THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1919)

As failed experiments go, CALIGARI has certainly gone the distance. With its painted expressionistic sets and painted expressionistic acting, it remains unfathomable and remarkably watchabe. Conrad Veidt makes it work as Cesare, the reed thin somnambulist, but everyone else looks fidgety under Robert Weine ’s surprisingly straightforward direction. (Then again, what would you want added to those sets and the hiccoughing story line?) The it-was-all-a-lunatic’s-dream cop-out of an ending (claimed by Frtiz Lang who reused it in his WOMAN IN THE WINDOW) still feels like a cheat, but this remains some kinda classic.