The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari) (1920)
94%RT Audience Score: 89%
Awards & Nominations: NA
Arguably the first true horror film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari set a brilliantly high bar for the genre — and remains terrifying nearly a century after it first stalked the screen.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a classic film that has stood the test of time. It’s like a time capsule that takes you back to the dawn of cinema and shows you what was possible with a little creativity and a lot of imagination. The sets are like nothing you’ve ever seen before, with their twisted angles and distorted perspectives. And the story is just as twisted, with a madman who uses a somnambulist to commit murders. It’s a film that will make you think, make you feel, and maybe even give you a few nightmares. But most of all, it’s a film that will remind you why you fell in love with movies in the first place.
Production Company(ies)
Decla-Bioscop AG,
Distributor
Grapevine Video, Kino Video
Release Type
Filming Location(s)
Lixie-Atelier, Weißensee, Berlin, Germany
MPAA / Certificate
Not Rated
Year of Release
1920
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Silent
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Aspect ratio:1.33 : 1
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Runtime:1h 9m
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Language(s):German
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Mar 19, 1921 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 16, 1999
Genre(s)
Horror/Fantasy
Keyword(s)
Worldwide gross: $8,811
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $165,847
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,961
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 18,086
US/Canada gross: NA
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend:
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $18,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $338,809
Production budget ranking: 2,126
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $182,449
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): -$355,411
ROI to date (est.): -68%
ROI ranking: 1,795
Conrad Veidt – Cesare
Lil Dagover – Jane
Friedrich Feher – Francis
Rudolf Lettinger – Dr. Olson
Hans Heinrich von Twardowski – Alan
Director(s)
Robert Wiene
Writer(s)
Hans Janowitz, Carl Mayer
Producer(s)
Rudolf Meinert, Erich Pommer
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
NA
Academy Awards
All Critics (68) | Top Critics (21) | Fresh (67) | Rotten (1)
The two main elements — story and setting — are completely attuned in mood, and therein the artists have succeed in their experiment.
October 14, 2020
Perceval F. Reniers
New York Post
TOP CRITIC
The picture is significant, though… because it is expressionistic in the general sense that all of its elements, its settings, its plot, its people, are expressive, eloquent, and, for the most part, harmoniously so.
October 14, 2020
NYT Staff
New York Times
TOP CRITIC
[The film brings] out more clearly than ever before the close relationship between the art of painting and the art of the screen. It further suggests the future possibilities of the development of the cinema.
October 14, 2020
Inquirer Staff
Philadelphia Inquirer
TOP CRITIC
The story of Dr Caligari, converted into a hair-raising film melodrama, produced with rich cubist backgrounds instead of the more orthodox settings of perpendicular house walls, and trees that look like trees.
July 8, 2020
Times (UK) Staff
Times (UK)
TOP CRITIC
Caligari, the most complete essay in the décor of delirium, is one of the most famous films of all time, and it was considered a radical advance in film technique, yet it is rarely imitated — and you’ll know why.
January 3, 2018
Pauline Kael
New Yorker
TOP CRITIC
[That Wiene], this outsider, with no knowledge of studio customs, no reverence for studio traditions, should have turned out The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari seems a thing almost too strange for belief.
October 30, 2015
C.A. Lejeune
Guardian
TOP CRITIC
We could not help viewing The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari — which represents artistic radicalism in its most rabid form — with intense satisfaction.
October 5, 2021
Robert E. Sherwood
LIFE
It is important to remember the influence The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari has, its place permanently cemented within the dawn of film. A historical classic that may not retain the quality, but still retains the importance.
March 31, 2021
Stephanie Archer
Film Inquiry
the film’s deep shadows & distortions of perspective introduced to cinema the psychedelic techniques of German expressionist painting & architecture, launching a homegrown film movement and inspiring the stylisations of American horror and film noir
January 3, 2021
Anton Bitel
Projected Figures
Every intention is achieved. Caligari remains Germany’s greatest gift to cinema.
December 5, 2020 | Rating: 5/5
Tom Watson
CineVue
To today’s audiences, the title surely seems simplistic and even banal, yet it evokes a strangeness with its bizarre visuals that still manages to lodge in one’s mind.
November 3, 2020 | Rating: 4/5
Nicholas Bell
IONCINEMA.com
At the present time the world needs sane and helpful fiction; not allopathic doses of the morbid and the grotesque.
October 14, 2020
Edward Weitzel
Moving Picture World…
Plot
Francis, a young man, recalls in his memory the horrible experiences he and his fiancée Jane recently went through. It is the annual fair in Holstenwall. Francis and his friend Alan visit The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, an exhibit where the mysterious doctor shows the somnambulist Cesare, and awakens him for some moments from his death-like sleep. When Alan asks Cesare about his future, Cesare answers that he will die before dawn. The next morning Alan is found dead. Francis suspects Cesare of being the murderer, and starts spying on him and Dr. Caligari. The following night Cesare is going to stab Jane in her bed, but softens when he sees the beautiful woman, and instead of committing another murder, he abducts her. Jane’s father awakens because of the noise, and he and some servants follow the fleeing Cesare. When Cesare cannot outrun his pursuers anymore, he gently places Jane down on the ground, and runs away. Francis and the police investigate the caravan of Dr. Caligari, but the doctor succeeds in slipping away. Francis pursues the fleeing Dr. Caligari, and sees him disappear into a madhouse. Francis enters the madhouse, where he is sure he will find the truth behind all these mysterious events.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
No goofy or funny or odd comments were found on Fresh Kernels for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
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