The New York herald., 1921-04-04
DR.. Caligari,' Weird
Film, Fairly Gives
One the Creeps
Setting of the Picture Is Fu-
turistic and the Story Full
of Shivery Material.

The Cabinet OF Dr. Caligari" will
give any one 9 first class. guaranteed
case OF the creeps. 1t is celluloid delirium
tremens. After viewing this German pic
ture at the Capitol this week. with It's
fantastic settings and the weird contro-
tions of its mystery plot. one almost
gets into ones blood. and. feeling q
little demented. one looks askance at n
policeman or anything that appears like
a keeper.
A deliberate effect of the odd and un-
conventional has been sought; none Of
the settings, exterior or interior. are
natural. but are futuristic. with houses
awry. windows askew, piercing. long
black shadows and tortuous streets
decidedly In this piece the times are
out of joint. The first view of tho
quiet little town of HolstenwalP' sug-
gests a tipsy wedding cake. There is
resemblance to Aubrey Beardsley.
though there is nothing of that In
sidiously feminine note traceable in
Eeardsley's drawings. and which in
this picture might even be welcome
from the Broadway standpoint
The story is as twisted as the mount
ings, starting with q tale told IN a
dank garden by melancholy young
man, who describes the coming OF a
certain Or. Caiigdri to the town fair to
tell the future through somnanbu-
list, q frightful looking skeletonizei
creature who adds to the general cheer
fulness by living in a cabinet like a
coffin. Coincident with DR.. CdhgGrPs
advent terrible murders occur, and 1t Is
the unmasking of the killer that keeps
the hair busy standing on end. The
solution brings out that man has
gone insane studying cases Of mental
perversion. and that the most danger
Gus fire to play with Is the human
mind
There IS plenty of snivery ma erial
in the story, with the gnomeiike. skulk-
ing figure of the Doctor, and the hor-
rible. froglike makeup Of his accom-
plice-especially WHEN the latter stands
like a black arch flend above the bed OF
girl. done in pure white, whom he Is
about to kidnap. Ore can almost smell
the birthstone and it will make the most
cheerful blondes jump. particularly the
feminine ones. But it rather vitiates
the Aim from the viewpoint of normalcy
to discover in the end that the reason
why everything has seemed a little bit
"off" is because one has been lending a
sympathetic eye to the rawlings of a
madman.
The action, directed by Robert W'ene.
moves with cumulative effect, so that
sub-titles seem hardly necessary, and
the few present have been supplied by
Miss Katherine Hilliker with commend
able quiet and without any desire to
scare any one green. She let's the story
by Karl Mayer and Hans JanowitL talk
for Itself While an attempt has been
made to develop the macabre atmos-
phere Of an Edgar Allan Poe tale, 1t
fails of Poe's mastery horror. because
he had the genius to arouse keen human
sympathy for one OF his characters, and
in 1.-THE Cabinet of DR.. Caligari" one
doesn't really care which one OF the
looneys Is put away. Werner krauss
as Caligdri, Conrad Veidt as The SOM
nambulst. Fritz Feher and Lii Dagover
do remarkable acting, but while it Is en-
thraliing as tour de force and an inno-
walton. one such morbid picture Is
enough in lfetime-any imi,ators
probably would be blown away in a
gale OF laughter.
Besides Tschaikowsky's 1872" over
ture the atmosphere of. the bizarre is ad-
mirably arranged to envelope the feature
by S. L. Rothafel with four ballet diver
easements. and Laurence Hopes In
dian Love Lyrics" while a Prizma pic
ture. "A Day With John Burroughs"
seems to offer the one ray OF hope for
mankind