Synopsis
The movie Eerie Tales (1919) is a German silent anthology film directed by Richard Oswald and starring Conrad Veidt. The film is split into five stories: The Apparition, The Hand, The Black Cat (based on the Edgar Allan Poe short story), The Suicide Club (based on the Robert Louis Stevenson short story), and Der Spuk (The Spectre). [1]
In Eerie Tales (1919), at midnight in a closed antiquarian bookshop, three figures – Death, the Devil, and the Harlot – step out of paintings and read five macabre stories. The first story is The Apparition, about a man (Veidt) and a woman (Berber) who check into a hotel. When the woman vanishes, everyone there denies she ever existed. It is later revealed that she died of the plague and the hotel management wanted to cover it up. The second story is called The Hand, about two men (Veidt and Schunzel) who compete over a woman they desire. The loser kills his opponent, which leads to the victim’s ghostly hand avenging itself on his murderer. The third story is The Black Cat, about a drunk (Schunzel) who murders his wife (Berber) and walls up her body in his cellar. The family cat reveals his murderous secret to the police. The fourth story is The Suicide Club, about a detective who discovers a secret society only to be chosen as their next victim via a card game. The final story called The Spectre is about a braggart baron (Veidt) who encourages his wife (Berber) to have an affair with a total stranger. With the completion of the fifth tale, the clock in the shop strikes one and the three ghostly storytellers retreat back into their paintings. [1]
Cast
- Anita Berber as Harlot
- Reinhold Schünzel as the Devil
- Conrad Veidt as Death
- Hugo Döblin
- Paul Morgan
- Georg John
- Bernhard Goetzke
Trivia
Conrad Veidt and Reinhold Schunzel were again directed by Richard Oswald in the same year as the gay-themed Anders als die Andern (1919). The films share several filming locations as well. [2]
Reviews
“There were some things that I found impressive when considering that this film is literally 100 years old. The cinematography and special effects used where surprisingly efficient and effective, such as successfully producing the illusion of disappearing phantoms… it was done better than I thought it would be. ” [3]
“Eerie Tales is clearly a staging post between the major works of Weimar gothic but it’s very entertaining.” [4]
Cody Meirick on November 26, 2023