In this film without sound, a man awakes disheveled in a rooming house. He stares out the window seeing...
Some reviews have compared this film to "The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari", which I frankly just do not see. Maybe a hint here or there, but it is not obvious. Also, this film being from 1947 makes it a bit late on the scene to emulate Caligari... plenty of other films had tested the boundaries of German expressionism. This one does not come close to any of those films, at least not in that way.
I find a much more apt comparison would be to the noir films or Hitchcock. The dark shadows, the looming nether of the world beyond the protagonist... While not as good as "The Third Man", I find that this is a much closer approximation than Caligari... but I am by no means an expert on 1940s film.
What will stand out in my mind about this film is the most terrifying use of a ballet dancer ever put to celluloid. I was quite literally creeped out by this character, and whatever his significance (I cannot even begin to guess), he did a job well done if his goal was to make me fear him.
Some reviews have compared this film to "The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari", which I frankly just do not see. Maybe a hint here or there, but it is not obvious. Also, this film being from 1947 makes it a bit late on the scene to emulate Caligari... plenty of other films had tested the boundaries of German expressionism. This one does not come close to any of those films, at least not in that way.
I find a much more apt comparison would be to the noir films or Hitchcock. The dark shadows, the looming nether of the world beyond the protagonist... While not as good as "The Third Man", I find that this is a much closer approximation than Caligari... but I am by no means an expert on 1940s film.
What will stand out in my mind about this film is the most terrifying use of a ballet dancer ever put to celluloid. I was quite literally creeped out by this character, and whatever his significance (I cannot even begin to guess), he did a job well done if his goal was to make me fear him.
