Schloß Vogelöd
Directed by:
Friedrich Wilhelm MurnauScreenplay:
Carl MayerCast:
Arnold Korff, Paul Hartmann, Paul Bildt, Olga Tschechowa, Hermann Vallentin, Loni Nest, Lothar Mehnert, Lulu Kyser-KorffPlots(1)
A party of aristocrats assemble at a country manor for an autumn hunt. But a long-lingering question threatens once more to rear its head: who really murdered the Baroness's late husband? With a riveting nightmare sequence that foreshadows the nocturnal fantasias of both Nosferatu and Phantom, and a masquerade conceit that looks backward to Feuillade and forward to Murnau's own Die Finanzen des Großherzogs, this languorous mood piece represents the latent material that will figure into a master director's later breakthroughs. (Eureka Entertainment)
(more)Reviews (1)
The Czech title of this movie along with foreign equivalents such as The Haunted Castle was unnecessarily confusing. Schloß Vogelöd is definitely not a horror movie to be ranked alongside Murnau's Nosferatu, but it is a relatively run-of-the-mill trashy thriller, in which there is not even a murder (or rather there was, but it is from before where the movie starts). Only one dream sequence evokes any sort of horror atmosphere, but you should definitely not worry about being terrified. Also, the suspense in this picture does not work the second time around. In later years, F. W. Murnau shot a whole range of much more interesting movies, but unfortunately, Schloß Vogelöd is one of his least appealing works. [Summer Film School 2018]
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