'Der Dorfsgolem' literally means 'the Village Golem', and the title is meant to be funny. Just as in Britain and America (where we tell jokes about 'the village idiot'), Germany has a long tradition of humour based on 'hicks' and foolish rustic types. 'The Village Golem' is a comedy, but it's not very funny.
It's harvest time, and the villagers of Eseldorf have a great deal of work to do, scything the fields and bundling the sheaves. But they don't want to do it themselves. The local schoolmaster (the only character in this movie who looks Jewish) has found an old scroll recounting the legend of Rabbi Loew of Prague, who crafted a golem to protect the Jews of the ghetto. Now the villagers mould a clay man under the schoolmaster's direction. He performs some indistinct ritual (this is a badly deteriorated print of a film that was dimly photographed in the first place, so I can't make out all the action) and hey presto! The golem comes to life. The cheapjack golem in this movie looks suspiciously like either a parody or a bad imitation of Paul Wegener's famous golem.
SPOILERS COMING. The villagers put their golem to work. But a badly-made golem does a poor job. He sees some peasant girls passing, and he's more interested in leering at them than in doing his tasks. "We made him TOO human," says one of the village elders in a title card. Pieces of the golem fall off occasionally. Finally everybody gets angry at the golem and he tries to run away. A thunderstorm begins. (Bad stock footage.) The rain dissolves the golem.
I'll rate this movie 1 point out of 10. 'Der Dorfsgolem' is badly scripted, wretchedly directed, dimly photographed, and execrably performed all round by this uncredited cast. There's a large potential for humour in the theme of the Golem, but it wasn't attained until the 1950s when Avram Davidson wrote his classic story 'The Golem'.
It's harvest time, and the villagers of Eseldorf have a great deal of work to do, scything the fields and bundling the sheaves. But they don't want to do it themselves. The local schoolmaster (the only character in this movie who looks Jewish) has found an old scroll recounting the legend of Rabbi Loew of Prague, who crafted a golem to protect the Jews of the ghetto. Now the villagers mould a clay man under the schoolmaster's direction. He performs some indistinct ritual (this is a badly deteriorated print of a film that was dimly photographed in the first place, so I can't make out all the action) and hey presto! The golem comes to life. The cheapjack golem in this movie looks suspiciously like either a parody or a bad imitation of Paul Wegener's famous golem.
SPOILERS COMING. The villagers put their golem to work. But a badly-made golem does a poor job. He sees some peasant girls passing, and he's more interested in leering at them than in doing his tasks. "We made him TOO human," says one of the village elders in a title card. Pieces of the golem fall off occasionally. Finally everybody gets angry at the golem and he tries to run away. A thunderstorm begins. (Bad stock footage.) The rain dissolves the golem.
I'll rate this movie 1 point out of 10. 'Der Dorfsgolem' is badly scripted, wretchedly directed, dimly photographed, and execrably performed all round by this uncredited cast. There's a large potential for humour in the theme of the Golem, but it wasn't attained until the 1950s when Avram Davidson wrote his classic story 'The Golem'.
