PAN SI DONG / THE CAVE OF THE SILKEN WEB (1927)

A challenging but rewarding watch, this once lost Chinese silent survives thru a print found (and restored) in Norway.  Missing the first two reels, it now runs about an hour and there’s a small amount of nitrate damage to get thru.  (Mostly at the start.)  And what a familiar story it tells!  Not only because Cheng'en Wu’s 16th century multi-part JOURNEY TO THE WEST saga has served dozens of adaptations* (this probably the first), but for its echoes to . . . well, here’s a brief.  Our lead, on a journey thru unknown territory to fetch a precious item, is kidnapped and taken to a cave castle, yet hopes to be rescued by anthropomorphic pals Monkey, Pig & Shark who must scale a craggy mountain to gain entry.  And it’s not only THE WIZARD OF OZ that comes to mind.  Here, our ‘Dorothy’ is a monk on a journey to find precious manuscripts in some heavenly territory, and her pal protectors are on the clock.  (Monkey, primus inter pares like The Scarecrow, is also a shape-shifter, something which comes in handy against the beautiful ‘She-Devil’ kidnappers who plan a forced marriage and human flesh appetizers instead of a monk’s proper vegetarian diet.  Worse, those lady devils are really spider people.  Yikes!  The transformation no more than a puff of smoke and a ‘matched’ edit, but the spider costume is impressively creepy.  The production is surprisingly elaborate, if not up to international late-silent standards, the filmmaking technique more late ’teens than late ‘20s (see Maurice Tourneur’s THE BLUE BIRD/’19), with acting that’s very UFA German Expressionism when not British ‘Panto.’  (You even get racial stereotypes with dark complexioned cave servants.)  It all climaxes at the wedding with mad dances out of a ‘rave’ and a RED tinted fiery conflagration for a finale.

LINK:  Watch for free here:  https://archive.org/details/pan-si-dong-cave-of-the-silken-web

DOUBLE-BILL:  *Not seen here, but first on the list when you type CAVE OF THE SILKEN WEB on a search engine (or IMDb) is a version from 1967.  No doubt, it would clear things up, but sacrifice some of the silent film’s enticing perplexity.