The Golem
by Paul Wegener, Carl Boese
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Albert Steinrück, Ernst Deutsch, Hans Stürm, Lyda Salmonova, Paul WegenerDirector: Carl Boese, Paul Wegener
Writer: Paul Wegener
Cinematographer: Guido Seeber
Cinematographer: Karl Freund
Producer: Paul Davidson
Writer: Henrik Galeen
DVD: Region Code 1
Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC, Silent
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 91 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-09-24
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Alpha Video
Movie Reviews of The Golem
Movie Review: Silly Rabbi, Tricks Is For Kids
Summary: 5 Stars
I first saw The Golem when I was 12 and have loved it ever since. At the time I had to go to the public library, and borrow an actual film reel, and watch it inside their film vault, because this was not only before the DVD, but even before the VCR became so prevalent. I've always been a fan of the old Univeral studio horror movies, and I wanted to see how The Golem might have influenced Frankenstein. I found that the costume and makeup may have been influential, but little else, other than minor plot points. The key to the Frankenstein film was that the monster became murderous because of a damaged brain, and in the source novel because he was tormented by society. It's questionable whether a clay statue even has a brain to damage, and he certainly wasn't tormented. As he did his daily chores around the village, people seemed to be used to his presence. So there was no torchlit chase scene to cap the movie either.
The Golem's costume with its padded up bulk, although Paul Wegener was a big man already, and his huge boots, clearly were echoed in Frankenstein. Some photos of Hamilton Deane in the Peggy Webling play Frankenstein (that the movie was based on) suggested a makeup inspired by The Golem. However, some of the appearance, especially the built up forehead, seemed to be already present in Thomas Edison's 1910 version of Frankenstein, with Charles Ogle. Edward Van Sloan compared Bela Lugosi's monster makeup, in a test reel for the part of the monster, as being very much like the Golem. Lugosi was described as having a polished clay-like skin and broad wig that made his head a bit large. Since Lugosi designed much of his own makeup with Jack Pierce's help, Pierce's claim about all the research he did for Karloff's make-up sounds like hot-air. Although there are no pictures of Lugosi's makeup, it sounds like all Pierce did was give the monster a haircut, and put in the electrodes and stitches the script called for.
The only other places where one might see a similarity between The Golem and Frankenstein was in the scenes between the monster and girls. The Golem fell for Rabbi Lowe's grown daughter, and was destroyed by a little girl named Maria. Karloff's monster seemed to be always eloping by force, and of course he killed a little girl named Maria. The Rabbi had an assistant, but Frankenstein worked alone in the novel, but had an assistant named Fritz in the movie, a character that appeared in some form in the play, which is unfortunately now out of print. Of course most people remember the assistant's name as Ygor now, because of the broken necked shepherd Bela Lugosi played in The Son of Frankenstein and The Ghost of Frankenstein.
Although there are legends about Rabbi Lowe and his Golem, only the Rabbi is historical, and some Golem legends made another Rabbi the creator. But nevertheless the movie is good historical spectacle, and moves remarkably fast for a silent movie.
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