Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

The Student of Prague (1913)

Balduin the student is the toast of Prague, but is despondent over being broke. A not-so-chance encounter with Satan, disguised as Scapinelli, results in a deal for one-hundred thousand pieces of gold in exchange for the use of whatever he should desire in Balduin’s apartment. Scapinelli lays claim to the foolish student’s soul — represented by his corporeal mirror reflection — in typical satanic sneakiness.

Balduin is endulging his fascination with the countess Margit, but is unnerved by the reappearance of his animate double and the indignance of the Margit’s betrothed, her cousin (sick!), the baron Waldis-Schwarzenberg. Challenged to a sword duel, Balduin is compelled to spare his rival, but is undone by the killing of the baron by his ghostly doppelganger.

Margit refuses to see Balduin after her fiancé’s death, but is swayed when he steals into her house. All their reconciliation is unravelled when she discovers that he no longer has a mirror reflection — and it appears suddenly in the room. Whereever Balduin flees he is intercepted by his devilish double. The spectral chase is culminated in the ultimate triumph of the impish Scapinelli.

Director Stellan Rye’s staging is distractingly clumsy in places, with characters lurking aimlessly and inexplicably unseen in the background of shots. Paul Wegener’s acting is peppered with the archaic gesticulations and the mawkish expressions of a stage ham. And John Gottowt’s Scapinelli is as self-conscious as any other Gottowt performance. But this early feature film was one of the earliest examples of was became known as the German Expressionist movement in motion pictures, and maintains a marginal degree of cinematic importance as such.

— Carl Bennett