The Haunted Castle - F.W. Murnau

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "The Haunted Castle" or "Schloß Vogelöd" or "Schloß Vogelöd - Die Enthüllung eines Geheimnisses" or "Schloß Vogelöed" )

directed by F.W. Murnau
Germany 1921

Blu-rays of The Haunted Castle are compared HERE

If the traditional English-language title (The Haunted Palace) suggests the supernatural, the film itself eschews goblins or golems in favour of the hypnotic unfolding of a moral horror. Although the identity of the murderer can be predicted, what's unpredictable is the dream-like intensity that Murnau builds from the restrained acting and refined staging, where again and again characters move out of the depths toward the foreground, like profound upwellings from the subconscious.

Though this counts as Murnau's ninth film, the first person camera eye and sweeping movements innovated in Der Letzte Mann (1924) still lay in the future. With none of the flashing lights, and extravagant tracking shots of the later films, Schloss Vogelöd offers a different clarity, its subtly unsettling images resonating especially with its immediate successor, Nosferatu (1922), cinema's definitive vampire film.

Excerpt of review from Excerpt from Robert Keser's article at Senses of Cinema located HERE located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: 7 April 1921 (Germany)

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DVD Comparison:

Eureka Video (Masters of Cinema) - Region 0 - PAL vs. Kino - Region 0 - NTSC

Big thanks to Eric Cotenas and Gregory Meshman for the Screen Caps!

(Eureka Video (Masters of Cinema) - Region 0 - PAL - LEFT vs. Kino - Region 0 - NTSC - RIGHT)

DVD Box Covers
Distribution	Eureka Masters of Cinema - Spine # 108 Region 0 - PAL	Kino Region 0 - NTSC
Runtime	1:21:24	1:21:27
Video	1.37:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 7.3 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s	1.32:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 6.3 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate: Eureka Video (Masters of Cinema)
Bitrate: Kino
Audio	Dolby Digital 2.0 music score	Dolby Digital 2.0 music score
Subtitles	English (for German intertitles)	none
Features	Release Information: Studio: Eureka Video Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.37:1 Edition Details: • The Language of the Shadows: Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau and His Films (30:52) • Illustrated Booklet DVD Release Date: 22 August 2011 Amaray Chapters 10	Release Information: Studio: Kino Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.32:1 Edition Details: • Excerpts of Rudolf Stratz's Novel • Set Designs by Robert Herlth • Image Gallery DVD Release Date: 17 March 2009 Keepcase or Slimcase in a boxset Chapters 18

Comments

Blu-rays of The Haunted Castle are compared HERE

While Kino's edition features English intertitles in the style of the original German cards, Eureka's Masters of Cinema transfer features a mix of original German intertitles and restored ones (with the F.W.M.S. mark in the left corner) - based on the shooting script - with optional English subtitles. The image was restored using the original German negative and a Brazilian nitrate print with Portuguese subtitles (which have been replaced with some of the restored German intertitles). As one can see in the first cap, the translation differs from the English intertitles of the Kino edition.

The MoC edition's framing reveals slightly more information on the left, and occasionally more on the right as well (there is a faint sliver of matte on all four sides - far less than windowboxing - to retain the 1.37:1 aspect ratio), and the hues of the tinting are bolder. The UK edition also has considerably less noise than the Kino edition (note the edge enhancement on caps 3 and 7 as well as the chroma noise on cap 6 on the Kino). Audio quality is not a factor, since both feature Dolby Digital 2.0 encodings of new scores. Both discs sport exclusive extras (although Luciano Berriatua's documentary may be excerpted on other discs in Kino's Murnau series since the specs for those editions (and MoC's Nosferatu) mention a documentary titled "The Language of the Shadows," all with different running times.

- Eric Cotenas

DVD Menus
(Eureka Video (Masters of Cinema) - Region 0 - PAL - LEFT vs. Kino - Region 0 - NTSC - RIGHT)

Screen Captures

(Eureka Video (Masters of Cinema) - Region 0 - PAL - TOP vs. Kino - Region 0 - NTSC - BOTTOM)
TOP: Restored German intertitle (note the F.W.M.S. mark in the left corner) with English subtitles