Film Review: The Golem: How He Came into the World ( Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam, 1920)
Germany is the birthplace of horror cinema. The person most likely to be viewed as its father is Paul Wegener, actor and director whose 1913 silent film The Student of Prague is considered the first feature in the history of the genre. While making the film in the actual city of Prague, Wegener was deeply impressed by local legends of Golem, which inspired him to make three film about that creature - The Golem in 1915, The Golem and the Dancing Girl in 1917 and The Golem: How He Came into the World in 1920. While the first two were lost, the third, co-directed by Wegener and Carl Boese, is preserved and nowadays considered one of the early classics of German Expressionist cinema.
The plot is set late medieval Prague and begins when Rabbi Loew (played by Albert Steinrück), leader of local Jewish community, observes the stars and finds that they are alligned in a way that points to huge danger to Jewish people. Loew’s fears are justified when the Holy Roman emperor (played by Otto Gebühr) publishes edict that would expel Jews from their ghetto. Emperor’s knight Florian (played by Lothar Müthel) is sent to deliver the edict to the ghetto. There he sees Loew’s beautiful daughter Miriam (played by Lyda Salmonova) and begins to flirt with her. In the meantime, Loew hatches the plan that would save his people with the help on ancient texts and magic. Loew has created Golem (played by Wegener), huge human-looking sculpture of clay that could be brought to life with magic word. He first uses it to conduct ordinary chores than goes to Emperor’s castle to present Golem at Rose festival. Emperor is impressed and abolishes the edict. However, when Florian secretly arrives to ghetto to make love to Miriam, Loew’s assistant (played by Ernst Deutsch) who had feelings for her, becomes jealous and activates Golem in order to use it against his romantic rival, thus triggering series events that would end with violence and destruction.
The Golem is better film than The Student of Prague. This can be explained with Wegener, who was better actor than director, sharing directorial credits with extremely prolific and experienced Carl Boese, as well as with rapid advancements in film technology. Film, despite revealing its old age, looks less rough around the edges and more in line with 1920s standards of silent cinema. This is due to cinematography of Karl Freund, who would a decade later work on Hollywood early sound classic of horror cinema like Dracula and The Mummy. Film also features some interesting special effects which were quite impressive for its time, as well as Expression production design that is slightly reminiscent of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which was released slightly at the same time. Scene near the ending, when unstoppable Golem is met by curious children that ultimately destroy him, later served as an inspiration for similar scene in Robert Whale’s Frankenstein. Although Golem, like so many silent horror films from early 1920s, looks more like an art film than genuine piece of horror genre, it is well-made and it could be recommended to cinephiles interested in history.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
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