Underplayed Gems

The Lost Shadow (1921)

The Lost Shadow poster
Original title
Der verlorene Schatten
Directed by
Rochus Gliese
Genre
fantasy film, horror film, silent film
Country
Germany
Runtime
1h 04m
Rating
7.0 of 10 from 1 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A violinist makes a deal with a dark force that takes his shadow. The story blends the legend of Paganini with a classic tale of a man who loses his reflection.

supernaturalmelancholicatmosphericbroodinghistoricalmythictragicomic

What happens

The Lost Shadow (German: Der verlorene Schatten) is a 1921 German silent film directed by Rochus Gliese and starring Paul Wegener, Wilhelm Bendow and Adele Sandrock. The cinematographer was Karl Freund. The film's sets were designed by the art director Kurt Richter. It was shot at the Tempelhof Studios in Berlin. For some reason, the film was only released in the US in 1928. It is today considered a lost film. This film was a remake of sorts of Paul Wegener's 1913 film The Student of Prague, which he had starred in, only this time giving the story a happy ending. The screenplay also incorporated the legend of the famed violinist Niccolò Paganini who was said to have murdered his wife and imprisoned her soul in his violin. Director Gliese had previously designed the sets for Wegener's 1915 film The Golem, and later directed Wegener in The Golem and the Dancing Girl in 1917. He later also worked as a costume designer on Wegener's 1920 film The Golem: How He Came into the World. Thus Gliese was the only person to collaborate on all three of Wegener's "Golem" movies. The film co-starred Greta Schröder, who later starred in F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922). Cameraman Karl Freund later emigrated to the US and worked on many of the classic 1930s Universal horror films, including Dracula, Mad Love and Karloff's The Mummy. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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