The Cabinet Of Caligari (1962)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C- Film: B-
It is always a problem trying to do remakes of a classic,
but Robert Wiene’s 1919 German Expressionist classic The Cabinet Of Dr.
Caligari is almost an impossible proposition. However, when Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) arrived,
Fox thought it was a possibility with Psycho book author Robert Bloch
doing the screenplay. The resulting The
Cabinet Of Caligari arrived two years after the Hitchcock classic and was
somewhat ambitious, but just not enough and time has not treated it as well.
Doing away with the sleepwalking monster was a strange
idea, but casting the late, great Dan O’Herlihy in the title role (see Robinson
Crusoe and The Robocop Trilogy elsewhere on this site) was a step in
the right direction. Glynis Johns is
Jane Lindstrom, who has her sporty convertible car break down. She walks for help and find an estate with a
strange “C” on the gate, which she enters.
It seems like she will get help, but something screwy is going on
there. Then she tries to leave, but
every attempt is foiled. Eventually, it
is obvious she is being kept there against her will and the horror begins. Unfortunately, the last 5 – 10 minutes of
the ending negates the entire film and Johns’ Jane Lindstrom may be too naïve
for her own good. I will go as far as
to say that the ending seems thrown in, as if Bloch’s script was originally too
dark or if he was asked to tack on a happy ending. That’s a shame, because this has a good cast that can act and a
good directing pace from Robert Kay.
That makes Cabinet Of Caligari an interesting film worth a look.
The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image was shot in the
original CinemaScope process and in beautiful black and white by cinematographer
John Russell, A.S.C., and is well done.
Russell shot several episodes of Boris Karloff’s Thriller and Alfred
Hitchcock Presents, with the latter being his ticket to shoot Hitchcock’s Psycho. Other genre films of interest include The
Man From Planet X (1951) and Jigsaw (1969). The original double-lens anamorphic
CinemaScope system, unlike its higher-fidelity single squeeze lens
replacements/successors, does not have a much distortion. However, the strange distortion actually
works to the advantage of this film.
Some footage is a bit softer for whatever reasons, but most of it is on
the sharp and clear side. It is not
German Expressionism, but some of the most interesting monochrome scope work we
have seen and the production design is a plus that all could have even went
further visually. Needless to say it is
far superior to the awful pan & scan flipside. The Dolby Digital 2.0 is here in mono & stereo, with the
latter having a slight edge and both showing the film’s age a bit. The score by the great Gerald Fried has been
available in a terrific limited edition CD set from Film Score Monthly Magazine
with three other great scores from the composer and also happens to be reviewed
elsewhere on this site. Extras include
suggestions for other Fox Horror titles and this film’s original theatrical
trailer. More would have been nice, but
this is a solid disc worth catching.
- Nicholas Sheffo
