Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Excellent, a Must See

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

This is a typical silent tale of greed and stupidity. The principle character, with whom we are supposed to empathize, has his head firmly planted in the clouds. He gets run over and fall in love with the woman who hit him. He becomes obsessed with an image and goes on to do a series of idiotic things. He assumes that what is said to him is the truth. An innocent gets some sympathy, but when the fog lifts, he can't expect a lot of sympathy. The film is nicely crafted and works fine, but I just couldn't get over the rashness of the guy.

Minor Murnau, but pretty good. He made this one right after Nosferatu. Alfred Abel (of Metropolis) stars as a man who lives along with his sister (Aud Egede Nissen) with their mother (Frida Richard). Abel falls for beautiful rich girl Lya De Putti, and then later with a gold digger who looks exactly like her (also played by De Putti). A bookstore owner convinces Abel that he is a great poet, and he borrows a bunch of money from his rich aunt, who thinks he'll soon be rich, to impress De Putti and help out his sister's criminal boyfriend. The story and acting are pretty good. The cinematic experiments are not as daring as they are in Nosferatu, but there are several impressive special effects peppered throughout the picture.

Hot off his formidable achievement with "Nosferatu", F.W. Murnau made another expressionistic film, "Phantom". This one depicts Lorenz (Alfred Abel), a clerk who becomes obsessed with a woman (Lya De Putti) who accidentally struck him with a carriage. The movie contains some neat effects to highlight Lorenz's descent into madness. There are of course the buildings, but even more impressive is the ghostly carriage that emerges from a black void. A short documentary about the production makes note of how Murnau accomplished these interesting tricks.One might call "Phantom" a precursor to "The Blue Angel" and "Lolita", but I wouldn't call that totally accurate. The latter two are more straightforward about their subject matter, while this one is deliberately surreal and dreamlike. But no matter how you interpret "Phantom", you can't deny that it is a very good representation of inter-war German cinema. The movie is a little slow at times, but definitely worth seeing.

Enjoyed this silent film from 1922 with great German directors and plenty of talented people. This story starts out with a family consisting of two brothers, sister and a mother who are not very well off and the sister hates her life and gets in a fight with her mother and she turns to the streets and the fast lane in life. Lorenz Lubota, (Alfred Abel) is one of the brothers who loves to read books and is also a poet and works as a clerk for the city. One day Lorenz was walking in the street and a blonde girl is driving a chariot and runs him down, the girl checks to see that he is okay but Lorenz immediately falls in love with this girl. After this event in Lorenz's life he completely goes crazy and his life changes for the worst and he gets involved with money that does not belong to him. Grete Berger gives a great supporting role as a pawnbroker, Schwabe. Enjoy