Der Student von Prag (1926)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Henrik Galeen

Writers:

Hanns Heinz Ewers (novel)
Henrik Galeen (book)

Release Date:

20 March 1927 (Finland)

Genre:

Drama | Horror

Plot:

For Balduin, going out to beer parties with his fellow students and fighting out disputes at the tip of the sword have lost their charms...

Plot Keywords:

Remake | Based On Novel

Cast

Fritz Alberti	...	Graf Schwarzenberg
Agnes Esterhazy	...	Comtesse Margit, seine Tochter
Ferdinand von Alten	...	Baron Waldis-Schwarzenberg, Margits Vetter und Verlobter
Conrad Veidt	...	Balduin, ein Student
Elizza La Porta	...	Liduschka, Blumenmädchen (as Elizza la Porta)
Werner Krauss	...	Scapinelli, Wucherer
Erich Kober	...	Student
Max Maximilian	...	Student
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Adolf Peter Hoffmann

Also Known As:

The Man Who Cheated Life (USA)
The Student of Prague (UK)

Runtime:

91 min (DVD) | 110 min (20 fps)

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Company:

Sokal-Film GmbH

Movie Connections:

Remade as Der Student von Prag (1935)

good Faustian silent, with some striking scenes amidst some tedium

I watched Alpha Video's cheap DVD of this. It lacks the original title and inter titles, though some easy to read new inter titles have been added. The musical score is unremarkable, and while called original by the DVD box, seems "canned." Balduin is a poor student, but a great fencer. Apart from that, we don't learn very much about him or what he wants. He is, however, humiliated by his poverty. He wishes perhaps a rich heiress would marry him.

A mephistophelian character named Scarpinetti offers to deliver on that, and in one scene dramatically stands atop a windy hill by a fallen tree gesturing towards a hunting party. They seem to follow his directions, which leads to a rich heiress having trouble with her horse near Balduin, who rescues her.

However, this is just a tease from Scarpinetti. Balduin goes to visit the woman later, taking with him a flower from a poor flower girl (who seems sweet on him). He fidgets with the flower behind his back, and seems to be contemplating giving it to the rich woman, when her fiancé's large flower arrangement arrives. Balduin realizes he needs money to woo this woman (forgetting, seemingly, that he'd wanted a rich woman for money in the first place anyway).

He makes a deal with Scarpinetti: 600,000 pieces of gold (! - error in the intertitle, maybe?) and Scarpinetti gets to take anything he wishes from Balduin's room. He manages to take Balduin's mirror reflection, and while that would seem to be the end of the deal, Scarpinetti still influences events in Balduin's life.

There are some striking scenes in the movie, and some scenes that really drag. One that goes on for a long time is a party after someone had died, and there doesn't seem to be much purpose to it, or at least for it to have been so long.

Balduin's mirror reflection doppelganger doesn't show up much, but figures in more towards the end, which is pretty satisfactory. I'm curious to see the other adaptations of this story now as well.