German director F.W. Murnau made many popular films in his heyday, including the silent-era vampire flick Nosferatu, which still shocks today, almost as much as it did in 1922. With many of his films finally being remastered and released, however, there’s bound to be a few low points, one of which is the mostly tiresome silent film The Haunted Castle.
Going into this, even though, yes, there are a few sequences that prophesize what was to come in many of his later films, know that really nothing in particular is haunted, and the “hunting party” is in much more of a chateau as opposed to a castle. The plot of the movie revolves around the sudden arrival of the notorious Count Oetsch at the castle, a creepy fellow that everyone believes murdered his brother … or did he?
Thankfully, a mystery-solving monk shows up to help solve the crime, but not before a few dream sequences are had, including one where a tiny chef eats cream and smacks his boss in the face — which, when I write it out, is probably sexual.
Either way, like I said, it’s an interesting watch if you’re more a student of film who has the patience, but I’m pretty sure most other people will just switch the channel over to Murder, She Wrote for a far more engaging whodunit and a probable guest appearance by Efrem Zimbalist Jr.
The Blu-ray from Kino Classics also has the Murnau flick The Finances of the Grand Duke, which I haven’t seen, but imagine it’s got dour men in white cake makeup making exaggerated faces, probably while looking at bills and notices, when a title card comes on the screen that reads “Sweet mother’s pearls, Reinhold … the Grand Duke’s finances are not very good … I have an idea, let’s have a picnic!”
End of Act One. —Louis Fowler