From Caligari to Hollywood (Birth of a Genre)
Horror cinema didn’t begin in Hollywood, it first emerged in Germany.
In 1913 stage actor Paul Wegener was eager to work in the new CINEMATIC medium. Most films were only 15 or 30 mnutes long - simple comedies, dramas or romances. But Wegener believed a longer film could explore characters and story in more depth. With an interest in trick photographer, he chose “The Student of Prague” as hisdebut as a film actor.
It’s about a poor student who unwisely agrees to let a sinister stranger take “something he doesn’t need from his room” in return for a purse of endless riches. But he’s horrified to realise that “that something” is his reflection, which Steps out of the mirror AND LEAVES with the stranger.
It was a sensation, leading to DOZENS OF fantasy and horror productions over the next 15 years. The actors in these films were also remarkable - artists who believed in film as art, and weren’t afraid willing to take risks. Thus Conrad Veidt, Max Schreck, Anita Berber, Werner Krause, Emil Jannings, Brigitte Helm with directors F W Murnau, Richard Oswald, Paul Leni & Frirz Lang created some of the most bewitching films in cinema history.
The often expressionist look and disturbing themes of “The Cabinet of Dr Caligari”, “Nosferatu”, “Waxworks”, “Orlac’s Hands” & “Faust” had a major influence on Hollywood’s horror films in the 1930s. Some of the key figures enjoyed significant international careers as a result, while others did not.
From Caligari to Hollywood charts the lives & careers of these icons– through the creation of the most influential films of all time, their absorption into Hollywood and the later lives of thOSe actors and directors, as Germany moved from THE FanTASTIC to THE DEADLY real terrors erupting - not on screen, but in life.
Peter Lorre - The Exile’s Return
Though he made few outright “horror films”, those he did, including Fritz Lang’s legendary “M”, “Mad Love” and “The Beast with Five Fingers” secured Peter Lorre’s place in the horror icon pantheon. And there was his latter day work with Vincent Price and Roger Corman. But the Lorre of Tales of Terror and The Raven was a different man from the one who made those earlier films.
After “M”, Lorre was a major draw in German cinema. But the rise of Hitler forced him into exile, first to England, working for Alfred Hitchcock, then to Hollywood. His international reputation initially earned him prestige projects such as an adaptation of Crime and Punishment & tests for a proposed version of Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre Dame. But gradually he became typed as quirky odd balls, whether villainous or not in a variety of films, some classic, some not over the next decade.
Peter excelled at these - frequently lifting mediocre films and scripts merely by his presence. But he hungered for more creative and artistically satisfying work. And in 1950, it seemed that chance had come. Returning to Germany he starred in and direct a film which would take a serious look at recent events - Der Verlorene (The Lost One).
It would prove to be a turning point, but not the kind he hoped for. Our film examines both that production and Lorre’s career up to and beyond that moment.
