A fascinating story, this most famous version of The Golem has the remarkable performance of actor-director Wegener, who does indeed look like a clay statue, even in closeups. The production is the most lavish of the four films in this collection, with the expresionist art direction integrated more naturally (is this a contradiction?) and the Prague Ghetto sets constructed on a giant scale.

The Ghetto is overseen by a benevolent group of wise rabbis. Rabbi Lowe might as well be the sorcerer from 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice', with all of his magic encantations and secret knowledge of demonology - he can summon evil ancient gods and exploit their secret powers. This, coupled with the less-than-flattering characterizations of Miriam (innocent lover or sluttish wanton?) and Famulus (sneaky, jealous, ambitious), might lead one to think the film anti-semitic.

But the Ghetto is seen as a normally happy community where the Jews like living their separate cultural lives, and the Emperor's court is a definitely un-superior place of decadent dandies and elitists. Apart from Lowe's black magic, the rest of the Ghetto seems very devout and positive spiritual (especially in this longer version). As for the negative aspects of Miriam and Famulus, the point of the folk story in its original and later versions always centered on the human weaknesses of the mortals who misused the Golem.

The Golem is a parable with a wide application to the world we know, from Atomic Power to Frosty the Snowman; with the basic concept that Mankind is emotionally unqualified to wield dangerous power. "Built to serve" might be the Golem's motto, and The Rabbi wisely considers activating him only when the survival of his community is threatened. Everyone thinks the monster is an inert automaton, but it seems to absorb the 'vibes' of the people it encounters. When used for immoral ends, the Golem becomes emotionally outraged, and just plain goes nuts. James Whale's Frankenstein owes a lot to this show, and the resemblance is especially striking in the scenes where both monsters are confronted by innocent little children. The contrast shown when the unstoppable, indestructable Golem is felled by a tiny tot, gives the story a very satisfying ending.

Except for a tendency of its images to lack detail, The Golem is in pretty good shape. It plays a lot more smoothly with the extended footage of the Ghetto religious ceremonies. The long running time can be accounted for with the slower projection speed and added intertitles, but there must be considerable new material as well. Earlier 'versions' were disjointed cutdowns, but on this disc, the show finally plays like a full-length feature.

1. Kino's celebrated theatrical release of the recent German digital restoration of Metropolis has gotten Savant in plenty of hot water, because of my negative comments on their release without having seen it. The museum tour of the original restoration ran at 20 frames per second, which to Savant gave the movie its proper gravity and pace, especially during the rapid-cutting montages. Understandably unable to engineer 20 fps theatrical screenings, Kino has used a rerecording of the original Metropolis premiere score, and very ably justified their 24 fps theatrical version with the establish fact that the original premiere was projected at 25 or 26 fps! The museum screenings were 145 minutes, and Kino's is said to be 118 or 122. That's the same film, just running much faster through the projector.
Savant still has his concerns, but the Kino Metropolis is receiving a rave reception wherever it plays, and none of the reviews have mentioned anything derogatory about (or even mentioned) the change in frame rate - a fact which Kino and a German source have chidingly pointed out to me in several emails! I'm sure that the film is a great show, even running fast, and I think it's a fine thing that Kino and Metropolis are having such a successful theatrical run.
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2. I've always suspected that silent intertitles were reshot and retimed longer for the faster 24fps projection ... but when the movies were slowed down to their correct rates, the titles were left long. This theory doesn't account for the scrolling titles in Caligari that seem to take bloody forever - in the original German excerpt, they're just as slow.
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3. An informative note: the 'cabinet' in the German title for this show , Das Wachsfigurenkabinett, is used the same way as the 'cabinet' in Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. It doesn't refer to the box Cesare is packed in, but the show in general. Apparently the earliest freak sideshows were exhibitions of oddities and weirdnesses - unwholesome things like two-headed calf fetuses and unborn human mutations. They were given respectablity with the idea that they had been collected by scientists, and that the 'freak show' was really a wholesome inspection of a doctor's collection ... things he normally kept out of sight in his 'locked cabinet.'
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