Directed by and starring Paul Wegener, this is his third and final entry in his golem series. It tells the story of a rabbi who attempts to elicit a pardon for the Jewish community from the lay aristocracy by constructing a man of clay and setting out to a nearby castle to display the results of his his mystical abilities. Things go wrong at every turn. The rabbi's daughter falls in love with a member of the court, the king and courtiers behaves badly and fall victim to destructive forces unleashed by the rabbi, the golem turns on its maker who barely saves himself by deactivating his nemesis, and the rabbi's apprentice revives the golem bringing its wrath down on the entire village. The mayhem takes place in a highly stylized, expressionistic world with vividly tinted images. Everyone overreacts, all structures are crooked and angular, and dark shadows permeate each and every corner, creating an overall sense of deep foreboding. The film incorporates aspects of "Romeo and Juliet" as well as "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," and the rabbi's workroom looks like it could well have been the inspiration for Jack Skellington's tower laboratory in "The Nightmare before Christmas." For its historic connection to the horror genre as much as for its effective expressionistic storytelling, this film is a must-see.
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