Afraid I found this a little stagey. I know it's very EARLY Murnau, and I wouldn't expect the flash and wallop of DER LASZT MANN, but without either expressionist stylisation or nifty camerawork, my attention wandered a bit......but I was brought back to full wakefullness by the appearance of what looks like Max Schreck's Graf Orlock from NOSFERATU - or at least his hand. A sinister taloned hand reaching through a window in a bizarre dream sequence, accompanied by a billowing curtain of the kind soon to cross the atlantic with Paul Leni for THE CAT AND THE CANARY and to appear, a few years later in James Whale's THE OLD DARK HOUSE. And I should add that the scary dream is followed by an equally freaky comedy dream set in the castle kitchen, where a scullery boy dreams of revenge for previous slights...Murnau's comedy relief is always kind of peculiar.
Worth seeing for the dreams!
Worth seeing for the dreams!