Labyrinth of Horror (1921) User Reviews

Bad Luck

[boblipton · 6/10 · 13 August 2019]

Alphons Fryland is the son of an industrialist. He is supposed to marry the daughter of another factory owner, when he encounters Lucy Doraine, working at his fiancee's home as a maid. She is forced to quit, and eventually goes to Fryland's factory as his secretary. Her brother, Jean Ducret, steals her keys and robs the factory's safe. She is fired, but to avoid scandal, is let go. Hard luck follows her, and she becomes a debauchee.

It's 6,000 feet of hard luck for Miss Doraine, which Michael Curtiz's movie insists is a matter of fate. At times I found the piling up of bad breaks to be wearisome, and then Curtiz and his director of photography, Gustav Ucicky, would offer an interesting shot: Miss Doraine lying in a hospital bed, hallucinating of drowning in a shower of flowers, or a stuntman climbing a tall factory smokestack. There were also some great crowd scenes; by this stage in his career, Curtiz had the ability to direct scenes of mass chaos. It's a talent he would use many times in the coming years.

Dull early effort from Curtiz.

[gnok2002 · 3/10 · 28 December 2016]

An early silent from the man who went on to direct some great films including 'Casablanca' this shows no sign of things to come, it's a dull tale of the son of a factory owner who is to marry the daughter of another factory owner, but he falls for a poor relation who is the main bread-winner for her aging mother, and her no good brother; the print quality was poor, but I get no sense that there is a great, or even OK film hidden behind the print damage! For some odd reason the film is set in London & England, though only the inter-titles suggest this, there is one brief scene of a train on fire that looks impressive, that's about it.

Michael Curtiz makes a drama in the early days of Red Vienna.

[Dominic_25_ · 3/10 · 20 April 2022]

This is the earliest film by Mihály Kertész (previously Mano Kaminer, later known as Michael Curtiz) that I could find. I know of Michael Curtiz and I decided to go through his filmography to see his journey through filmmaking. He said that at Sascha-Filmindustrie AG he "learned the basic laws of film art, which, in those days, had progressed further in Vienna than anywhere else." I wanted to see his films before and after the studio but they're harder to find.

With such high praise from the famed director I came into this film expecting more than what I got. This is by no means a bad film but it wasn't as high quality as I anticipated. It is an interesting film, and the technical aspects are definitely impressive for the time, as Curtiz uses more interesting shots than his Hollywood counterparts (which are pretty boring before the mid 20s unless you're watching a comedy). At this point in Curtis' career he was still behind a few other European filmmakers who manage to use much better storytelling techniques and shot composition.

The story was kind of boring for me, I struggled to concentrate through the first act or so. But from what I gather the horror that the title references is in reference to the life of our female main character who has to endure the struggles of being poor in a rich society (which I found a little strange at first given my perception of Vienna before going into the film). I do like the ideas and themes of the film, maybe I wasn't ready to dive back into a silent film or maybe it was the quality of print I saw. Whatever the case may be, I was underwhelmed with this after reading about how Curtis described Viennese cinema during the early days of Red Vienna.

Overall this was a mostly watchable film that has an interesting enough story. I might have to revisit this one some day but I probably won't. Interesting film to start my Michael Curtiz journey on, I hope I eventually get to see his earlier work though.