User Reviews

At the beginning of the DvD's "scrapbook", there is a quote from Paul Wegener that says he never thought the Golem was an expressionist film. Watching it right after seeing Nosferatu, that statement becomes believable. Despite amazing sets that would have been at home in Caligari, in story, in acting, and in overall tone, The Golem is a much more naturalistic film. Watching it with my son, who is 16, he was struck by its uncomfortable prefiguring of Jewish persecution. I was impressed by the the scarcity of romantic cliches in the story. The golem itself is clearly the ancestor of the Frankenstein monster. Full of wonderful images and interesting as a predecessor of the Universal monster films, The Golem is also very entertaining as a story and as a piece of dramatic film making. Highly recommended.

Although this 1920 German silent does not really rank alongside the truly great silent films, it remains a fascinating oddity. Based on European Jewish folklore, it tells the story a Jewish community in Prague which is threatened with expulsion from the city. In an effort to protect his people, Rabbi Loew creates a man-like creature made of clay and uses it to impress the Emperor. Unfortunately, the magic backfires, and when the Golem falls into the hands of the Rabbi's perfidious assistant disaster results.

Much of the film's charm is in its visual style. The sets by Hans Poelzig are a strange but cohesive mixture of medieval, nouveau, and surrealism, and the cinematography by legendary photography Karl Freund uses high contrast black and white to truly remarkable effect. The Poelzig-Freund combination would cast an extremely long shadow, and THE GOLEM would influence not only such German films as Fitz Lang's METROPOLIS but the entire cycle of 1930s American horror films that began with the 1931 Bela Lugosi Dracula.

Several plot devices and the look of the Golem, as played by Paul Wegener, would also prove particularly influential for director James Whale's famous 1932 FRANKENSTEIN. Whether or not Boris Karloff or make-up artist Jack Pierce knew the film is uncertain--but Whale, who was fond of German cinema, certainly did, and traces of THE GOLEM can be seen throughout his most famous works.

Over the past several decades a number of film historians have attempted to reinterpret THE GOLEM in light of the Holocaust. There may actually be a certain validity to this, for although the Jews are portrayed sympathetically they are very clearly outsiders, and their religion seems less like religion than witchcraft--and indeed Rabbi Loew might be said to practice black magic in bringing the Golem to life. This sense of social estrangement and religious stigmatism does seem indicative of the anti-Semitism that will ultimately explode into furnaces of Nazi Germany. All the same, it is worth noting that THE GOLEM is a fundamentally Jewish story to begin with, and it is perhaps best to think of it in those terms instead of using hindsight to impose modern meanings upon the film.

There are several home market releases of the film. While I have not seen it, I am told the Timeless Studios VHS release is weak; I have, however, seen the Gotham DVD release, and although there are some quality issues this inexpensive DVD is not at all bad. Still, my preference and recommendation is the Kino DVD. Unlike many Kino editions, it does not have anything significant in the way of bonuses, but the overall presentation is very fine and likely represents a best-possible presentation short of full digital restoration.

When I see these old attempts at what amounted to a horror film back then, before my time and I'm an old duffer, I'm always struck at the marvelous Gothic quality wrought by the twisted buildings, the gnarled stairways, the open balconies and the weird angles of things such as doorways, arches, street, bridges and the like. The monstrosities are stark, hardly terrifying by today's CGIs and often terrifying their victims in an almost comical, stylized way. This marvelous film together with Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari are marvelous pieces of art. There is an ageless quality to them that transcends the hoary and often corny plots and acting. Each must be taken as a whole because that product is always greater than the sum of their parts. Compare the magical Indian Love Call of Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, two rather mainstream singers whose voices blend into something greater than either of their individual talents. So too it is, I contend, with these old Gothic classics. Horror? Hardly. But, their starkness and darkness with its twisted surroundings are still eerie and provoking.

I caught this restored version of the 1920 German silent classic at Lincoln Center where a new musical score was premiered by the Chamber Music Society. I had never seen the film before and was frankly amazed at the imagery in the sets and costumes and editing of the film. The film's director, Paul Wegener, wearing a thickly padded outfit and wig and high-heeled boots plays the main character, "The Golem". A mythical character from Jewish folklore. For its day, the special effects were also intriguing. I resist describing the movie as anti-semitic but I believe that the portrayal of the jewish ghetto was depicted so dramatically to show that the jews in Prague were outsiders and not welcome in mainstream society. This is evident in the fact that when a nobleman comes to the ghetto, he is greeted by a mammoth closed gate that looks like a precursor to the one used in King-Kong. And most notably, during the creation sequence, a satanic figure appears on screen that would coincide with the European belief a that time that Jews walk hand-in-hand with the Dark forces.

As far as the Golem's performance- this film is really a precursor to "Frankenstein" that Boris Karloff must have seen in its original release - there are so many similarites.

Biggest Image - at the conclusion, the Golem is surrounded by a group of "blond" Aryan-looking children that clearly distinguish them from the ghetto children that we see earlier in the film.

The giant frame of Paul Wegener as the Golem is one of the best known characters from the silent era, and one of the first icons of horror. Der Golem is actually the third film to feature the character, the first being The Golem (1915), and the second The Golem And The Dancing Girl (1917), which is a short comedy with Wegener donning the costume to frighten a girl he is in love with. Tragically, those two films are now considered lost, and only fragments equalling about 14 minutes of the first film remain. This film is actually a prequel, and it's full title is Der Golem: Wie Er In Die Welt Kam (How He Came Into The World), but is now commonly know as simply Der Golem.

The Jews of medieval Prague face persecution from the townsfolk. Terrified of their doomed fate, Rabbi Loew (Albert Steinruck) uses his skills in black magic to create The Golem, a mythical figure from Jewish folklore. He is made entirely from clay, and has an amulet in his chest that gives him power, and when removed turns him back into lifeless clay. He is initially used as a servant, and then to terrify the townsfolk who are threatening them. The Golem eventually gets tired of being used as a tool of fear and begins to turn on his creator, and starts to lay waste to the Ghetto.

Like the majority of films made in Weimar Germany, the film has an expressionist tone, with lavish, artistic sets that dominate the frame. Similar in feel to the great Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari, it is however more subtle in its artistic flair, and lacks Caligari's rickety (although wonderful in its own way) sets. It is also quite terrifying in its realisation of a segregation that would occur in the country only a decade later, although it does portray the Jews as vengeful and as studying the dark arts.

The Golem itself is a great movie monster. Tragic in the same way as Frankenstein's monster, he is brought into the world without having asked to be, and is expected to carry out terrible acts against his will. Paul Wagener portrays him with all silent intensity and uncontrollable rage, with his towering frame sending his enemies running for the hills. He also impressively co-wrote and co-directed the film. This is an enjoyable film that breezes by in its rather slight running time, and can be forgiven for some over-acting and the occasional tedious scene. It also has some interesting social comments, and is a frightening prelude to one of the most horrific periods in Europe's history.

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Imagine shooting a feature-length horror movie with the camera built into your mobile phone. Now imagine disabling sound and colour on your phonecam, only being able to shoot a few seconds at a time, each minute costing a small fortune in recording material, imagine that phonecam being large and unwieldy and kind of knackered so that the already low-resolution image is flickery and erratically exposed, and it plays back too fast so that people look like wound-up dolls. It also exposes blueish light more than reddish light, so each shoot is unpredictable, but of course you'll only know that the next day when the film has been processed.

Welcome to movie-making in the year 1920 AD.

Now go shoot a masterpiece that will still be watched, talked about and revered in a hundred years.

I watched this out of historic interest and expected to be colossally bored. But far from it, this is actually a gripping horror flick, and one with a deep side to it to boot. The Golem himself is an immensely scary horror figure en par with Freddy Kruger or the Alien, kind of a proto-Frankenstein's monster -- and he's actually played by director Paul Wegener himself!. I'd like to know how they made his eyes so scary.

Anyway, what can I say, a stupendous film. Watch it from the edge of your seat.

This is, currently, the only silent movie I have ever seen, and I was unsure how I'd take it. I had heard a lot about this movie and was expecting big things, and I must say I was impressed.

The only major complain I have is that, as with many older classics, I read a review of it prior to buying in which the reviewer gave WAY too much away (the ending sequence, namely).. this has happened to me far too many times. I really wish reviewers wouldn't assume that everyone has already seen the movies they are reviewing, just because they are 'classics'. It really dampened my experience with the ending of both this movie, and The Man with X-Ray Eyes, just to name a few.

Anywho, the version I saw (the Kino remaster) was great. The picture quality was about as good as you could expect from a film more than 80 years old. The score was very good, maybe a tad repetitive, but it suit the film. The acting is quite good, very reminiscant of the acting style from the mid-to-early 20th century.

The scare factor? Well, probably not much these days. The Jewish ghetto is very well constructed, and really suits the setting. The golem himself is not so scary, more goofy to me, but to people in 1920, I can imagine he could have been quite scary. This is more of an 'interest' movie, than an all-out scare fest. You can really see where so many of the great horror/scare films over the years got their ideas from after seeing early films such as this.

I would definately recommend everyone who is interested in horror to track it down. Don't be put off by the fact that it's a silent film, it took all of 20 seconds for me to forget that completely, and to just enjoy the film.

"The Golem" lays the cinematic groundwork for the 1931 motion picture version of "Frankenstein" . In character design, wardrobe, and interaction with its creator and the world around it, the two monsters do resemble one another. In this case, "The Golem", is a monster created from clay and magic rather than from spare body parts and science, and the monster's creator is a Rabbi. I think I was more shocked to see a Rabbi portrayed as someone who openly dabbled in the black arts and astrology than anything else the film offered. The Rabbi is even shown conjuring up a "god" - Asteroth - and forcing him to produce the life-giving word to bring "The Golem" to life. Any casual reader of the Old Testament will see that the Jews were repeatedly warned against having anything to do with the occult - it was considered blasphemy and worthy of the death penalty under Jewish law. If this is how Germans perceived the practice of the Jewish religion in 1920, fifteen years before the Holocaust began, it might explain a great deal, but nothing about this aspect of the film is mentioned in the extra features of the Kino set in which I saw it, "German Horror Classics".

One more interesting parallel to the 1931 film "Frankenstein" is in how the Golem, originally created to protect the Jews but now on a rampage, is destroyed. It is a twist on a similar innocent act in "Frankenstein", one so horrific in its effect that the scene was exorcised from prints of Frankenstein throughout the production code era. I suggest you watch both films and see what I'm talking about.

This landmark film is one of the earliest surviving expressionist works, and it's art direction and photography-- while not as stunning as a film like Caligari-- is still extremely interesting with its misshapen sets and its use of light and shadow, and light within shadow. Unlike Caligari, the themes of this film were resonant long after its release, and perhaps still are today.

The Golem is a tolerance film that studies in depth the relationship between Jews and Christians in Prague. To his credit, Wegener refuses to impose stereotypes on either party, instead concentrating on individual characters and using mass characterizations only to highlight the themes of the film.

Unlike stereotypical Jews, rich guys with big noses who rub pennies together, the Jews of Prague are decidedly poor. It is interesting to note that the Jews are all dressed in black and with very few exceptions appear to be bent with age, a tribute to an aging and dying religion. However, they are also portrayed to be earnest and hard-working, with strong communal instincts. The Christians, by contrast, appear bright, shiny, and new. They are dressed in light colors and are young and wealthy, and outwardly appear to be God's new chosen. However, they are also portrayed as foolish bohemians who do not take God seriously. In the end, Christian innocents (and blonde-blue Aryan, coincidentally)are able to stop the Golem's rampage, but only because he allows it. The final shot shows the Star of David lying in the dust as the Jews come to carry their fallen champion back into the ghetto, closing the great door behind them and leaving you with a feeling that they are gone forever. However, it should be noted that the Golem is not only a champion to the Jews, but a symbol of revival.

Another interesting comparison in this film is that between the Golem and Jesus. Like man, the Golem is made of sand and clay, then given life by a supernatural force. They are both immaculate conceptions, with the Golem being motherless while Jesus is born to a virgin mother. Jesus in his time was a champion of the Jews, as is the Golem, and each of them rebelled against the wickedness of the authorities that governed them.

This open-ended presentation of the struggle of Christianity vs. Judaism is what makes this film truly great. I suspect that this relevant elevation above the ordinary is the reason for its survival, even though it is the third film of this series. The fact that Wegener was able to make a film that is so ambiguous is a credit to him considering the circumstances surrounding German film-making at the time.

Rabbi Loew is portrayed as a wise and heroic leader of the Jewish community, which lives in a winding ghetto. He creates the Golem for a noble cause-- to protect his people against eviction by the Christians--and in this cause succeeds after the Christian court is saved by the Golem from divine repudiation after laughing at Loew's presentation of the Old Testament. The creation scene is particularly interesting, not only in its visuals, but for the fact that in this scene Rabbi Loew wears white (for purity), yet performs a ceremony that is holy in nature yet seems like witchcraft. The Golem turns on him when he seeks to continue using the Golem's services for selfish purposes after the Golem has accomplished his mission.

Miriam and Loew's servant are portrayed quite differently. Miriam is a dark seductress who is unwittingly the cause of the Golem's destructive rampage. She is only saved from the hands of the Golem by another act of divine intervention, when the communal prayer of the Jews in the streets of the ghetto results in her release. She usually dresses in dark colors. However, there is also a scene before her affair with Florian in which she wears white (purity of a different kind). Also notice how Florian carelessly twirls a flower when he delivers the edict to Rabbi Loew. This is a brief, but effective, example of his character and foreshadows things to come. Loew's servant is the only other young Jewish character in the film besides a few Jewish children in the street, and it is his revival of the Golem during his jealous rage against Florian that sets the Golem on his destructive path. Like Loew, he is unable to remove the Star of David from the Golem's chest once he begins to use the Golem for selfish gain. In the end, he shares a poignant moment with Miriam where they seek forgiveness and confidence about their actions.

The depth and attention to detail that Wegener shows as a director (and writer) in this film helps to place it among the great films in the brief history of cinema. It's message is particularly haunting considering the events of the next 25 years after its release.

"Der Golem" is surely one of the best German expressionist silent movies. It may be second only to "The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari"; I enjoyed it as much as Murnau's "Faust", and, truth be told, more than "Nosferatu".

You probably already know the story: it's a well-known Jewish folk tale about a rabbi who constructs a stone creature (a golem) to protect his fellows from an anti-Semitic government in medieval Prague. The creature impresses the gentiles, but then it turns on its master.

These movies aren't really about plot, nor characters. They're about mood, setting, and mise-en-scene. The golem itself is an indelible image; surprisingly it was played by the writer-director himself, who must have been a massive person. You can see the influence on James Whale's classic "Frankenstein". The settings are also sumptuous and fitting.

My mind did wander, but not as much as when I watched Swedish silent "Korkarlen", also a horror film based on local myth. I appreciated that the story was easy to follow and interesting.

Paul Wegener was one of the greatest German actors of the beginning of the 20th century. And if he is not known today, as Emil Jannings or Conrad Veidt, is because his preferred medium was theater and not cinema. Anyway he's one of the faces of German expressionism. Directed, produced and starring by Paul Wegener, "Der Golem" is a masterpiece of the so called German Expressionism. It's a disturbing and polemic movie, precursor of all the man-made creatures and monsters movies. The story goes around a Jewish community, in old Prague, threatened by exodus by the Emperor. The leader of the inhabitants of the Jewish ghetto build a enormous man of stone and clay and through magic gives him life, to help finishing the oppression they are victims. He becomes their frightful protector. The Golem is a mythic being, associated to the Jewish tradition, eventually the cabala. This movie is symbolic in all his essential elements and premonitory in the persecution to the Jews that Nazism will transform in the Holocaust. The film has the three basic elements of expressionism: distorted and claustrophobic scenarios, contrasted illumination suggesting shadows and a narrative that don't need words to be of a notable effectiveness in the management of fears.

Der Golem begins with a Jewish astrologer predicting disaster in the stars; rushing to the rabbi, he tells of their people's impending misfortune. Sure enough, the emperor of the land has decreed that the Jews must leave the city, for despising Christian ceremonies, endangering the lives of their fellow men, and practising black magic. As if to prove the emperor right, the rabbi uses dark powers to bring a clay golem to life, the creature ultimately threatening their oppressors and going on a rampage (like a Jewish Frankenstein's monster). Meanwhile, a gap toothed knight with a huge feather in his cap is seducing the rabbi's pretty daughter Miriam, which won't end well for the silly chap.

Whatever you do, don't watch the version of this film with added dialogue and sound effects, rock music on the soundtrack, and colour tinted scenes: it's an abomination. Instead, head on over to YouTube and see the film as intended - black and white with an orchestral soundtrack. It's a long, drawn out movie (the version I saw was over 100 minutes), hard going at times due to its slow pace, but still a must for fans of classic horror, the impressive set design (I love the claustrophobic town and that shell-like spiral staircase), superb expressionist lighting and sheer invention making it a visual treat throughout.

While Paul Wegener's The Golem may not rank with The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or Nosferatu with its significance, artistic splendour, and innovative highlights, it does nonetheless serve as one of the shining spotlights of silent films and in particular "horror" silent films. Oozing German expressionistic techniques throughout, director Wegener offers us a story of a Jewish ghetto in Prague being condemned for exile by a new decree from the emperor. This comes shortly after Rabbi Loew has received from the stars a message that doom will come to his people. Loew immediately starts creating a golem - a figure of a giant man made from clay that legend says can be brought to life to protect Loew's people. The story moves from the incredibly fascinating ritual used to create and imbue the creature with life to a storyline of a Jewish girl Miriam in the temple falling in lust with Florian the emperor's messenger to the golem walking around doing everyday activities and becoming the servant of Rabbi Loew to the golem "terrorizing." The golem - Paul Wegener playing the part - is unique and imposing. Watch his eyes. They act out loads of emotions whilst the body and facial muscles barely move. The film has wonderful scenes throughout from the secret word being given to Loew to the film in film of what happened to Rabbi Loew's people and the fall of the palace to the flowery ending. The expressionistic acting is all very solid and Wegener's genius is obvious when you see what hats he wears in the film: actor and director. Camera work is done by Karl Freund who would go on to direct himself and come up with incredible innovations with camera-work. There is no doubt in my mind what role this film had in James Whale's collective conscience when he decided what his vision of Frankenstein would be. The Golem is a blueprint right down to the scene with the little girl and the flower. As to the whole Jewish question I see so many viewers engage in about whether the film is pro or con, there is no doubt the Jews are portrayed sympathetically in the film from their plight from Egypt in the memorable film in film scene to the sense of hollowness and dejection the actors give off. The German officials are portrayed as buffoons for the most part. There is also a negative result though that the black arts are connected with Jews. It is a Rabbi that is able to conjure the spirit of an ancient sorcerer. He controls an inanimate object used to destroy. These are somewhat contradictory and though I believe Wegener's efforts to be ultimately filled with good intent, I could see where a film like this could also fuel the most emboldened anti-Semites because it reinforces a terrible stereotype. I don't want to get too bogged down with the historical implications of the film as I do not know nearly enough about its impact to say anything with any real meaning with regard to that subject. What I will say is this: The Golem is one of the most influential films in the catalogue of silent films and its impact in direction and in the genre are obvious and cannot be overstated really. Every time you see a depiction of Frankenstein's Monster you see its impact.

Director: Carl Boese & Paul Wegener, Supervising Director: Ernst Lubitsch, Script: Wegener& Henrik Galeen, Cast: Albert Steinruck, Paul Wegener, Lyda Salmanova, Lother Muthel

This is one of the earliest of the German expressionist horror films. It came out at the same year as the more famous Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Good movie but not quite up their with either Nosferatu or Dr. Caligari. This movie is about Rabbi Loew and his creation, the golem. Afer he consults in the astrology of the stars, Rabbi Loew learns that the Jews are about to face persecution from the emperor of Prague. To protect the Jewish people, the Rabbi makes a golem out of clay and has him brought to life through the spirit Astaroth with a magic word in a star placed on his chest. The Jews are saved from persecution from the emperor because the golem saves him from a falling room at his palace. During another astrological consolation, the rabbi learns that he must deactivate his creation before the golem does harm to his own people. It just so happens that the rabbi's daughter is romantically involved with the emperor's knight. The rabbi's assistant, Famulus, becomes jealous of the knight so he revives the golem to destroy him but the golem purses Miriam (rabbi's daughter) instead. Much like the famous scene in Frankenstein, the golem comes upon a little girl. The girl pulls the star from the golem deactivating him.

This film is one of the major horror films of the German silent era. As such, it is one of the best films made during this time after the works of F.W. Murnau (Nosreratu, Faust) and Fritz Lang (Metropolis). Paul Wagener plays the part of the golem and also co-directed this film. He had made another version of this film around 1914 which I believe is lost. The first film was set in the modern day of the 1910's whereas this film was set in the 16th century. He was given a larger budget to work with for this film. Consequently, the cinematographer was the legendary Karl Freund. The Kino version of this film has all the original colour tinting. Henrik Galeen who co-wrote the screenplay also wrote the script for Nosreratu. I would recommend this classic early horror film which was really a predecessor to Frankenstein. I believe this is based on a very old Jewish legend.

In 16th-century Prague, a Jewish rabbi (Albert Steinrück) creates a giant creature from clay, called the Golem, and using sorcery, brings the creature to life in order to protect the Jews of Prague from persecution.

Called "one of the most ambitious productions of the silent era" by Mike Mayo, the film is a blend of religion, astrology and black magic -- mixing Judaism with a conjuring of the demon Astaroth.

The film also has an interesting presentation of anti-Semitism, where the emperor accuses the Jews of killing Christ, among other things, and orders them to evacuate the ghetto. How did Germany in 1920 feel about the Jews? We now know how they felt a decade later, but was this hatred always there or invented by Hitler? If it existed, how did it translate to this film's reception by the German people?

Paul Wegener's face is a wealth of visions -- he manages to use his eyes in such a way that present the golem as simultaneously stoic and intensely emotional.

Others have pointed out that Karl Freund's camera is remarkably still for a man who would go on to be known for the most innovative camera techniques in film history (I dare say he is the greatest cinematographer who ever lived). Mayo says there is an "inventive use of extreme camera angles", but I did not notice. The lack of movement does not hinder the film, however.

Lee Price praises the film, saying the only fault of the film is "the inconsistency of the acting", though I did not find it distracting at all (even if the frightened faces of the extras are a bit extreme). Price calls the architecture of the film as influential (or more so) than the German Expressionism of "Caligari". He is not alone in this view: Ivan Butler makes a point to mention the "strange twisted buildings and crooked streets filled with steeple-hatted inhabitants", and Siegfried Kracauer singles out the "maze of crooked streets and stooped houses" devised by Professor Hans Poelzig.

If you are to see or own this film, I recommend the Kino DVD. Not only is the film cleaned up nicely, with a wonderful score and English title cards, but the supplements are beyond what one would expect from such an old film -- featurettes comparing this movie to "Faust" and the later "Le Golem". I enjoyed them.

I saw this recently for the first time after my curiosity piqued regarding the Golem. The film is about a priest who uses sorcery to create Golem, a big creature outta clay a la Frankenstein, after fearing mass exodus of his people by the Emperor. Initially the priest uses the Golem as a household servant but later he takes it to the palace to show it to the Emperor. Things turn ugly at home n at the palace.... The film is slow at times but the photography is striking n the story interesting.

Of much cinematic importance and influence, particularly with regard to monsters in film, Der Golem is not only an extremely well made film but a clear influence upon the development of the Frankenstein monster and much of Universal Studios 1930s output. Having said that, although the sets are stunning and the staging quite remarkable it is basically a simple enough story with limited action, apart from a limp love element and the prancing and grimacing (or is that grinning?) of the creature. The relgiopolitical elements hang heavily over the Jewish folk story and at times it is difficult to remain within the intended innocence of the tale and simply enjoy the tale being told. The ending doesn't help in keeping the tale grounded and the depiction of the Rabbi as a practiser of Black Magic problematic but perhaps watched with half closed eyes (with them fully open for the marvellous ghetto construction) the film can garner the appreciation it no doubt deserves.