The Haunted Castle
The movie was shot in 16 days and released before the serialized novel's last chapter had been printed in the "Berliner Illustrierten".,There is an Italian DVD edition of this movie, distributed by DNA Srl, entitled "Il castello di Vogelod". The movie was re-edited with the contribution of the film history scholar Riccardo Cusin. This version is also available in streaming on some platforms. This DVD also contains another movie directed by F.W. Murnau: "Tartufo".,Featured in Dämonische Leinwand - Der deutsche Film der zwanziger Jahre (1998),Haunted Castle, The (1921)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

An "old dark house" film from director F.W. Murnau about a group of people staying in an (what else?) old dark house. One night the house's owner turns up missing and later in the night his son, who was accused of killing his own brother, shows up. I read somewhere that this is the earliest surviving work from director Murnau but this here doesn't show any of his wonderful visual style that would kick into high gear the following year with Nosferatu. The film, running just under an hour, takes way too time introducing us to the characters and the actual mystery doesn't start until the very end of the movie. There really isn't any visual style either. There's one character that looks like the Karloff character in Whale's The Old Dark House, which makes you think Whale saw this film (especially since the character here leads to a good twist in the story). Another interesting aspect is a scene that uses the hands of Nosferatu to a similar effect that would be seen in the next year's Nosferatu. I had to view an overly dark, 16mm print without a music score.,