The Cabinet of Caligari (1962)

When young Jane Lindstorm's (Glynis Johns) car breaks down, she makes her way to a somewhat frightening-looking mansion for help. Once there, however, her problems go from bad worse: Dr. Caligari (Dan O'Herlihy), the owner of the house, begins taking Jane on a slow, torturous decent into her psyche that makes her increasingly uncomfortable. Moreover, she is held in the house against her will, and no one in Caligari's household seems willing to help her escape. With its compelling, haunting soundtrack and unexpected plot twists, THE CABINET OF CALIGARI just might send you screaming to your psychotherapist, or, perhaps, running in the other direction!

Thrilling and Suspenseful

This film described as a story in which "a young woman feels trapped in the mansion of a madman" appears with only a two star rating.
My feeling is that it's deserves many more, written by the author of Psycho and not nearly as recognized is perhaps why it's under rated.
Joan, an attractive , young woman is manipulated, tormented and humiliated by the mansion owner Caligari who seems to be very ill and sadistic.
She finds he's spied on her bath and he goes into a tantrum screaming "MY bath!","MY house!","You are MY guest!"
She retorts "Guest?,We both know I'm a prisoner behind locked gates"
She appears to be an innocent victim to the man's cruelty, receiving the brunt of his of his rage and contemptuous madness, but bare in mind everything is not always as it appears.
There are shocking scenes and surreal footage.
It turns out that Caligari is not trying to hurt her but shock her back to reality with bizarre treatments at his luxury hospital.
It's a good psychological thriller ending the suspense with a full 360 degree turn.
Happy Halloween !

November 1, 2008

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Except for it's title and the resolution of the mystery, THE CABINET OF CALIGARI (1962) has virtually nothing to do with the classic silent German film.

Robert Kay directs a screenplay by Robert Bloch that stars Glynis Johns as a woman whose car breaks down on a lonely road. She makes her way to a strange modern mansion, owned by Dr. Caligari (Dan O'Herlihy), who initially welcomes her, then takes her prisoner. She, along with other "guests," has the run of the large estate, but she will not be allowed to leave until she bares her soul to the sadistic doctor.

This is an intriguing thriller that, perhaps, goes on a bit too long before its surprising pay-off.

Ms. Johns and especially O'Herlihy deliver terrific performances.

© Michael B. Druxman, author of ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD October 12, 2008

Update of a classic feels more modern than 1962

The Cabinet of Caligari is a 1962 movie based loosely on The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a 1919 silent film. Ironically, it is very modern.

This is the kind of movie that is hard to examine without giving too much away. A young woman's car breaks down on vacation, and she finds her way to a huge mansion. The man of the house, Caligari, is all too willing to make her his guest, and soon, Jane finds herself more a prisoner. There are others in the house, some who seem to be guests too, and others who appear to be more aligned with Caligari, and she tries to figure out her place there and a way out.

I loved this movie for the dialogue. Caligari's prodding words were even mixed into a Nine Inch Nails version of Queen's "Get Down Make Love." He says, "How old were you when you first let a man make love to you? Next, who was he? Next, how did you feel at the time? Next, how did you feel afterwards? What did you feel? What did you think? Were you pleased, frightened, ecstatic, disgusted? What did he say? What words did you speak? That's what I want to know. Now. Tell me. Now. Now. All of it, now. Tell me. YES!"

It was so strange the way characters acted totally familiar with each other on first meetings. On the first watch, I chalked this up to 60s styling, but after the plot is fully revealed, everything makes perfect sense.

This is a horror film much like Memento could be considered one, but I think that it wasn't easily defined by a genre in its time, and horror was the closest. There were moments with really weird editing, especially near the end, that seemed to try to "spook" things up. Those scenes are a little funny, but they do add to the movie as a whole.
Loved it!
May 3, 2008

Great 60s film-noir art

What a great period film this is! It's a 1962 psychological thriller, almost a horror flick, and Dan O'Herlihy is brilliant in his role as "Caligari".

First, the technical information: this single disc offers viewers the option of EITHER widescreen [letterbox], or, fullscreen. (In my opinion, widescreen is the only way to watch it!). It's shot in black and white, digitized from a very clear 35 mm print, and the filmscore is absolutely superb, being of the '60s atmospheric genre (Gerald Fried, composer). And for those who need to know such things, this DVD IS copy-protected *.*

The short story is this: An attractive young woman touring the rural countryside in her little sports convertible has a blowout and is forced to hoof it several miles to a large and remote estate where Caligari and company welcome her in.

At first, things go okay but she soon discovers that she's sort of an unrestrained prisoner, clearly a cat's-paw, in a modernistic but VERY strange household. The suspense builds and reaches very creepy levels when the girl looks up from her bath and sees Caligari peering down at her, reminiscences of "Psycho"! Why won't they let her go? She endures one mental assault after another.

That's about as far as I can go without invoking a spoiler so I'll stop on the storyline there. To highlight other aspects of the film, all the actors' performance is superb, the locations are just super, and the sets are first-class and incredibly nostalgic of the late '50s- early '60s-period. A few of the camera angles and the magnificent but subtle filmscore really boosts the suspense of the movie.

As a matter of trivia, there is a previous old silent version of this film which critics seem to savour -- I have not viewed it. Also, this film was a lifesaver for 20th Century Fox studios (along with "The Longest Day") because "Cleopatra" was being filmed at the same time and was gobbling up millions of dollars, practically bankrupting the studio. This film coupled with "The Longest Day" (also shot in black and white) raked in an immediate lucrative box office return which kept Fox financially solvent until "Cleopatra" was laboriously completed.

Some folks will say that "The Cabinet of Caligari" drags, especially at first -- this is probably true if one is not really enthusiastic about baby boomer black and white nostalgic films. Honestly, I loved every minute of this movie and I particularly recommend it to those who are especially fond of this unique film genre. Others might consider it to be a 3-star flick, or possibly even lower. But I don't think that anyone who knows much about film can deny that this one is artfully conveyed. December 28, 2007

This Movie Should Have Stayed in the Cabinet Where It Belonged!

I was very disappointed. I expected the movie to be more terrifying because the screenplay was written by Robert Bloch who also wrote the screenplay for "Psycho." It was slow and boring. Jane Lindstrom (Glynis Johns) didn't do a convincing job of trying to escape from the house. She mostly whined and got on everyone's nerves the entire time. I would've released her just to keep myself from going crazy from listening to her nasally, whining voice. Yes, the movie did have a "twist ending" but it wasn't worth the tortuous, boring wait. Good actors did their utmost to make the best of a bad situation. I bought it because I confused it with the 1919 classic, "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," which has been highly praised. I recommend that you rent "The Cabinet of Caligari" before purchasing. It has been compared to the "The Twilight Zone" series. Some of its episodes were good and some were disappointing as well. Most modern horror fans will not like this movie. November 26, 2007

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