One of the earliest (and eeriest) works by the legendary filmmaker F. W. Murnau, Schloß Vogelöd: Die Enthüllung eines Geheimnisses [Castle Vogelöd: The Revelation of a Secret, frequently referred to as The Haunted Castle] provides a vital glimpse into the development of the uncanny-suffused expressionistic style that became Murnau’s hallmark and legacy.
A party of aristocrats assemble at a country manor for an autumn hunt. But a long-lingering question threatens once more to rear its head: who really murdered the Baroness’s late husband?
With a riveting nightmare sequence that foreshadows the nocturnal fantasias of both Nosferatu and Phantom, and a masquerade conceit that looks backward to Feuillade and forward to Murnau’s own Die Finanzen des Großherzogs, this languorous mood-piece represents the latent material that will figure into a master director’s later breakthroughs. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present F. W. Murnau’s Schloß Vogelöd on DVD in the UK for the first time.
Special Features
• Original German-language intertitles with newly translated English-language subtitles
• The Language of the Shadows: Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau and His Films, a 31-minute video piece by Luciano Berriatúa on the early works of Murnau
• A 32-page booklet containing a newly translated vintage essay on the film by critic Charles Jameux, and writing on the film by Lotte H. Eisner
