Paul Wegener is Rubenzahl, the spirit of the mountain. Sometimes he is immense and peeps over the heights to look at the elves dancing the night away. Sometimes he is the size of an ordinary man, and clambers down from the peaks. At the moment, he is in love, and wants to marry the elf Lyda Samonova. She, however, has fallen in love with a young man at the local castle and has taken a job as a governess there.
It's a very entertaining although crudely realized movie. The elves dance balletically, the humans lumber around, and Wegener as the Germanic bogey-man is a big, crude, funny figure with an immense beard. It's E.T.A. Hoffman crossed with A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, and may be a bit much for the modern audience, but still looks appealing for its child-like realizations of fairy-tale imagination.
It's a very entertaining although crudely realized movie. The elves dance balletically, the humans lumber around, and Wegener as the Germanic bogey-man is a big, crude, funny figure with an immense beard. It's E.T.A. Hoffman crossed with A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, and may be a bit much for the modern audience, but still looks appealing for its child-like realizations of fairy-tale imagination.