Phantom
About Phantom
Lorenz Lubota, a small-town clerk and would-be poet played by Alfred Abel, is knocked down by a carriage driven by Veronika Harlan. He loses his job over the obsession. With his aunt's clerk Wigottschinski he spends money he does not have on Melitta, a woman who looks like Veronika and is played by the same actress, Lya de Putti. His poems will not be published. Aunt Schwabe demands repayment. Lorenz agrees to rob her house; she wakes, and Wigottschinski kills her. Lorenz goes to prison. After his release he writes the story out, and he marries Marie Starke.
Cast & crew
More about Phantom
F. W. Murnau directed. Thea von Harbou wrote the script from Gerhart Hauptmann's novel Phantom. Erich Pommer produced it for Decla-Bioscop, and UFA distributed it. The German release was 13 November 1922. Axel Graatkjær and Theophan Ouchakoff photographed it. Leo Spies is credited with the music. Lil Dagover plays Marie, Aud Egede-Nissen plays Lorenz's sister Melanie, and Grete Berger plays Aunt Schwabe.
Themes
Reviews
Béla Balázs called the film an attempt to show the world in the color of a temperament. Leonard Maltin later gave it three stars out of four and described it as a poetic psychodrama.
Music
Leo Spies is credited with the music.
Preservation
The Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv and the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung reconstructed the film in 2002 and 2003 from the original negative and fragments of a dupe negative. Missing intertitles were restored from the screenplay. The original German title cards were no longer available, so the reconstruction uses new translations.
Notes
- Published lengths run from 117 to 125 minutes.
- Lya de Putti plays both Veronika and Melitta.
- The film opens on Hauptmann walking in the country with a book.
- Hauptmann's novel was serialized in the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung. The final book text was written after the film treatment.
- Anton Edthofer plays Wigottschinski. Hans Heinrich von Twardowski plays Lorenz's brother Hugo.
Scenes
- Veronika's white horses knock Lorenz down in the street.
- Wigottschinski kills Aunt Schwabe when the robbery wakes her.
Influenced by
- Gerhart Hauptmann's novel Phantom
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-phantom)
