Warning Shadows (1923) - Arthur Robison

I was glad to see this film for a rather simple reason. This was made a full year before The Last Laugh, and this film featured no intertitles. As many of you are aware I find Murnau's film dreadfully overrated and was glad that one of the film's claims to fame was preceded by this. Not to say Warning Shadows is remarkably better. The story isn't as easy to follow without titles, but for the German's obsessed with shadows this film is over indulgent. Of course it comes from a man that puts on shadow puppets and proceeds to make all kinds of concoctions behind a light. It is a great joy to watch some of these displays but parts of the film seem somewhat incomprehensible. Artificial as any film of the period and caring largely the same type of overacting, it is a curious piece of German cinema and one that although unsuccessful tried to tell a story without a single word.