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Eerie Tales

Original title: Unheimliche Geschichten
  • 1919
  • 1h 52m
IMDb RATING
6.5/10
604
YOUR RATING
Eerie Tales (1919)
FantasyHorrorMystery

A demon, a reaper, and the ghost of a prostitute read gothic short stories and act them out.A demon, a reaper, and the ghost of a prostitute read gothic short stories and act them out.A demon, a reaper, and the ghost of a prostitute read gothic short stories and act them out.

  • Director
    • Richard Oswald
  • Writers
    • Anselma Heine
    • Robert Liebmann
    • Edgar Allan Poe
  • Stars
    • Anita Berber
    • Conrad Veidt
    • Reinhold Schünzel
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    6.5/10
    604
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Richard Oswald
    • Writers
      • Anselma Heine
      • Robert Liebmann
      • Edgar Allan Poe
    • Stars
      • Anita Berber
      • Conrad Veidt
      • Reinhold Schünzel
    • 10User reviews
    • 13Critic reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Photos8

    Anita Berber, Reinhold Schünzel, and Conrad Veidt in Eerie Tales (1919)
    Reinhold Schünzel and Conrad Veidt in Eerie Tales (1919)
    Reinhold Schünzel and Conrad Veidt in Eerie Tales (1919)
    Anita Berber, Reinhold Schünzel, and Conrad Veidt in Eerie Tales (1919)
    Anita Berber and Conrad Veidt in Eerie Tales (1919)
    Anita Berber and Conrad Veidt in Eerie Tales (1919)
    Eerie Tales (1919)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Anita Berber
    • Die Dirne (framing story)…
    Conrad Veidt
    Conrad Veidt
    • Der Tod (framing story)…
    Reinhold Schünzel
    Reinhold Schünzel
    • Der Teufel (framing story)…
    Hugo Döblin
    Paul Morgan
    Paul Morgan
    Georg John
    Georg John
    W. Arnoldi
    Bernhard Goetzke
    Bernhard Goetzke
    • A Friend at Table Seance (2nd story)
    • (uncredited)
    Richard Oswald
    Richard Oswald
    • Self in Prologue
    • (uncredited)
    Hans Heinrich von Twardowski
    Hans Heinrich von Twardowski
    • Restaurant Waiter (2nd story)
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Richard Oswald
    • Writers
      • Anselma Heine(segment 1)
      • Robert Liebmann(segment 2)
      • Edgar Allan Poe(segment 3)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Conrad Veidt and Reinhold Schunzel were again directed by Richard Oswald (I) in the same year as the gay-themed Anders als die Andern (1919). The films share several filming locations as well.
    • Connections
      Featured in Tales of the Uncanny (2020)

    User reviews10

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    5/10
    The first horror anthology film.
    The original negative of Eerie Tales is lost; what remains is a partial restoration.

    The film, an anthology, begins with a prelude in an antiquarian bookshop. After the shopkeeper turns out the lights at night, the characters in three portraits -- the Devil, a prostitute, and Death -- come alive and read scary stories, each tale depicted featuring the same actors (Reinhold Schünzel, Anita Berber and Conrad Veidt) who play the living paintings.

    In the first story, the Apparition, a man falls for a woman who is being stalked by her abusive ex-husband. When the woman disappears, the man discovers that the woman died of the plague. Or at least I think that is what happened. I have to admit that I was little confused, the lack of adequate title cards for the dialogue making this one difficult to follow.

    Next up is The Hand. Two men play a game of dice to decide which of them will romance the beauty that they both have the hots for. The loser of the game promptly strangles the winner, but is haunted by the dead man's ghost. A mediocre tale of the macabre, although the ghostly footprints and the spectral hand effects were fun.

    Director Richard Oswald tackles Edgar Allen Poe's The Black Cat next. I am sure you know the story to this one, suffice to say that this version holds few surprises but is still reasonably entertaining.

    The penultimate story is Robert Louis Stevenson's The Suicide Club, in which a man is inducted into a club where the members gamble with their lives. This one is a lot of fun, as the man draws the unlucky Ace of Spades from a deck of cards and is given only a few minutes left to live. Both The Black Cat and The Suicide Club would be revisited by Oswald for his superior 1932 talkie Tales of the Uncanny.

    Lastly, we have The Spectre, a rather weak tale to finish with. A married woman is romanced by a baron, her jealous husband pulling some spooky pranks to frighten the bounder.

    Having read their stories, the three characters from the portraits resume their places within their frames.

    4.5/10, rounded up to 5 for all of the heavy black eye make-up.
    helpful•1
    0
    • BA_Harrison
    • Sep 10, 2022

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • November 5, 1919 (Germany)
    • Country of origin
      • Germany
    • Language
      • German
    • Also known as
      • Historias tenebrosas
    • Production company
      • Richard-Oswald-Produktion
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • Runtime
      1 hour 52 minutes
    • Sound mix
      • Silent
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.33 : 1

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