Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "Schloß Vogelöd" or "The Haunted Castle" is a German silent film from 1921, so this one will soon have its 100th anniversary. Of course, it is still black-and-white too. It runs for slightly over 80 minutes, at least in the version I saw, and I cannot say I am familiar really with any of the actors and crew here. That is, of course, with the exception of director F.W. Murnau, who is considered one of the great silent filmmakers, not only from Germany, but in general. And looking at his other works, the genres listed here (Crime, Drama, Horror) should not be a surprise to anybody as comedy was never his field of choice.Sadly, I cannot say I was too scared or well-entertained watching this one. It is not among Murnau's most famous, but also far from his lesser known works, something in the middle. The story was just never too interesting or edge-of-the-seat stuff in my opinion. The good thing about it was probably the very frequent use of subtitles, something that should have been a lot more common in silent films as they simply did not have the audible measures yet so we could easily understand what is going on. And I am not only talking about the dialogs here, but also about soundtracks for example. Anyway, "Schloß Vogelöd" was not a good watch to me and I only recommend it to the most hardcore silent film fans. Thumbs down.

Hitchcoc In this film, a man shows up. He is accused, though never convicted of the murder of a man. The man's widow comes on the scene and is torn apart with distress. There is all kinds of endless gnashing of teeth. One man is so afraid that he leaves after an anxiety attack. There is no haunting and there is no castle, just lots of nondescript characters sitting around worrying. The final part of the film is reasonably entertaining, as a priest comes on the scene. This is probably Murnau experimenting with cinema. Had he put out another movie like this one, there may not have been any more. Most of the dialogue is presented in boxes that seem to lack any soul at all.

gavin6942 Several people in a house come face to face with a murder mystery -- and one of them is guilty of the crime! This film has no familiar actors, and something of a misleading title (it is not a literal translation of the German). The phrase "haunted castle" clearly implies a horror film and not a detective story, but there is very little horror here.Lothar Mehnert stars as Count Oetsch, and although I know absolutely nothing about him, I was very drawn to his performance. He has a striking look that I think makes for a good stage or screen presence. What else has he done? I do not know, but should seek it out.The film is light on humor, though there is a sequence I will call "the kitchen boy dream" that I found funny. What is it implying? What does it mean? How does it connect to the big story? I have no idea.The Kino DVD contains a book / film comparison and I would recommend this. It shows how radically different the film is in some ways from the book. While the essence is the same, I would almost have to say they are two different creatures altogether.

Nene-2 This very personal movie from Murnau sets the precedent for the author´s most notorious movie: Nosferatu the vampire.Murnau demonstrates his superb command of the camera and the illumination while setting the bases of the expressionism.The suspense distilled in Haunted Castle is well worth a Hitchcock´s movie and the plot is surprisingly complex for a silent.Do make sure that you see it in a winter stormy night