ALRAUNE (1928) + THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE (1926): GERMAN SILENT GENRE RARITIES FROM DIRECTOR HENRIK GALEEN
Deaf Crocodile takes us back to the silent era to unearth two silent-era Austrian horror-fantasy films from director Henrik Galeen, who is notable for having penned writer of F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu and Paul Leni’s Waxworks.
ALRAUNE (A WOMAN OF DESTINY) (1928)
Label: Deaf Crocodile
Region Code: A,B
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 136 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono with English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Fullcreen (1.33:1)
Director: Henrik Galeen
Cast: Brigitte Helm, Paul Wegener, Iván Petrovich
We start off with the erotic mad science tale Arlaune (1928) aka A Woman of Destiny, wherein genetics Professor Jakob ten Briken (Paul Wegener, director of The Golem) sets out to explore the folktale of how the mandrake root, which according to mythology is grown beneath the hanging gallows from the semen of condemned men, and is capable of impregnating women - already this pre-code slice of erotic horror sound pretty wild. The professor sends his nephew/assistant Franz (Iván Petrovich) to the local brothel to procure a suitable woman (Mia Pankow) to impregnate with his newly acquired mandrake root. The progeny of the disreputable woman and the mythical mandrake root is a baby girl, whom the professor adopts as his daughter, keeping her origins a secret. She grows up to become Arluane (Brigitte Helm, Metropolis), a beautiful woman with a magnetic gaze and a drivingly corrupted soul, the professor believing her origins means she has no soul and no morality. He sends her to a Catholic convent, where she is regularly in trouble for bad behavior and pranks, like putting ugly black beetles on the nuns robes. There she charms Wölfchen (Wolfgang Zilzer) a bankers son into stealing money so they can run away together, which they do. Not long after they both end up working at the circus where she catches the eye of a magician magician Torelli (Louis Ralph), and begins working as his on-stage assistant, until the professor tracks her down and forces her to return home under threat. There she discovers the professor's journal and learns the hidden truth behind her origins, and decides she will stick around to have her revenge on the professor, who more and more is becoming obsessed and creepily sexually attracted to his adopted daughter.
The film is terrific, gorgeously shot for the era with some wonderfully shadowy expressionistic lensing, but the film's biggest draw is easily Helm, her magnetic gaze and sexual allure are absolutely captivating, a twisted and perverse tale with semi-incestuous tones, one that has some surprisingly nuanced readings of morality, one that might surprise the uninitiated with it's themes of sexuality, morality, myth and mad science.
DER STUDENT VON PRAG (THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE) (1926)
Label: Deaf Crocodile
Region Code: A,B
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 133 Minutes 53 Seconds
Audio: DTS-HD MA 5.1 With Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Director: Henrik Galeen
Cast: Conrad Veidt, Werner Krauss
The Student of Prague (1926), also directed by Henrik Galeen, stars Conrad Veidt (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) as Balduin, a poor but well-liked University of Prague student who in a Faustian deal agrees to sells his soul to the Devil in the form of a devious loan shark named Scapinelli (Werner Krauss) who uses his black magic to arrange for Balduin rescue the wealthy Margit (Agnes Esterhazy), the daughter of a wealthy Count (Fritz Alberti), during a fox hunt, the introduction allows him to pursue his love-interest, with the student gaining wealth and the love of Magrit, but as with every deal with the devil there is a price to pay, and in this instance it is a malevolent doppelganger which merges from Balduin's mirror which commits crimes in his name, resulting in a tragic finale that does not end well for the student who struck the deal. The film looks gorgeous, elegantly staged, an opulent ballroom scene, and some terrific trickery, including the evil doppelganger emerging from the mirror, and an expressionistic shadowy hand climbing up a wall, plus we get Veidt in a wonderful dual role
Audio/Video: Both film arrives on Blu-ray from Deaf Crocodile, presented in 1080p HD framed in the original 1.37:! fullscreen aspect ratios, each with a dedicated Blu-ray. The original German version of Alraune no longer exists, this reconstruction is based on Danish and Russian versions, which lucky for us include shots that were originally censored and cut by the German censors, but sadly there is also additional footage which has long been lost through the years, with some newly created interstitials. The Student of Prague is a similar situation, what we have here is a reconstruction of a Spanish version from the with the original German title cards to it. Alraune is the more stable of the two, but these both look tremendous considering the age, and having these silent-era horror-fantasy flicks on disc and looking as wonderful as they do is a gift. Audio on both come by way of English DTS-HD MA, the scores on Alraune by Sabrina Zimmermann and Mark Pogolski, and by Stephen Horne for The Student of Prague sound terrific.
Extras are plentiful, we get a 16-min Excerpt from AUF GEFÄHRLICHEN SPUREN (DANGEROUS PATHS), 1924, Filmmuseum Düsseldorf, a new 97-min 2-part video interview with Stefan Drössler of the Filmmuseum München about the preservation of both films, and the the career of writer/director Henrik Galeen, plus a pair of new Audio Commentaries by film historian Jan-Christopher Horak, former director of the UCLA Film & TV Archive and the Filmmuseum München, and senior curator at the George Eastman Museum.
The single-disc release arrives in a clear, full-height Scanvo keepcase housing the two Blu-ray discs, with a Reversible Wrap featuring artwork for both films.
Special Features:
- An excerpt from AUF GEFÄHRLICHEN SPUREN (DANGEROUS PATHS), 1924, Filmmuseum Düsseldorf, 15 min. This extended clip from the 1924 crime film DANGEROUS PATHS is a rare opportunity to see Galeen’s work as both writer and actor, alongside frequent collaborat (15:40)
- New video interview with Stefan Drössler of the Filmmuseum München about the preservation of ALRAUNE and THE STUDENT OF PRAGUE, the career of writer / director Henrik Galeen, the Filmmuseum’s collection of rare Orson Welles and 3-D materials and more Pt. 1 (40:12), Pt. 2 (56:23)
- New audio commentaries by film historian Jan-Christopher Horak, former director of the UCLA Film & TV Archive and the Filmmuseum München, and senior curator at the George Eastman Museum.
- Blu-ray authoring by David Mackenzie of Fidelity In Motion.
Screenshots from the Deaf Crocodile Blu-rays:
Alraune (1928)
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