 The first truly famous
horror film, a German production that excited American critics
because of its fantastic visuals, and enraged the American
Legion, which staged a demonstration of 2,000 people at Miller's
Theatre in Los Angeles, claiming that the U.S. was still at war
with the Germans and shouldn't be sending them money, no matter
how superior their movies were. The film's fabulous
cinematography was so shocking that it started a revolution
similar to the coming of Cubism in art. It premiered in America
in 1921 at Rothafel's Capitol Theatre, at 51st and Broadway in
New York, and starred Werner Krauss as Dr. Caligari, a hypnotist
in a carnival who claims his sleepwalking partner, Conrad Veidt,
has been sleeping in a wooden box for 20 years, but in his
awakened state predicts the time of death of anyone who questions
him. With Friedrich Feher, Hans Heinz von Twardowski, Lil
Dagover. Written by Carl Mayer and Hans Janowitz, who had been
tortured by a military psychiatrist during World War I. The
famous Expressionistic sets, which influenced films for the next
20 years, were designed by Hermann Warm. When released in
America, the Goldwyn company used an orchestral score combining
"weird" modern themes from Strauss, Debussy, Schoenberg and
Stravinsky. Directed by Robert Wiene. . 
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