Made seven years after the release of «The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari», this admirable silent movie keeps alive the expressionist tradition and some of the morbid "caligarism" of that film: a twisted corridor in the titular mansion, landscapes and characters in silhouettes and a villain that resembles the somnambulist Cesare in stamp and misfortune, and Dr. Caligari himself with his insane schemes.
However, this story set in the French countryside is not a fantastic tale framed by a realistic prologue and epilogue like «Caligari», which define the central plot as a mental patient's obsession, but rather the events are all realistic: a couple whose romance is thwarted by a railroad worker, father of the bride; the arrival of a mysterious man of science whom the town looks upon with suspicion and fear; the curious training that his assistant performs in secret, with the chimpanzee Hello to achieve his ends... Everything is heading towards a tense ending in which two plot lines converge in a dynamic way, following premises of the dramatic montage "a la D. W. Griffith", with whom Machin worked in 1918 on «Hearts of the World.» According to the dramatic montage scheme, after dramatic action with an adrenaline overdose (which includes a frenetic train chante), calm and tranquility for the viewer is achieved by the opposite, in this case, a romantic ending.
Apart from everything, I liked to find another work by Alfred Machin, whose wonderful 8-minute rural drama «Le moulin maudit» (The Cursed Mill) I saw included in a 1909 film anthology. Colored with stencils, it is a short film made in Belgium about a love triangle that ends in tragedy. A photographer by profession, Machin was recognized for his early films about animals. «Le manoir de la peur....» was his last collaboration with his assistant Henry Wulschleger, with whom he co-directed some films with the popular chimpanzee Auguste, interpreter of the irresistible Hello. The restored version has an enjoyable rock soundtrack, which is a definite plus.
