German Horror Classics Boxed Set

Those wacky German expressionists: trapezoid-shaped windows, spiraling staircases, looming shadows on the walls. No, they wouldn't earn the Good Feng Shui Housekeeping Seal of Approval, but the four silent classics (well, three anyway) collected here--Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922), Paul Wegener and Carl Boese's The Golem (1920) and, to a much lesser extent, Paul Leni's uneven triptych Waxworks (1924)--continue to not only influence the look of contemporary cinema today, but have also inspired recent homages ranging from E. Elias Merhige's Shadow of the Vampire (2000) to the 2001 TV-movie Snow in August (based on Pete Hamill's novel about a golem). The jewels in the crown of this boxed set are Nosferatu--Murnau's wonderfully creepy take on Bram Stoker's Dracula, starring Max Schreck as the definitely-in-need-of-a-manicurist bloodsucker--which sports a very handsome (considering the film's age) DVD transfer struck from a newly restored master, and crisp new intertitling; and the mind- and perspective-bending The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari--a phantasmagoric tale of a somnambulant murderer under the spell of a mad doctor, all set in a funhouse landscape of weirdly-shaped rooms, buildings and roads--which also features an impressive transfer, restored tinting, and very cool intertitles. The Golem, from a Jewish legend about a clay avenger brought to life from mystic Kabala incantations, is an interesting cinematic precursor to James Whale's Frankenstein (in fact, one of the Easter eggs on The Golem is a trailer for Frankenstein). Only Waxworks disappoints, with its trio of Chamber of Horror wax figure tales of Ivan the Terrible (Conrad Veidt), Harun al Raschid (Emil Jannings, whose cramped quarters rendezvous with a baker's wife is cut short with the memorable line: "My pond-lily, have you a hiding place for a fat man?") and, very briefly, Jack the Ripper. Each of the discs contains extras, most notably a 43-minute version of Wiene's campy, sultry Genuine: The Tale of a Vampire, with Fern Andra in the Elvira-like title role; and six excerpts from Murnau's films. Highly recommended. (R. Pitman)