Cagliostro (1929 film)

Cagliostro
Directed by	Richard Oswald
Screenplay by	Georg C. Klaren Herbert Juttke
Based on	A novel by Johannes von Guenther
Produced by	Vladimir Vengerov Alexandre Kamenka
Starring	Hans Stüwe
Cinematography	Jules Krüger Maurice Desfassiaux
Music by	Werner Schmidt-Boelcke
Production companies	Les Films Albatros Wengeroff-Film GmbH
Release dates	8 April 1929 (1929-04-08) (Berlin) 21 May 1929 (1929-05-21) (Paris)
Countries	France Germany

Cagliostro is a 1929 silent drama film directed by Richard Oswald and starring Hans Stüwe, Renée Héribel and Alfred Abel. It depicts the life of the eighteenth century Italian occultist Alessandro Cagliostro, portraying him more sympathetically than in most other works. It was based on a novel by Johannes von Guenther.

Cast

• Hans Stüwe as Cagliostro
• Renée Héribel as Lorenza
• Alfred Abel as Prince de Rohan
• Ivan Koval-Samborsky as Benito
• Rina De Liguoro as Laura, Marquise Espada
• Charles Dullin as Marquis de Espada-Comte de Breteil
• Illa Meery as Jeanne de la Motte
• Edmond Van Daële as Louis XVI
• Suzanne Bianchetti as Marie Antoinette
• Jules Moy as Bohmer
• Georges Deneubourg as Basange
• Alice Tissot as Duchesse de Mittau
• René Donnio as Chevreau
• Jeannie Luxeuil
• Andrée Canti
• Roger Karl
• Andrews Engelmann
• Nicolas Rimsky
• Teddy Michaud

Release

Caligostro premiered in Berlin on 8 April 1929. It was later shown in Paris on 21 May 1929. In the early 1930s, Universal Pictures planned a Cagliostro film starring Boris Karloff in the title role, which was later re-written into the script for The Mummy.

Reception

A reviewer in Variety commented on the film on a screening in Germany, stating that "Richard Oswald always gets somebody to invest money again in his productions and always turns out about the same sort of product. A lot of pomp, scenery and costumes and nothing that grips in the acting line." and that Oswald "leaves Continental audiences as cold as he would American ones."

Bibliography

• Prawer, Siegbert Salomon (2005). Between Two Worlds: The Jewish Presence in German and Austrian Film, 1910–1933. New York: Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1-84545-074-8.
• Pitts, Michael R. (2018). Thrills Untapped: Neglected Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Films, 1928-1936. McFarland. ISBN 978-1476632896.
• Workman, Christopher; Howarth, Troy (2016). Tome of Terror: Horror Films of the Silent Era. Baltimore: Midnight Marquee Press. ISBN 978-1-936168-68-2.

External links

• Cagliostro at IMDb