Blu-ray, DVD Release: The Golem (1920)

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: April 14, 2020
Price: DVD $14.89, Blu-ray $19.99
Studio: Kino Lorber


Widely recognized as the source of the Frankenstein myth, the ancient Hebrew legend of the Golem provided actor/director Paul Wegener with the substance for one of the most adventurous films of the German silent cinema–named, unsurprisingly, The Golem.

Suffering under the tyrannical rule of Rudolf II in 16th-century Prague, a Talmudic rabbi (Albert Steinruck) creates a giant warrior (Paul Wegener) to protect the safety of his people. When the rabbi’s assistant (Ernst Deutsch) takes control of the Golem and attempts to use him for selfish gain, the lumbering monster runs rampant, abducting the rabbi’s daughter (Lyda Salmonova) and setting fire to the ghetto.

With its remarkable creation sequence (a dazzling blend of religion, sorcery and special effects) and the grand-scale destruction of its climax, the 1920 horror-fantasy classic was one of the greatest achievements of the legendary UFA Studios, and remains an undeniable landmark in the evolution of the horror film.

Kino Lorber’s new Blu-ray and DVD editions include the following:

-4K restoration of German release version
-music by Stephen Horne
-music by Admir Shkurtai
-music by Lukasz “Wudec” Poleszak
-audio commentary by film historian Tim Lucas
-comparison of German and U.S. release versions
-U.S. release version, with music by Cordula Heth

 

Buy or Rent The Golem (1920)

About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.