The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Having enjoyed Nosferatu, I decided to take on another silent film, again a production from Germany. In fact, the protagonist's fiancee Jane looks remarkably like Hutter's wife Ellen from Nosferatu (They are two different actresses; Lil Dagover portrays Jane while Greta Schröder plays Ellen). The film starts off in an almost dreamlike way, with Francis and a strange man talking about weird experiences. The elder man states that he has been driven from house and home by ghosts. Then, after Jane walks by, dreamlike, in a daze, Francis states that he and his fiancee have been through even weirder things. He proceeds to tell his story.
Oh, Francis! I seem to have forgotten to put lipstick on my lower lip... can you ever forgive me? I love you, my darling. Can you see it in my giant, sad eyes?
Francis begins his story back in the town in which he was born. Dr. Caligari arrives and learns that there is a fair. He would like a permit to perform his show - waking Cesare, a somnambulist who has "been sleeping for 23 years" (which is also, coincidentally, how old he is... though if you ask me, this creepy guy looks WAY older than 23!). A man has just left the town clerk's office and tells Dr. Caligari not to enter for he is in a bad mood. He enters anyway and asks for a permit. We see neither a permit or a denial for one. The scene cuts to the next day. Francis and his friend Alan attend the fair, and they are present at the show with Dr. Caligari and Cesare.
Upon awakening the comatose Cesare, Dr. Caligari informs the crowd that they can ask Cesare any question that they would like, for he knows the past, present, and future, and Cesare will tell them. Alan, entranced and excited by this proposal, runs up to ask his question. Francis, either concerned that something horrible always comes from this or thinking this is a sham and silly, tries to convince Alan not to ask his question, but to no avail. Francis asks how long he has to live. Cesare's answer is "Till dawn. Tomorrow." Alan looks frightened and then unbelieving.
Uhh.... yeah. I'd just be scared of Cesare's amazingly macabre face. Imagine this guy telling you that you are going to die. I'd freak out too.
Francis and Alan leave the fair and meet up with Jane. The three of them walk until they reach Jane's place, and then the two men continue on to Alan's house. Francis notes that both he and Alan are in love with Jane. He states that they will leave it up to her as to the man she chooses, but that no matter what, they are to remain friends. The men then go their separate ways. That night, Alan indeed dies... he is killed, though we only see the murder in the shadows.
The next day, the whole town is horrified to learn of Alan's death, especially that it is a murder. Francis is greatly disturbed, and the police vow never to stop working until they find the person responsible for what is now 2 murders. Francis goes to inform Jane of the death, and she is quite traumatized. (This is a silent film we're talking about here... if her reaction weren't overly dramatic, she'd come of as a bit of a bitch!) Francis remembers Dr. Caligari and Cesare's prophecy, and the police decide that they must meet with the men and question them.
Dr. Caligari... almost as disturbing as Cesare. He kind of looks like a psychotic Ben Franklin. Don't you think?!
As the police are at Dr. Caligari's place questioning him, and even asking him to awaken his slave/sidekick/assistant (?), another man is arrested as he is attempting to murder an old woman. He is taken down to the station and questioned by everyone - including the policemen who had been questioning Dr. Caligari, but leave him and apologize upon learning of another's arrest. He admits to his attempt to kill the old woman, but he claims that he thought it would be blamed on the murderer of the other two, of which he had not part.
Meanwhile... Jane has been sitting at home and begins to wonder why her father is taking so long to return home. Worried, she heads out in search of him and comes upon Dr. Caligari's tent. She tells him she is searching for her father. Instead of helping her, he lures her into the tent to see what he keeps inside his intriguing cabinet. The door to the cabinet opens, and inside is, of course, Cesare. When Cesare awakesn, he stares intently at Jane causing her to become frightened and then run away screaming.
Jane, in psychadelic hippie garb, freaks out upon seeing Cesare, in beatnik poet garb, stare at her intently. The psychotic Ben Franklin had no effect on her whatsoever.
That night, Francis stands guard outside of Dr. Caligari's house and watches the elder man while he sleeps, noting that Cesare is asleep in his coffin the whole time. Meanwhile, we see Jane sleeping and a shadow, no, Cesare, slips into her house. He is about to stab her, but cannot seem to kill her. However, she awakens when he touches her, and there is a great struggle. Cesare ends up kidnapping Jane and carrying her off. Unfortunately, there is a horde of men behind him, and he must leave her to escape.
When Francis returns to Jane and she tells the men what happened, Francis claims it is impossible for it to have been Cesare who did this to her, for he has seen the man sleeping for the past few hours. The police, meanwhile, who are clearly inept at their jobs, are questioning Dr. Caligari, again, and open his cabinet to discover... Cesare. So how was this pulled off? How did Cesare kidnap Jane and yet remain asleep in the cabinet?? That's for you to discover yourself, my friend.
See? The psychotic Ben Franklin is so abhorrent that now he's trying to kill himself. This man is fantastically freaky!
Dr. Caligari escapes, and Francis attempts to follow him as best he can. He arrives at an asylum, an institution for the mentally ill. He is horrified to see this is where he has ended up. Two doctors come out and he questions them on whether there is a patient there by the name Dr. Caligari. They inform him that there is no patient by that name, but that the director has arrived and he may speak with him about the man. Francis nods his agreement to talk to the director of the institution. He enters the director's office and the man slowly looks up at Francis, to reveal that he, the director, is the man who Francis knows as Dr. Caligari. Francis stumbles out of the office and out into the plaza in front of the institution where he collapses. The doctors follow him and help him into a chair at which time Francis tells them that the director is Dr. Caligari.
The rest, I believe will be more effective and horrifying if you watch it for yourself. If you view it as the horrifying glimpse into humanity that it is. It's a disturbing film with a truly disturbed mastermind behind the killings and events that take place.
And Francis finishes his story, and he takes his newfound friend to see Cesare and Jane. But the film is not over yet. Oh, no. There is still time for the film to take a new, horrifying turn into the insane. But perhaps, even that is not how it appears. I do suggest this movie. It's wonderful. Not scary in the sense that you will jump out of your seat, but that it looks into the depths of the horrible things humans have done.
Go forth in fear!
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