In China, Professor Gesellius has completed his long research on the many uses of opium. When he is about to return home, he hears about a special variety that produces fabulous sensations because of the way it is made, but can also cause the total destruction of the mind and body of the person who consumes it.
Cinematography
Hallucinogenic tinting and shadows that crawl up your spine.
Acting
Werner Krauss serving unhinged intensity before Caligari made him famous.
Direction
Reinert's nightmare logic that predates German Expressionism's peak.
Director
Robert Reinert
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Conrad Veidt appears in an early role here, two years before his iconic Somnambulist in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
This film emerged during Germany's real opium panic, fueled by fears of colonial contamination and working-class drug use after WWI.
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