by his indifferent mother and older brother, Billy Casper, a 15-year-old working-class Yorkshire boy, tames and trains his pet kestrel falcon whom he names Kes. Helped and encouraged by his English teacher and his fellow students, Billy finally finds a positive purpose to his unhappy existence.Brighton Rock
1948-01-09Centring on the activities of a gang of assorted criminals and, in particular, their leader – a vicious young hoodlum known as "Pinkie" – the film's main thematic concern is the criminal underbelly evident in inter-war Brighton.Hedwig and the Angry ...
2001-07-20Raised a boy in East Berlin, Hedwig undergoes a personal transformation in order to emigrate to the U.S., where she reinvents herself as an 'internationally ignored' but divinely talented rock diva, inhabiting a 'beautiful gender of one'.Withnail & I
1987-06-19Two out-of-work actors -- the anxious, luckless Marwood and his acerbic, alcoholic friend, Withnail -- spend their days drifting between their squalid flat, the unemployment office and the pub. When they take a holiday "by mistake" at the country house of Withnail's flamboyantly gay uncle, Monty, they encounter the unpleasant side of the English countryside: tedium, terrifying locals and torrential rain.Bastet
No data for this movieA man struggles with mental health and seeks help.The Wolf Man
1941-12-09After his brother's death, Larry Talbot returns home to his father and the family estate. Events soon take a turn for the worse when Larry is bitten by a werewolf.Angels with Dirty Fac...
1938-11-26Childhood chums Rocky Sullivan and Jerry Connelly grow up on opposite sides of the fence: Rocky matures into a prominent gangster, while Jerry becomes a priest, tending to the needs of his old tenement neighborhood.The Spy Who Came In f...
1965-12-16British agent Alec Leamas refuses to come in from the Cold War during the 1960s, choosing to face another mission, which may prove to be his final one.Dead of Night
1945-09-09An architect, visiting an English country house, realizes the other guests are familiar from his recurring nightmare. When they share their tales of the supernatural, he is filled with a growing dread.Al-Sarab
1970-12-28The rich man marries Kamel from Rabab, who discovers after marriage that he is sexually incapacitated, so he resorted to Dr. Amin for his treatment, and it becomes clear to the doctor that Kamel is a shy and introverted young man who lives with his mother after separating from his father and thereby adheres to it completely and adheres to the sex with a certain pattern that he cannot go out despite his attempts Standing.