2016 Blind Spot Series: The Phantom of the Opera (1925) and Frankenstein (1910)

Nosferatu (1922)

Directed by F.W. Murnau.
1922. Not Rated, 81 minutes.
Cast:
Max Schrek
Gustav von Wangenheim
Greta Schroder
Alexander Granach
Georg H. Schnell
Ruth Landshoff

Real-estate agent Thomas Harker (Wangenheim) is summonsed to Transylvania to bring back Count Orlock (Schrek), a potential customer. Once there, strange things occur every evening after dark. Harker then discovers that his host is a vampire. Loosely based on Bram Stoker’s legendary Dracula novel. It’s the first vampire movie ever made and generally credited with being the first horror movie as well. It’s still an intriguing watch but lacks the technical pop and sizzle to hold any real tension for most modern audiences. Still, for the time the movie was made, the makeup job on our vampire is phenomenal. The story still moves along nicely but the end seems a tad too easy. Fans of vampire movies should probably take a look if for no other reason than to see where many of the tenets of the genre started. You can also see some that have fallen by the wayside for being too impractical. For instance, Nosferatu has to carry mounds of dirt, filling a number of coffins, everywhere he goes because he has to sleep in the same grounds he was originally buried in to preserve his power. This is good stuff for us wannabe film buffs but I’ll admit throwing on a 86 year old silent movie isn’t generally a crowd pleaser. For that reason, I won’t give it a score. It’s from the infancy of movie-making and was made for viewers equally new to motion pictures.

Metropolis

Metropolis
1927. Not Rated, 115 minutes.
Director: Fritz Lang. Starring Alfred Abel, Brigitte Helm, Gustav Frohlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge.
Young, privileged Freder (Frohlich) accidentally discovers that the prosperous city he lives in, and his father Fredersen (Abel) runs, is kept running literally on the backs of the poor, nearly enslaved laborers who themselves live far below the city's surface. The movie proves one thing, man is perpetually cynical about the future, especailly in regards to technology. It gives us a marvelous dystopian society the powers that be are trying to pass of as an underground paradise while essentially keeping the working class in bondage. Fredersen makes a great villain, not because he's evil, though he is, but more because like the best bad guys he believes what he's doing is right and just and will do anything to perserve what he sees as the proper order of things. The concepts used here have aged remarkably well as many of them are still recycled in sci-fi to this day. Even more surprising, the special fx look better than many movies half it's 80+ years. Of course since it's a silent movie, some people will automatically be turned off and that's a shame. However, since silent movies are such a different beast to tame for today's audience, I won't grade it. I'll just say if you're a serious sci-fi movie buff then you should see this, if for no other reason than making sure you see all the classics of the genre to see how far it has, and hasn't come.