Der Student von Prag

I have watched a lot of silent films in my life (love the genre) and I must say in a lot of ways this film blew me away more than most. I love Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu and Metropolis, but this film snuck up on me in a way I didn't expect that none of those films did. It was scary. Scarier than Nosferatu. I couldn't keep my eyes off the screen. It's also beautiful. Some scenes, like Werner Krauss on the Mountaintop, are riveting. It starts out almost as a joke with the tombstone, but that tombstone later becomes a slap in the face. Conrad Veidt is always good, but here he is so painfully and chillingly aware of his huge mistake every time he looks in the mirror and it shows so well. He seems to find one thing in each movie that will make him unforgettable. I wanted to rewind the student's life as the horror set in. I am sure this movie influenced many film noir directors with the cinematography. I could see the future of film here and I will definitely watch it again.

This is a more elaborate, lavish and altogether satisfactory version of the above, with Conrad Veidt perfectly cast in the lead and with Werner Krauss also making for a menacing Scapinelli. The expressionistic elements are well in evidence here (director Henrik Galeen had written Murnau's NOSFERATU [1922] and, stylistically, the film does bear some resemblance to it): while not quite reaching the heights of, say, THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1919) and NOSFERATU itself, it's very much deserving of the reputation it enjoys in the horror film genre and, despite the shoddy print quality of the Alpha DVD, replete with missing frames (where are Kino when you need them?), I'm truly glad I was given an opportunity to watch this elusive classic from the Silent era after having read so much about it since childhood! Let's hope now that another highly-regarded (and much-filmed) Conrad Veidt vehicle, THE HANDS OF ORLAC (1925), also gets a DVD release soon...

I loved the original 'Der Student von Prag', made in 1913, so obviously I could not resist this remake. The version I watched is the one restored on behalf of the Munich Film Archive. It is almost 2 hours 15 minutes long and has been re-tinted, and the music has been re-recorded if it is not altogether new. All in all the remake is not bad. It has some advantages over the original. Thus, the acting is better throughout, with Conrad Veidt as Balduin and Elizza La Porta as Lyduschka being outstanding. Veidt does much better than Paul Wegener in the 1913-version, and Lyduschka's role has been expanded to such an extent that La Porta had a real chance to show off her talent. The film was her breakthrough perfomance. The scene with the reflection Scapinelli (Werner Krauß) takes from the mirror in Balduin's room is just as as good as in the original, and so is the final scene. Werner Krauß' acting is very good, too. On the downside: The remake is long and the plot does occasionally drag. I also found Veidt looks far too mature to play a student (but that goes for Wegener in the original, too). The tinting. I realise the film was originally shown tinted, but what in other pictures is a beautiful amber here looks like a garish yellow. I disliked the pink used for all interior scenes, too. And finally, the storyline follows that of the original so closely that there are few surprises. All in all, the 1926-version is a competently made film but it is less innovative and exciting than the 1913 'Student'. I am therefore rating it a little lower.

I watched Alpha Video's cheap DVD of this. It lacks the original title and inter titles, though some easy to read new inter titles have been added. The musical score is unremarkable, and while called original by the DVD box, seems "canned." Balduin is a poor student, but a great fencer. Apart from that, we don't learn very much about him or what he wants. He is, however, humiliated by his poverty. He wishes perhaps a rich heiress would marry him.

A mephistophelian character named Scarpinetti offers to deliver on that, and in one scene dramatically stands atop a windy hill by a fallen tree gesturing towards a hunting party. They seem to follow his directions, which leads to a rich heiress having trouble with her horse near Balduin, who rescues her.

However, this is just a tease from Scarpinetti. Balduin goes to visit the woman later, taking with him a flower from a poor flower girl (who seems sweet on him). He fidgets with the flower behind his back, and seems to be contemplating giving it to the rich woman, when her fiancé's large flower arrangement arrives. Balduin realizes he needs money to woo this woman (forgetting, seemingly, that he'd wanted a rich woman for money in the first place anyway).

He makes a deal with Scarpinetti: 600,000 pieces of gold (! - error in the intertitle, maybe?) and Scarpinetti gets to take anything he wishes from Balduin's room. He manages to take Balduin's mirror reflection, and while that would seem to be the end of the deal, Scarpinetti still influences events in Balduin's life.

There are some striking scenes in the movie, and some scenes that really drag. One that goes on for a long time is a party after someone had died, and there doesn't seem to be much purpose to it, or at least for it to have been so long.

Balduin's mirror reflection doppelganger doesn't show up much, but figures in more towards the end, which is pretty satisfactory. I'm curious to see the other adaptations of this story now as well.

Student of Prague, The (1926)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

German horror/drama is a remake of the 1914 version, which was the first German horror film. A poor college student (Conrad Veidt) falls in love with a rich girl but knows he'll never get her due to his poorness. Then enters Scapinelli (Werner Krauss), a strange man who offers the student 600,000 gold pieces in return for something from the students room. The student agrees but is shocked when the man takes his soul. Outside the good performances by Veidt and Krauss, this film really doesn't add too much that the 1914 film didn't do better. This film here runs fifty-minutes longer but the tiresome pace doesn't help matters and even the special effects were better done in the previous version.