Der Golem begins with a Jewish astrologer predicting disaster in the stars; rushing to the rabbi, he tells of their people's impending misfortune. Sure enough, the emperor of the land has decreed that the Jews must leave the city, for despising Christian ceremonies, endangering the lives of their fellow men, and practising black magic. As if to prove the emperor right, the rabbi uses dark powers to bring a clay golem to life, the creature ultimately threatening their oppressors and going on a rampage (like a Jewish Frankenstein's monster). Meanwhile, a gap toothed knight with a huge feather in his cap is seducing the rabbi's pretty daughter Miriam, which won't end well for the silly chap.Whatever you do, don't watch the version of this film with added dialogue and sound effects, rock music on the soundtrack, and colour tinted scenes: it's an abomination. Instead, head on over to YouTube and see the film as intended - black and white with an orchestral soundtrack. It's a long, drawn out movie (the version I saw was over 100 minutes), hard going at times due to its slow pace, but still a must for fans of classic horror, the impressive set design (I love the claustrophobic town and that shell-like spiral staircase), superb expressionist lighting and sheer invention making it a visual treat throughout.

I have watched this 2 times; I got the Eureka DVD a few months ago. I decided to reinstate my thoughts about it today, as I did know it was a pretty good movie at first viewing, but I wanted to study what made it so goodThe story is relayed in 5 chapters; all of those can consist of intermissions.The first chapter is where Rabbi Low is reading books on how to emanate the Golem; they also tried to go to the revered Rabbi so that he can represent the Jewish Community, so all ready there is a Jewish Tone to the work. He looks through books of necromancers.The Second Chapter: He tries to call it without any caveat. He does interact with it now, although foreboding in the beginning, he is subservient to his master and obeys him at every lead. Even doing errands it can be deadly.Third Chapter: They go to the emperors place, and the Golem saves him from his temple being eroded; he was there to accompany him while they stare into another place which looks like Metropolis (1927) in the scene where Maria is preaching the construction of the Babel. One of the female character also bribed the guards.Fourth Chapter: The Golem becomes deceitful and disobeying; one of the counterproductive results to happen to itFifth Chapter: Golem opens the Gate.Albeit nobody is in a foray but rest assured, trouble was already going to be imminent; he protects them temporarily and then it all breaks loose - sort of James Whale's tantamount with Karloff's Frankenstein - a lonely, innocuous creature in a bad state, and always in trouble even though he's a delicate soul."Der Golem" was directed by Paul Weigner, who also plays the Golem. It does take time for him to be active, so throughout the first 33 minutes the foreground is taken by one of the scenes with a cat on a roof and the stars which already show The Golem, but this is the construction of him it centres on.The painted backgrounds must have been laborious work and it pays off; this is not as expressionistic as "The Cabinet of Dr Caligari" but it has the paradigm of expressionism filtered through the clinical feel to the house and the painstakingly subjective feel that you have to embrace in the village of expressionism - it's small but welcoming and distorted. Ornate and exquisite; the face of the Golem is so emotive that when he smells the flower, he genuinely seems curious about it, when he picks up the little Girl, we wonder whether or not he was going to kill her or embrace her; its deliberate dithering still makes you wonder and we never get to know anywayIn the bit where he turns on his master in an unprecedented and unexpected way, the face tells us, not the words. Abaroth's book is the liveliness of Golem; the amulet powers the Golem, so it's pretty easy to dismantle him, but it's so hard to tame him. He is, by definition in horror, the indestructible and this movie gives you the sorcery element with the green tint for the house and even little niceties like red for the fire, which should represent it, but fails, and yet it still constitutes to that sense of fantastical worlds. Golem is to be kept a secret; when I seen that, I was like "No way - you can't hide that thing - it will not conform" and of course, it didn't. But the way it grinds you into believing this, always throws it in your other direction, as he veers from unsympathetic to really sympathetic.The romance element in the movie is sort of superficial but overall not bad.It's a great, great, great film and it's definitely one of the best movies ever made.

Given the enormously strong impression these silent movies are making on me, I would be tempted to conclude that the primeval form of cinema art, the silent art, was the superior one, and that what has been lost was vastly preferable to what has been gained by the sound. On the other hand, and speaking of this fantasy movie, the Golem is 'my creature theme', finding it in every way superior to 'mad scientists' creatures movies'.DER GOLEM is awesomely crafted, and Paul Wegener's performance remains a hallmark for the fantasy cinema. Exciting, wise, thrilling, what a storyline …. In the silent cinema, they had a very positive notion of beauty, of what's beautiful on screen. Karl Freund provided the sensational cinematography.Movie entirely constituted by style. Sheer virtuosity. In a sense, GOLEM is better than FAUST, than BERLING and then ARNE; and, also in an accept-ion, more stylish than USHER and NOSFERATU. Am I nearing the affirmation that GOLEM might be the best of the silent fantasy movies? Perhaps yes. (I disliked CALIGARI; but those mentioned here are beautiful beyond comparison.)How are the Jews depicted here? Well, not entirely positively; they are accused of black magic—which they actually practice. They are presented like a persecuted minority; but also like folks who indulge in black magic, who conjure demons, etc.. Not really the people of the Old Law, but of Babilonian magic.

The moment I first saw this film I knew it was a classic. The visuals are excellent. The story is old as time. The basic story is the country their in, Prague I think, wants to evict the Hebrews out. Anti semitism was unfortunately a way of life back then. Using force if necessary. But of course they don't want to leave. Desperate for a solution, they call upon some dark forces to bring up the golem. But things go awry and they are soon protecting themselves from their protector. It's a classic creation turning against the creator story. If you can find the kino versio of the DVD, buy it. you'll be better off. The visuals are a good portion of why this is a good film. Nosferatu and Cabinet of Dr. caligari usually take all the credit for German expressionism, but this more than holds up to those films.