Robert Wiene’s expressionistic classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is one of the best-known and most influential movies of the 1920s
Robert Wiene’s expressionistic 1920 classic explores the nature of reality – as in, whose reality is factually real? Yours? Somebody else’s? Nobody’s? As its visually warped narrative progresses, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari reveals that what you believe is true about the universe around you may merely be an extension of what goes inside your head.
In the ensuing decades, Lil Dagover and Werner Krauss would remain in Germany. Conrad Veidt, however, fled the Nazi regime for Britain, ultimately ending his days in Hollywood, where he was featured in supporting roles – usually as Nazi officials – in titles like Escape, A Woman’s Face, Casablanca, and Reunion in France.
Far less well known (or influential) than The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, William C. de Mille’s Conrad in Quest of His Youth offers simple pleasures: Star Thomas Meighan’s excellent performance as the titular character who inevitably discovers that the past cannot be made present (and that it may never have existed as in memory, anyhow); the little-remembered (and even at the time not very well known) Margaret Loomis as his lovely – and surprisingly modern-looking – romantic interest; and former serial star Kathlyn Williams delivering a first-rate portrayal of an idealized beauty of years gone by.
An aside: William C. de Mille was the brother of the more famous (though William was also well known in the 1920s), more bombastic Cecil B. DeMille. The family name had a small “d”; apparently that didn’t quite befit the director of Why Change Your Wife?, The Ten Commandments (1923 and 1956), The Sign of the Cross, and The Greatest Show on Earth.
Best Film
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari / Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari – Dir.: Robert Wiene; Scr.: Carl Mayer & Hans Janowitz
Conrad in Quest of His Youth – Dir.: William C. de Mille; Scr.: Olga Printzlau
The Last of the Mohicans – Dir.: Maurice Tourneur & Clarence Brown; Scr.: Robert Dillon
The Mollycoddle – Dir.: Victor Fleming; Scr.: Douglas Fairbanks & Thomas J. Geraghty
Outside the Law – Dir.: Tod Browning; Scr.: Lucien Hubbard; titles: Gardner Bradford
What Happened to Rosa? – Dir.: Victor Schertzinger;
Best Actor
Douglas Fairbanks – The Mollycoddle
Werner Krauss – The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Thomas Meighan – Conrad in Quest of His Youth & Why Change Your Wife?
Best Actress
Barbara Bedford – The Last of the Mohicans
Bebe Daniels – Why Change Your Wife?
Mabel Normand – What Happened to Rosa?
Best Supporting Actor
Richard Barthelmess – Way Down East
Lon Chaney – Outside the Law
Conrad Veidt – The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Best Supporting Actress
Margaret Loomis – Conrad in Quest of His Youth
Kathlyn Williams – Conrad in Quest of His Youth
Best Cinematography
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari – Willy Hameister
Conrad in Quest of His Youth – L. Guy Wilky
The Last of the Mohicans – Philip DuBois & Charles Van Enger
The Love Flower – G.W. Bitzer
Pollyanna – Charles Rosher
Way Down East – G.W. Bitzer, Charles Downs & Hendrik Sartov
“Best Films – 1920” notes
Lil Dagover, Werner Krauss, and Conrad Veidt The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari image: Decla Film-Gesellschaft.