Horst_In_Translation Review of The Golem

The Golem (1914)

While I was not too impressed by the surviving parts, I still hope they manage to find this one somehow

[4/10 · 17 July 2017]

First of all, it needs to be stated that what we have here is "Der Golem" or "The Monster of Fate" and that this is the 1915 movie and not the well-known 1920 movie. The latter still exists today in (almost) its entirety, while this one we have here is considered lost in almost its entirety because only a few minutes seem to have survived. Not a surprise though as this film is over a century old now already and many films from back then have not managed to survive throughout the invention of sound and color films and throughout 2 World Wars as number one was going on at the very time this was made. This one here runs for pretty much exactly an hour in its entirety apparently and was written and directed by Henrik Galeen and Paul Wegener. Both play major roles in this film and the latter plays the title character, which was a wise choice because his size of almost 2 meters sure made him fairly creepy and powerful. Of course, Wegener also portrays the Golem in the 1920 film as this one we have here as actually the beginning of a trilogy with the 1920 film providing closure. It seems that the one in-between is lost as well, so all we have today unlike the almost impossible event happens that they really do find a copy of films 1 or 2 somewhere, the third film is all that there is left. I just watched the surviving fragments and we have the Golem in what looks like a cave, perhaps with his creator, and then we see him wreak havoc or rather people think he is about to wreak havoc. He sure seems like a tragic creature though and at the very end it looks like his affection for a women eventually leads to his demise when he falls of something like a balcony. The very final quote is a bit on the pretentious side. Overall, I was not really that impressed by what survived, but the character alone is enough to get me into watching this 1915 film I guess if they somehow manage to find the missing pieces. Until then, this review will have to suffice.