F.W. Murnau's "The Haunted Castle" (1921)
45A few aristocrats meet for a hunt lasting several days at the remote Castle Vogelöd, being hosted by Lord von Vogelschrey (Arnold Korff). They are awaiting the arrival of Baroness Safferstätt. Because of the rain they spend their time inside.
Vogelschrey's assembled guests are shocked when an uninvited guest, Count Johann Oetsch (Lothar Mehnert) shows up, accusing Vogelschrey of having more or less intentionally slighted him by not offering an invitation to the festivities. As Voglerschrey and Oetsch discuss the misunderstanding in another room, Vogelschrey's other guests waste no time in detailing Oetsch's controversial past, one that includes accusations that he shot his brother, Peter, baroness Safferstat's first husband, three years ago, and got off scot free. This rumor gets nourished by a retired Judge of the District Court. So he is rather undesirable. But Oetsch stays and tries to prove he didn't murder his brother years earlier; arguing he is not the murderer and will find the real one.
Baroness Safferstätt (Olga Tschechowa), the widow of the murder victim, finally arrives, along with her new husband, Baron Safferstätt (Paul Bildt). Another guest is announced, Father Faramund (Victor Blütner), a friend of the deceased husband.
In the following days, Count Oetsch and the Baroness accuse one another of the murder. Flashbacks show that the Baroness' marriage wasn't harmonious. Her first husband became obsessed by spiritualism. She wished for something evil to happen to him, and their guest Baron Safferstätt shot him. She married the Baron, but they felt empty.
Father Faramund takes his false beard and his wig off, revealing himself as Count Oetsch, who now can justify his innocence. Baron Safferstätt shoots himself. The true Father Faramund comes to the castle.
A 1921 German Black & White silent mystery film (Original title: "Schloß Vogelöd") directed by Friedrich Wilhelm (F.W.) Murnau, produced by Erich Pommer, screenplay by Carl Mayer, based on Rudolf Stratz' novel, cinematography by Fritz Arno Wagner and László Schäffer, starring Arnold Korff, Lulu Korff-Kyser, Lothar Mehnert, Paul Hartmann, Paul Bildt, Olga Tschechowa, Hermann Vallentin, Julius Falkenstein, Georg Zawatzky, Robert Leffler, Victor Blütner, Walter Kurt Kühle and Loni Nest.
The movie was shot in 16 days and released before Rudolf Stratz' serialized novel's last chapter had been printed in the "Berliner Illustrierten" Zeitung.
From contemporary reviews in Germany, Alfred Rosenthal reviewed the film in Deutsche Lichtspiel-Zeitung stating gave a positive review of the film stating it would fill cinemas. Another review in Der Kinematograph praised Murnau stating that he "succeeded in expressing the spiritual and avoiding external sensations." and that the cast was "excellent" specifically noting Lothar Mehnert as Count Oetsch.
From retrospective reviews, a reviewer in Sight & Sound stated that "no one is ever going to rank this a major Murnau, but his oldest surviving film is worth watching for signs of his still-evolving language" noting the use of flashbacks, comedy elements. The reviewer also noted the appearance of Olga Tschechowa as a highlight as it was "a decade before she became one of the Third Reich's biggest stars." Kemp gave a lukewarm review finding the plot as "conventional enough, but Murnau's inventive use of space is already evident."
If the traditional English-language title ("The Haunted Palace") suggests the supernatural, the film itself eschews goblins or golems in favor of the hypnotic unfolding of a moral horror. Although the identity of the murderer can be predicted, what's unpredictable is the dream-like intensity that Murnau builds from the restrained acting and refined staging, where again and again characters move out of the depths toward the foreground, like profound upwellings from the subconscious.
Though this counts as Murnau's ninth film, the first person camera eye and sweeping movements innovated in "Der Letzte Mann" (1924) still lay in the future. With none of the flashing lights, and extravagant tracking shots of the later films, this offers a different clarity, its subtly unsettling images resonating especially with its immediate successor, "Nosferatu" (1922), cinema's definitive vampire film. It has some of the same Gothic horror elements, albeit in passing and "dressed up" in almost a "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1920) way in terms of offering scary moments that may in fact be fantasies or nightmares. The real story is actually more of a melodrama, as a bunch of people gather at a vast estate for a hunting party, shades of later films like "The Rules of the Game" (1939), where secrets are disclosed and one character goes to extreme lengths in order to escape some long lived gossip about a murder he supposedly committed.
A more than interesting and warmly recommended piece of antique cinema. This murder mystery is worth a one-time look for legendary director F.W. Murnau completists.
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