| Notes: Directors: Paul Wegener, Carl Boese; The Golem is actually a shortened title of the third and only surviving movie in a trilogy that includes The Golem 1915, The Golem and the Dancing Girl 1917, and lastly The Golem: How He Came into the World, which is the most famous of the three and the one dealt with here. All three movies were co-directed and starred by Paul Wegener as the Golem, who became enamoured with the subject after hearing the Jewish legend while filming another movie in Prague, years earlier. Wegener wasn’t pleased with the results of the first two movies and so decided to do the third one, which is in fact a prequal to the 1915 movie. This silent movie, that is a fine example of early German expressionism, tells a story of the great Rabbi of Prague, which upon learning that The Emperor is about to expel all Jews from the city, decides to create The Golem, a huge “being” made of clay, that will protect his people. He studies all the ancient sacred texts in effort to find the way to bring the being to life, and he succeeds. But as is always the case, meddling with supernatural powers can be a double-edged sword. At first, The Golem is under the Rabbi’s control, and together, utilizing the Golem’s extraordinary strength, they save the lives of the Emperor and his entire court during a royal festival, propping up the crumbling palace. In a gesture of gratitude, the Emperor cancels the order to evict the Jews. After a while, the Golem begins to act irrationally, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake, and ultimately setting fire to the ghetto. The Golem thus turns on its creator. The only one that could sooth the rampaging Golem is a little girl, that in her innocence trusts him and is not afraid of him. If this tale sounds familiar it is because it was a forerunner to the 1931 film adaptation of Frankenstein. The image in the Still is not the Golem. It is the dread spirit Astaroth that the Rabbi has summoned and compelled to reveal the secret incantation to be used to breathe life into the Golem. Astaroth’s apparition is seen breathing the secret word AEMAET, which is the German spelling of the Hebrew word AMT, pronounced as EMET, meaning TRUTH. To illustrate the danger one encounters when dealing with the occult, and the polarity of Good vs Evil, the Hebrew word MT, just one single letter short of AMT, and pronounced MET, meaning DEAD. |
