Schloß Vogelöd

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!

Directed by F. W. Murnau, in this film Count Oetsch (Lothar Mehnart) arrives uninvited to the castle of Lord von Vogelschrey (Arnold Korff) for a long weekend of hunting and socializing with a group of other high society types. Oetsch had been accused of murdering his brother, but was found not guilty. That dead brother's widow (Olga Tschechowa) has remarried, to the Baron Safferstatt (Paul Bildt), and the couple are also in attendance, making things awkward to say the least. The only thing keeping the Baroness from leaving is the imminent arrival of Father Faramund, a close friend and trusted spiritual adviser. Over the course of the weekend secrets are revealed and the guilty come to light.

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.

Was actually on first glance really intrigued by the title, before realising when and after watching the film that the title was misleading and had nothing to do with the film pretty much. My biggest reason for wanting to see 'The Haunted Castle' was FW Murnau. If you are intrigued by early cinema and are interested in getting into silent films and love films that look great, have interesting themes and great atmosphere, Murnau is a very appropriate place to start as his work is full of it.

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

Several people in a house come face to face with a murder mystery -- and one of them is guilty of the crime! This film has no familiar actors, and something of a misleading title (it is not a literal translation of the German). The phrase "haunted castle" clearly implies a horror film and not a detective story, but there is very little horror here.

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.

One character has a dream of a ghoulish hand abducting him, but otherwise, the gobs of eye makeup on the actors, typical then, is as haunting as this film, "The Haunted Castle" (which isn't a literal translation, anyhow), gets. It's more of a mystery picture--a whodunit, fundamentally.

This is an early offering in F.W. Murnau's film-making career, and none of the brilliance of his later films ("Nosferatu", "The Last Laugh", "Faust", "Sunrise") is evident here. "The Haunted Castle" is prosaically filmed, despite the assistance of two competent cinematographers, László Schäffer ("Berlin: Symphony of a Great City") and Fritz Arno Wagner ("Nosferatu" and several of Fritz Lang and G.W. Pabst's films). Additionally, Hermann Warm ("Caligari") was the production designer. The castle interiors are rather rich, at least. But, the miniature used for the exterior views of the castle, as a transition effect, is overused and ineffective. I don't care for the iris openings and closings, either; they're usually too obtrusive for transition editing.

Anyhow, there were some surprises in the plot for me, but that didn't make it worthwhile. Despite having another giant of Weimar cinema, Carl Mayer ("Caligari", "The Last Laugh"), as one of the screenwriters, the plot is slow-paced and never evolves to anything higher than a whodunit--and not even a good one at that. The acting is too obvious and overdone, as well. The talent involved did much better work elsewhere.