Agrega una trama en tu idiomaIn the castle Vogeloed, a few aristocrats are awaiting baroness Safferstätt. But first count Oetsch invites himself.. Everyone thinks he murdered his brother, baroness Safferstat's first hus... Leer todoIn the castle Vogeloed, a few aristocrats are awaiting baroness Safferstätt. But first count Oetsch invites himself.. Everyone thinks he murdered his brother, baroness Safferstat's first husband, three years ago. So he is rather undesirable. But Oetsch stays; arguing he is not th... Leer todoIn the castle Vogeloed, a few aristocrats are awaiting baroness Safferstätt. But first count Oetsch invites himself.. Everyone thinks he murdered his brother, baroness Safferstat's first husband, three years ago. So he is rather undesirable. But Oetsch stays; arguing he is not the murderer and will find the real one...
- Dirección
- Guionistas
- Elenco
- Centa V. Vogelschrey - von Vogelschrey's Frau
- (as L. Kyser-Korff)
- Graf Johann Oetsch
- (as Lotar Mehnert)
- Der Pater Faramund
- (as Victor Blütner)
- Ein Diener
- (as Walter Kurt-Kuhle)
- Kleines Mädchen
- (sin créditos)
- Zweites Kleines Mädchen
- (sin créditos)
- Küchenjunge
- (sin créditos)
- Dirección
- Guionistas
- Todo el elenco y el equipo
- Producción, taquilla y más en IMDbPro
Opiniones destacadas
Lothar Mehnert stars as Count Oetsch, and although I know absolutely nothing about him, I was very drawn to his performance. He has a striking look that I think makes for a good stage or screen presence. What else has he done? I do not know, but should seek it out.
The film is light on humor, though there is a sequence I will call "the kitchen boy dream" that I found funny. What is it implying? What does it mean? How does it connect to the big story? I have no idea.
The Kino DVD contains a book / film comparison and I would recommend this. It shows how radically different the film is in some ways from the book. While the essence is the same, I would almost have to say they are two different creatures altogether.
Murnau demonstrates his superb command of the camera and the illumination while setting the bases of the expressionism.
The suspense distilled in Haunted Castle is well worth a Hitchcock´s movie and the plot is surprisingly complex for a silent.
Do make sure that you see it in a winter stormy night
** 1/2 (out of 4)
An "old dark house" film from director F.W. Murnau about a group of people staying in an (what else?) old dark house. One night the house's owner turns up missing and later in the night his son, who was accused of killing his own brother, shows up. I read somewhere that this is the earliest surviving work from director Murnau but this here doesn't show any of his wonderful visual style that would kick into high gear the following year with Nosferatu. The film, running just under an hour, takes way too time introducing us to the characters and the actual mystery doesn't start until the very end of the movie. There really isn't any visual style either. There's one character that looks like the Karloff character in Whale's The Old Dark House, which makes you think Whale saw this film (especially since the character here leads to a good twist in the story). Another interesting aspect is a scene that uses the hands of Nosferatu to a similar effect that would be seen in the next year's Nosferatu. I had to view an overly dark, 16mm print without a music score.
To me though, don't make 'The Haunted Castle' your first exposure to him. While not a terrible film by all means, it may make one wondering what the fuss with Murnau is and not be too desperate to see more of his films. If so that would be a shame, because he did a lot of fantastic films since and as indicated above was a major talent. 'The Haunted Castle' is not a great or fair representation of him, nice enough for historical, curiosity and completest interests but not an awful lot more. Am not trying to be snobbish here or trying to upset anybody, it's just my thoughts.
It's not a bad looking film, though not one of Murnau's best or most interesting looking films. It is very atmospherically photographed which makes the most of the eerie lighting and extravagant set designs. The last quarter of the film is quite good and where the story finally comes to life, did find it entertaining and quite suspenseful.
Murnau's direction does show flashes of brilliance though not distinctive or distinguished enough. The dream sequences are wonderfully surreal especially with the scullery boy, which was also quite amusing. The way the main character goes about finding out the truth was interesting to watch. Although the acting was not impressive to me, Lothar Mehnert did a good job and had a powerful presence.
Despite a good last quarter, it is a shame that it takes a long time to get there. Although the running time is not long, the story for 'The Haunted Castle' felt like a short stretched out. It takes too long to get going and a vast majority of the film is very sluggish, which makes one finding it difficult to invest in a mystery that was already quite mundane and not very atmospheric.
Furthermore, 'The Haunted Castle' did feel talk-heavy, those verbose and too long intertitles slow the film down and didn't strike me as necessary, and felt too much of a filmed stage play. Am really trying to judge this as a product of the time and not compare it to now, but it's hard not to. Mehnert aside, the acting is both overdone and mannered and that is even for 1921. Have actually seen silent films from before 1921 that had a lot more subtle acting, so sorry for me calling this kind of acting as that of the time is not an excuse. Olga Tschechowa's mannerisms in particular grate.
Overall, worth a one-time look but Murnau is far from at his best here. 5/10
My expectations were a bit high for this, based on the title and the director, and I was disappointed that this ended up not being a horror film at all. The acting is fairly typical, if at times overheated, and the story is a bit dull and drawn out, even with a brief ~70 minute running time. The castle set is nice, but there are none of the typical Murnau touches that make things stick in one's memory.
¿Sabías que…?
- TriviaThe movie was shot in 16 days and released before the serialized novel's last chapter had been printed in the "Berliner Illustrierten".
- Versiones alternativasThere is an Italian DVD edition of this movie, distributed by DNA Srl, entitled "Il castello di Vogelod". The movie was re-edited with the contribution of the film history scholar Riccardo Cusin. This version is also available in streaming on some platforms. This DVD also contains another movie directed by F.W. Murnau: "Tartufo".
- ConexionesFeatured in Dämonische Leinwand - Der deutsche Film der zwanziger Jahre (1998)
Selecciones populares
- How long is The Haunted Castle?Con tecnología de Alexa
Detalles
- Tiempo de ejecución1 hora 15 minutos
- Mezcla de sonido
- Relación de aspecto
- 1.33 : 1