Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari (1920)

Country of Origin: Germany
Year of Production: 1919
Running Times: 67 mins (USA)     71 mins (Germany, projected at 18 fps)     90 mins (UK, projected at 16 fps)
Format: black and white / green, brown and blue tints     35mm
Length: 1840 ft (at 16 fps)
Ratio: 1.33:1
Sound: silent     score added for re-releases

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Decla-Bioscop AG
Producers: Rudolf Meinert, Erich Pommer

SCRIPT
Script: Hans Janowitz, Carl Mayer

DIRECTION
Director: Robert Wiene
Assistant Director: Rochus Gliese

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Willy Hameister

MUSIC
Music: Alfredo Antonini; Giuseppe Becce (score at world premiere); Timothy Brock; Richard Marriott (1987); Peter Schirmann

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Costume Designer: Walter Reimann

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Production Designers: Walter Reimann, Walter Röhrig, Hermann Warm
Set Decorator: Hermann Warm

CAST
Werner Krauss (Dr Caligari)
Conrad Veidt (Cesare)
Lil Dagover (Jane)
Hans Feher (Francis)
Hans Heinrich von Twardowski (Alan)
Rudolf Lettinger (Dr Olson)
Rudolf Klein-Rogge (a criminal)
Hans Lanser-Ludolff (uncredited)
Henri Peters-Arnolds (uncredited)
Ludwig Rex (uncredited)
Elsa Wagner (uncredited)

At a fair, Alan, Francis and Jane watch the show staged by the sinister Dr Caligari and his somnambulist, Cesare, who can predict the future. Alan is told that he will be dead by dawn and sure enough, Alan is murdered during the night. Could Caligari and Cesare be the guilty men?

One of the greatest achievements of the silent cinema, this spectacular tour-de-force remains as fresh and potent today as when it was first produced. Innovative, arresting and influential, Wiene's film captures the essence of nightmare more effectively than any number of high-tech Freddy Kreuger clones and the film comes closer than any other to presenting true dream-like imagery on the screen. Surviving the sort of pretentious over-analysis that has too often consigned contemporary productions to the academic margins of film history, Caligari remains even now a unique and unsettling experience.

UK
Theatrical Distributors: VFI (1979 re-release)
Video Distributors: Aikman Archive (JEF 00016); Redemption (RETN 013)

USA
Theatrical Distributors: Goldwyn (1921)
Video Distributors: Kino Video; Republic Pictures Corporation; Kartes Video; Moore Video; Sinister Cinema; Video Yesteryear
Laserdisc Distributor: Republic (20480); Laserdisc Distributor: Image Entertainment (ID 3400 DS - includes an audio commentary by Mike Budd; excerpts from Genuine: A Tale of a Vampire (1920); exhibition, advertising and publicity stills)
DVD Distributor: Image Entertainment (ID 4099 DSDVD - includes: an audio commentary by film scholar Mike Budd; an excerpt from Genuine: A Tale of a Vampire (1920); mastered from a print of the 1923 German re-issue version with blue, brown, rose and green colour tints); Elite Entertainment (EE 4376 - part of the Masterworks of the German Horror Cinema collection - includes: stills galleries; 12-page booklet; footage from Genuine (1920); bundled with Der Golem (1915) and Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922))

Australia
Rating: PG

Germany
Rating: 12 (bw)

Sweden
Rating: 15

UK
Rating: PG

USA
Rating: unrated

1920
February
27: Germany - theatrical release

1921
February
21: Sweden - theatrical release

March
19: USA - theatrical release

December
8: Mexico - theatrical release

1922
March
15: France - theatrical release

1926
March
14: UK - shown at The Film Society, London

1975
August
2: UK - television broadcast (on BBC2)

1985
September
21: UK - television broadcast (on Channel 4)

1991
April
30: USA - laserdisc release (Republic (20480))

1996
May
1: USA - laserdisc release (Image Entertainment (ID 3400 DS))

1997
October
15: USA - DVD release (Image Entertainment (ID 4099 DSDVD))

1999
February
22: USA - DVD release (Elite Entertainment (EE 4376))

Du mußt Caligari werden

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari - English language title

SEE ALSO
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1962)
Casino Royale (1967)
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932)
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Sisters (1973)
Wizard of Oz (1925)

FOOTAGE INCLUDED IN
The American Nightmare (2000)
Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood (1996)
Duelo ao Por-do-Sol (1998)
Fejezetek a film történetéböl: A német film 1933-ig (1989)
Visions of Light (1992)

MAGAZINES

Architectural Design vol.70 no.1 (January 2000) pp.12-15 (USA)
illustrated article (Spaces of the psyche in German Expressionist film by Hans Dieter Schaal)

Cinéaste vol.25 no.4 (October 2000) pp.48-50 (USA)
illustrated review (by Christopher Sharrett)

Classic Images no.279 (September 1998) pp.39-40 (USA)
review (Video tape reviews by Robert Klepper)

Classic Images no.301 (July 2000) pp.31-32 (USA)
review (by John Nangle)

Classic Images no.302 (August 2000) pp.28-29 (USA)
review (Sam Rubin's classic clinic by Sam Rubin)

Classic Images no.334 (April 2003) pp.25-26 (USA)
DVD review (Video views by John Nangle)

Empire no.137 (November 2000) p.128 (UK)
DVD review (by David Parkinson)

Film-Echo / Filmwoche no.24 (15 June 1996) p.35 (Germany)
note (Cabinett in Buchform by ST)

Filmfax no.56 p.18 (USA)
review

Filmfax no.105 (January 2005) p.30 (USA)
soundtrack review (Hi-Tek Hi-Fi: Das Cabinet Des Caligari by Harry H. Long)

Journal of Popular Film and Television vol.18 no.1 (Spring 1990) pp.36-39 (USA)
illustrated article (Deus ex Animo, or Why a Doc? by Irving Schneider M.D.)

Monthly Film Bulletin vol.46 no.545 (June 1979) p.135 (UK)
credits, synopsis, review (by Richard Combs)

Sight and Sound vol.2 no.8 (December 1994) p.60 (UK)
video release note (by William Green)

Sight and Sound vol.4 no.2 (February 1994) p.69 (UK)
illustrated video release note (by Peter Dean)

Sight and Sound vol.11 no.4 (April 2001) p.62 (UK)
DVD review (Home movies: reviews by Geoffrey MacNab)

BOOKS

Hoffman's Guide to SF, Horror and Fantasy Movies 1991 - 1992 p.201
credits, review

The Psychotronic Video Guide p.86
review (by Michael Weldon)

BFI Companion to Horror pp.53-54
review

OTHER SOURCES

Film Society History (1938) (UK)
note

expressionism, fairs, hypnotism, surrealism, sideshows, asylums, psychiatrists, somnambulism

Last Updated: 16 March, 2009