Schatten – Eine nächtliche Halluzination

1923 film by Arthur Robison

1923 (1923)

Running time

85 minutes^[1]CountryGermanyLanguagesSilent film
German intertitles

Schatten – Eine nächtliche Halluzination ("Shadows - a Nocturnal Hallucination", known in English as Warning Shadows) is a 1923 German silent film directed and co-written by Arthur Robison, and starring Fritz Kortner and Ruth Weyher. It is considered part of German Expressionism.^[1]

Plot

During a dinner given by a wealthy count (Fritz Kortner), his beautiful wife (Ruth Weyher) and four of her suitors come together at the 19th-century German manor. A magician (Alexander Granach), referred to as "Shadowplayer" in the cast list, rescues the count's marriage by giving all the guests a vision of what might happen if the count cannot restrain his jealousy and the suitors continue to make advances towards his wife. The count challenges the man he perceives as his rival (Gustav von Wangenheim) to a duel. The film has a happy ending as violence is averted and the count and his wife save their marriage. However, it is left unclear whether events at the party actually occurred, or whether it was all an illusion conjured up by the magician.

Cast

Alexander Granach as Shadowplayer
Fritz Kortner as The count
Ruth Weyher as His wife
Gustav von Wangenheim as Her lover
Eugen Rex as A servant
Lilli Herder as Dienstmaedchen
Fritz Rasp as Diener
Karl Platen as 2. Diener
Max Gülstorff as 2. Kavalier
Ferdinand von Alten as 3. Kavalier
Rudolf Klein-Rogge

Production

Troy Howarth writes "The film is fascinating primarily on a visual level. As an exercise in Expressionism, it fully deserves inclusion in the canon of great German horror films", comparing Robison's film to the best of F.W. Murnau and Fritz Lang. He says however that the film runs out of steam toward the end and the characters were too stereotypical to be very interesting.^[1] Siegfried Kracauer ranked it among the masterpieces of German cinema, but lamented that it came and went all but unnoticed by the general public.^[2]

Director Arthur Robison was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1883, but grew up in Germany where he became an established writer-director in the German silent film industry. His first film was the 1916 German horror film A Night of Horror, and his last film was the 1935 sound remake of The Student of Prague. Actors Von Wagenheim and Granach were reunited again here after both costarred in Nosferatu (1923).

Literary significance

Referred to in Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh is Anthony Blanche's description of Sebastian's companion Kurt: "He is like the footman in "Warning Shadows" - a great clod of a German..." (presumably the character portrayed by Fritz Rasp).

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Workman, Christopher (2016). Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era. Midnight Marquee Press. p. 271. ISBN 978-1936168-68-2.
^ Kracauer, Siegfried (1947). From Caligari To Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film. Princeton University Press. p. 113. ISBN 0-691-02505-3.

Eisner, Lotte H. (1981) [1965]. L'Écran Démoniaque (in French) (2nd ed.). Paris.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

External links

Schatten – Eine nächtliche Halluzination at AllMovie
Schatten – Eine nächtliche Halluzination at IMDb
Schatten – Eine nächtliche Halluzination at Rotten Tomatoes
Page of the editor Kino, who released a restored version of the film on DVD in 2006