The Cabinet of Caligari

Glynis Johns (Mrs. Banks in "Mary Poppins") stars as a woman who has a flat tire and finds herself first a guest and then a "prisoner" in an ultra modern house presided over by the sinister Dr.Caligari (Dan O'Herlihy). Bizarre experiences await her as she tries to escape. Strange other guests who may or may not have her best interests at heart are character actors J.Pat O'Malley, Constance Ford and Estelle Winwood. Plus O'Herlihy does double duty in two roles. The rather talky script is by Robert Bloch and the film seems like an extended "Twilight Zone" episode at times, which isn't a bad thing, but some may find it slow going. The acting is excellent however and there is a wild climax as Johns makes one last ditch effort to escape. "Caligari" is an in-name-only connection to the 1919 silent German classic but the aforementioned climax does owe a little to the expressionistic visuals of that film. The DVD is a fine print, I enjoyed it but "Caligari" is strictly a matter of taste experience. Plus it is very adult for the time as well with sex being a major part of the subject matter. Really weird twist ending too.

I won't give away the ending except to say that I wonder if the writer for the movie IDENTITY saw this as a kid and used the same premise??? I watched this flick wondering what the heck was going on, and why everything was so freakin weird. And then the ending blew me away! If your a fan of the Twilight Zone or Outer Limits. (the original versions) get this movie. Has the look and feel of those old shows and a great twist!!!! It so sad this is a forgotten GEM. I never saw it before, and I'm a young guy, but a huge fan of old 50's and 60's thrillers. Especially Hitchcockian stuff. And I love moody black and white films. And this is it. The shot were she is being interrogated and the chess board is the main focus of the shot is cool. Makes me think they are subconsciously trying to show the conflict and the warring between her and Caligari. The movie is in my top 20 classic thrillers. Don't let the first hour and change of weirdness fool you. The pay off is worth it, and everything makes sense. To a modern audience, that has seen everything 80 different ways, you can probably see it coming early on, but its still fun to watch, and I can only imagine what a shock the ending would have been to a simpler audience at a simpler time. And the movie delves into some crazy stuff for its time. Very cool! Two thumbs up. And Some one need to get me the name of Caligari's interior decorator, cause I'm all about his house. Not to mention is cool beard and freaky Freudian speak! Trust me, watch this movie. And buy the dvd. You'll want to see this one more than once.

IN ADDITION TO MY ABOVE COMMENTS: I know why they call this The Cabinet of Caligari. There is a direct connection between this film and the 1919 Silent Film! Do you know what it is? I do-

**SPOILER** DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THIS FILM. WILL RUIN THE FILM FOR YOU!

Ok, if you have seen the film, you realize the film is basically a dream. A dream of an unstable woman...or some claim Caligari himself. My verdict is still out on that one. But we definitely know it is the dream of someone unstable. And in an asylum. So what is the connection to the 1919 Silent Film. The original silent version has the exact same twist ending. The same underlying concept. In the original 1919 version all this weird stuff is happening you can't quite understand, and you find out at the end it is all the dream of an unstable asylum inmate. The two stories while told completely different, share the same ending and in a way the overall same concept. Both are about a crazy imagining a world in their head, and how strange a nightmare that can be. Which is again why it also in some ways reminds me of the film "IDENTITY"...another favorite of mine. But the relationship between these two films is more than a name. If if Robert Bloch hadn't intended it to be this way...in some strange way both film deal with the same ideas throughout, and share the exact same ending. In addition one of the reviews mentioned that he could not believe that the female star would want to commit suicide after being locked up for two days....what one has to remember is that this story is the produce of a disturbed mind, and has no real basis in reality. Things are happening around her, that her mind is transforming into something else. So she imagines she has been there for 2 days...but it could have been far longer. Or she could have been suicidal for many years, and being committed and locked up pushed her over the edge....in either case, to me it made perfect sense, once I understood everything was in her head. Also the relationship with her son, is a normal mother/son relationship once you realize she's crazy....in the conversations they have, he is speaking to her like a son...she is speaking to him like a love interest. Because she's crazy. And that's why in certain scenes he's so sad. He realizes from what she says she does not know he is her son. But is imagining he is something else. A hopeful lover/boyfriend? But it is interesting to re-watch the film, and see his reactions to her comments.

While I haven't seen the original 1920 German release of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, I did get a chance to see the 1962 version last night, and from the various reviews I've read on both, they don't seem to share a lot in common. The 1962 version, with the screenplay written by Robert Bloch (Psycho, Torture Garden), was produced and directed by Roger Kay ("Perry Mason", "Naked City") and features Glynis Johns (Papa's Delicate Condition, Mary Poppins) and Dan O'Herlihy (Halloween III: Season of the Witch, RoboCop). Also appearing is Richard Davalos (Kelly's Heroes), Constance Ford (A Summer Place), Lawrence Dobkin (Patton), J. Pat O'Malley (The Wind in the Willows), and Estelle Winwood (The Magic Sword, Dead Ringer), whom I best remember as the character Miss Withers, the elderly, flatulent companion to Miss Jessica Marbles, in the film Murder by Death (1976).

As the film begins we see an attractive young blonde woman named Jane Lindstrom (Johns) tooling down a lonely road in a compact convertible. After a blow out, she's forced to hoof it to a gated residence looking for help. Before I proceed I'd recommend anyone who drives a car should at least learn how to change a tire, as if this were a skill Jane possessed, it might have saved her from the psychological nightmare she's about to endure. Anyway, turns out the swanky residence is home to an individual named Dr. Caligari (O'Herlihy), a psychoanalyst of sorts who, at first, seems completely charming and very hospitable, to the point of allowing Jane to spend the night due to the fact her car seems to have suffered a bit more damage than a flat tire. Things take a turn for the strange the next day as Jane, thinking she'll be leaving soon, has an upsetting encounter with Caligari, who begins asking her some rather intimate questions, resulting in Jane storming out of his study and discovering she's basically a prisoner in Caligari's house, which is essentially a fortress with its electric iron gates and guards both of the human and canine variety. Later on Jane meets other, various residents of the house, but there's a certain oddness about their behavior, something she can't quite put her finger on...over the next couple of days Jane, who's quite the drama queen I might add, spends her time trying to figure a way out, that is when she's not freaking out. Various opportunities for escape seem to present themselves, only to vanish just as quickly, forcing Jane to come to the realization that perhaps there's only one, real way out of her nightmare. Eventually Jane believes she's got things figured out, but one's perceptions can be deceiving, especially given the fact everything's relative...

If you're familiar with Robert Bloch you'll know his tales tend to feature a strong, psychological aspect, and that's definitely the case here. I did enjoy this film, but I have to say the first hour or so was quite frustrating as it seemed to move along very slowly, and the dialogue felt continually disjointed in that the mode in which some of the characters spoke wasn't something that seemed necessarily normal to me, especially with Jane herself. It's hard to describe, but if you've seen the film you probably know what I'm talking about. As far as the plot, after a while, but well before the surprise ending, I did sort of figure out what was going on, even though I was fuzzy on many of the actual specifics. This wasn't because I read up on the film prior to seeing it, but more so because I'm familiar with some of Bloch's other works. As I mentioned earlier, the film does sort of crawl along (for the first hour or so), but the last fifteen or twenty minutes made up for the rest as the revelations come pouring out like a perforated piñata spilling its goodies. I've tried to avoid revealing any of the good stuff for those who haven't had a chance to see the film, as those bits should be seen rather than related in a review. The story reminded me a lot of the late 1960s television show "The Prisoner", featuring Patrick McGoohan, in that both featured a central character trapped in unfamiliar, controlled surroundings populated with odd characters, few of whom seem able, or willing, to help. There was one aspect of the story that really annoyed the heck out of me and that comes as Jane, after various escape attempts have been thwarted, contemplates what she perceives to be her only, viable means of escape, one that includes taking an over dose of sleeping pills. Now get this, she's been prisoner for all of two days and she's already thinking about taking her own life? It wasn't like she was being physically tortured or forced to live in unbearable surroundings. I suppose everyone has his or her breaking point, but I mean come on, how are you going to throw in the towel after two days? Now you can see what I mean when I referred to Jane as a drama queen earlier. Suck it up, grow a pair, and find a way out, or die trying. As I said, I did have a general idea what was going on before the big revelation, but that really didn't lessen the surprise too much as I didn't have much in the way of specifics nailed down. I really liked how the pieces eventually fit together, even if some of them created some uncomfortable thoughts (I'm speaking specifically of the character of Mark, played by Richard Davalos, and his perceived relationship with Jane). All in all a fairly effective, often frustrating, psychological thriller, with a decent payoff.

The DVD features both the widescreen anamorphic (2.35:1) and fullscreen (1.33:1) of the film, and the picture quality is quite good. The audio, available in Dolby Digital stereo and mono in English, and Dolby Digital mono in Spanish, comes through very well. There's really not much in the way of extras except for a theatrical trailer for the film and subtitles in both English and Spanish.

Cookieman108

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