mon 25/11/2024

DVD: Schloss Vogelöd | reviews, news & interviews

DVD: Schloss Vogelöd

DVD: Schloss Vogelöd

Silent German shocker gets rescued from obscurity

'Schloss Vogelöd': Anton Chekhov’s niece Olga Tschechowa on the right as Baroness Safferstätt. A fantastic, chest-heaving, hyperventilating performance

Although FW Murnau’s pre-America years will always be defined by 1922’s Nosferatu, he’d already racked up nine films in the preceding three years. He made his mark on Hollywood with the 1927 landmark Sunrise but, although being overshadowed by Nosferatu, his earlier German films reveal how he reached these points. Schloss Vogelöd (also known as The Haunted Castle) is a Murnau obscurity, a stately, atmospheric meditation from 1921 that’s capable of giving the willies.

Although FW Murnau’s pre-America years will always be defined by 1922’s Nosferatu, he’d already racked up nine films in the preceding three years. He made his mark on Hollywood with the 1927 landmark Sunrise but, although being overshadowed by Nosferatu, his earlier German films reveal how he reached these points. Schloss Vogelöd (also known as The Haunted Castle) is a Murnau obscurity, a stately, atmospheric meditation from 1921 that’s capable of giving the willies.

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