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IMDb > Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari. (1920)
Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari.
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Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari. (1920) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
8.1/10   14,493 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 2% in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
Robert Wiene
Writers:
Hans Janowitz (writer)
Carl Mayer (writer)
Contact:
View company contact information for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
19 March 1921 (USA) more
Genre:
Horror | Thriller more
Tagline:
You must become Caligari. more
Plot:
Dr. Caligari's somnambulist, Cesare, and his deadly predictions. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
User Comments:
Through the distorting lens of the humankind's feeble grip on sanity more

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)
Werner Krauss ... Dr. Caligari
Conrad Veidt ... Cesare
Friedrich Feher ... Francis (as Friedrich Fehér)
Lil Dagover ... Jane Olsen
Hans Heinrich von Twardowski ... Alan (as Hans Heinrich v. Twardowski)
Rudolf Lettinger ... Dr. Olsen
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari (Germany) (alternative spelling)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (USA)
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Runtime:
71 min | France:78 min | Spain:50 min | USA:67 min | USA:51 min (video version)
Country:
Germany
Color:
Black and White (tinted)
Aspect Ratio:
1.33 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Silent
Certification:
Germany:18 (1920) | Finland:K-15 (new rating: 2001) | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Australia:PG | Germany:12 (bw) (1964, 1995) | Spain:7 | Sweden:15 | USA:Unrated | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Alberta/Manitoba/Ontario) | UK:U (video rating) (1993) | UK:A (original rating)

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Writer Hans Janowitz claims to have gotten the idea for the film when he was at a carnival one day. He saw a strange man lurking in the shadows. The next day, he heard that a girl was brutally murdered there. He went to the funeral, and saw the same strange man lurking around. He had no proof that the strange man was the murderer, but he fleshed the whole idea out into his film. more
Goofs:
Miscellaneous: In most prints, many of the shots have a bar across the top of the frame resembling the bottom edge of the same frame. This flaw may have been present in the original version. more
Quotes:
[first lines]
Man in garden: Spirits surround us on every side... they have driven me from hearth and home, from wife and child.
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Movie Connections:
Referenced in Watching the Detectives (2007) more

FAQ

Was there a real person named Dr. Caligari?
Any recommendations for early German movies similar to "The Cabinet of Dr Caligari"?
Can "The Cabinet of Dr Caligari" be considered an Expressionist movie?
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9 out of 9 people found the following comment useful:-
Through the distorting lens of the humankind's feeble grip on sanity, 19 September 2006
8/10
Author: Asa_Nisi_Masa2 from Rome, Italy

Having only started discovering silent movies recently, I don't have more than a handful of other non-talkies to compare it to. This however was not only one of the best, most compelling and unique silents I have seen, but also a great flick overall. It's all been said before, I'm sure, but I'll say it again: this is a milestone of German Expressionist cinema. It is also a class-A mind-phuck movie (excuse my French), one of those stories that'll leave you eternally scratching your head trying to figure out what you've seen, what to believe and what can be a plausible explanation for most of the creepy mysteries you've just witnessed. Right from the very opening scene, seemingly suspended in an otherworldly dimension, maybe somewhere in between life and death, in which the first line spoken is: "There are spirits everywhere", you realise you are in for a spooky ride (this is the ultimate Halloween movie, come to think of it!) Having studied theatre set and costume design at Rome's art school for a year before going to university, I was obviously completely fascinated by the set design choices here. Buildings and furniture, props and painted backdrops are elongated and deformed into blocky, savage, expressionistic, perspective-defying and proportion-less forms. Even the intertitles weren't of the traditional sort. The result is obviously one of unsettling the viewer further into believing themselves suspended in a reality where anything could happen - anything horrible or nightmarish, obviously. Nothing is as it seems, right to the very end. Btw, on a more frivolous note, I thought the character of Cesare the Somnambulist looked uncannily like something that might have influenced Tim Burton into creating Edward Scissorhands, or maybe even more, the look of some of the characters in Rocky Horror Picture Show.

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A Tim Burton remake... sugar_hi21
Public Domain? movie_cultist
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Movie Review blueice4bc
Conection to Nazism? locke325
Alternate Score??? nixernil
First Ever Twist Ending? josh_ff8
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