This German silent film from 1920 is considered a true classic by film historians across the globe. The film tells the tale of Rabbi Judei Lowe, who built a statue made of clay in hopes that it would come to life and save his people from persecution. The statue does indeed come to life and in doing so, creates one of cinema’s first lumbering, misunderstood monsters. The film made Paul Wegener the first official horror star, and paved the way for the classic misunderstood monster films that would later be popularized by such films as James Whale’s FRANKENSTEIN, and THE MUMMY. Elite Entertainment managed to locate and restore some source prints of this legendary film, and present it as a part of their Masterworks of the German Horror Cinema DVD collection.

The film was written by frequent collaborators Henrik Galeen and the multi-talented Paul Wegener. Wegener not only starred as the Golem, he also had roles in many early fantastic silent films like ALRUANE, THE MAGICIAN, and THE YOGI. He cast his wife Lydia Salmonova as Miriam, daughter of Rabbi Loew. Albert Steinruck plays the wise Rabbi Loew. And Otto Gebuhr portrays Emperor Luhois, the source of the Jewish oppression. THE GOLEM’s cinematographer was the German Karl Freund, who later emigrated to America, along with his contemporaries Fritz Lang, F.W. Murneau, and Conrad Veidt. Fruend went on direct some genre classics including 1932’s THE MUMMY (with Boris Karloff) and 1935’s HANDS OF ORLAC (with Peter Lorrie)

The story takes place in 16^th century Prague. Rabbi Lowe, scanning the heavens with his primitive telescope, detects a celestial aligning of stars that predicts disaster for the Jewish people. The next day, Emperor Luhois decrees that all Jews are to be banned from the city. To save his people and his daughter Miriam, the frustrated Rabbi begins creation of a clay statue that he hopes will come to life and free his people. Rabbi Loew and his disciples manage to conjure the dark spirit of Astaroth to breath life into the inert, man -like figure. The Golem comes to life and at first is very peaceful and gentle with the people of Prague.

Rabbi Loew manages to get an audience with Emperor Luhois, and takes the Golem to the palace to show to the Emperor. The Emperor and his contingent laugh at the two, when suddenly the concrete ceiling of the castle begins to cave in on everyone in the throne room. While people are fleeing in terror as the ceiling drops ever downward, the Golem springs into action and uses his might to stop the ceiling from dropping thereby saving the Emperor. The Emperor sees the error of his ways and grants freedom to Rabbi Loew’s people. Rabbi Loew and the Golem return to Prague and are welcomed back by his jubilant people. However, his disciple warns the Rabbi that the Golem has been bought to life by dark powers, and the dark powers will one day return to claim the Golem.

Considering it’s age, the film is fairly well-crafted. The costuming and cavernous set design perfectly capture the period of the 16^th century, especially the Old Europe street architecture. The characterizations are well done, and the shaggy actors playing the Rabbi clan are appropriately depicted. One of the best traits to the film is the use of light and darkness. THE GOLEM displays a cornucopia of shadows immersed in light, and light hovering about in shadows. This technique worked wonders with Furnau’s NOSFERATU, and here it makes THE GOLEM appear just as memorable.

The larger than life character of the Golem is epitomized by Paul Wegener, no small man himself. Wegener imbues the clay creation with a lot of personality, even more than Boris Karloff brought to the monster in FRANKENSTEIN. And the Golem is accepted by the people of Prague, including the children, whereas the Frankenstein monster was always rejected by the people as an outcast. Wegener’s performance of the Golem includes some humor, as opposed to his lumbering, emotionless demeanor. Though the plot description sounds a bit grim, there is an underlying current of humor running through the film that makes it that much more endearing. The Golem only kills one person throughout the film (by throwing him a rock tower). Later in the film, the Golem starts to show signs that he may no longer be in control of his actions.

SIGHT

Back then there was no widescreen, so the film is presented full frame (1.33.1).Obviously, Elite spent a lot of time cleaning up the source elements. Too bad they could not have touched up the whole film. On the whole, Elite has done wonders for the film, but consistent it is not. Some scenes look great with only minimal scratches, while others appear harshly scarred. Thankfully, these scratchy scenes are few. I’m sure Elite did the best they could with what they had to work with (remember this is an 80 year old film). What makes this film look as good as it does, is the usage of shadows and light, which is key to THE GOLEM’s cinematography. The Elite DVD authoring team calibrated the black level to absolute zero. What you see is a perfect, darker-than-dark black level. This allows those shadow and light shots to really standout in the transfer. Yes, there are nics, scratches, and grain visible, but in many scenes the image is near pristine. So despite the inconsistencies, this is the best the film could ever have looked.

SOUND

There is no soundtrack or music track. Just plain old silence to accompany this silent film. It might be a good idea to cue up some orchestral scoring of your own choosing to go along with this film. This is the only film of Elite’s Masterworks of German Horror Cinema collection that does not have a music track.

FEATURES

The only feature is a special photo gallery where stills and production drawings can be viewed.

CONCLUSION

For those of you who enjoy black and white silent movies or enjoy viewing films with nostalgia in mind then you should check this film out. For those of you who are not into silent film, here is a great place to start. The film faithfully recreates 16^th century Prague, features some realistic characters, and comes up some inventive photography and camera angles (though not on a par with that of THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI). Elite presents the film in such a way that it probably never looked as good since it came out 80 years ago. After viewing THE GOLEM, you can see how it influenced fantasy cinema throughout the ensuing decades. A great entry in a great film collection, Elite’s Masterworks of the German Horror Cinema.

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