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The Head of Janus

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Director
  
F. W. Murnau

Duration
  

Screenplay
  
Hans Janowitz

7.2/10
IMDb

Genre
  
Horror

Running time
  
1h 47m

Story by
  
Robert Louis Stevenson

Country
  
Weimar Republic

The Head of Janus movie poster

Language
  
Silent film German intertitles

Writer
  
Robert Louis Stevenson
,
Hans Janowitz

Release date
  
26 August 1920 (1920-08-26)

Cast
  
Conrad Veidt
(Dr. Warren),
Magnus Stifter
(Warrens Freund),
Margarete Schlegel
(Grace),
Willy Kaiser-Heyl
(o. A.),
Bela Lugosi
(Warrens Butler),
Margarete Kupfer
(o. A.)

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,
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The Head of Janus (German: Der Janus-Kopf) is a 1920 German horror silent film directed by F. W. Murnau. The film was an unauthorized adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but the source material went unrecognized by some of the German media due to changes in the characters' names.

Contents

The Head of Janus The Head of Janus 1920 FW Murnaus Lost Jekyll and Hyde The

Released on 17 September 1920 by the Lipow Co., this is one of Murnau's lost films. The screenplay was written by Hans Janowitz, who collaborated with Carl Mayer on the script for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919). While the film itself does not survive, the scripts and related production notes do. Because the film is lost, its full length is unknown.

The Head of Janus Der Januskopf 1920 YouTube

Plot

The Head of Janus The Head of Janus Wikipedia

Conrad Veidt plays Dr. Warren (the Dr. Jekyll character) who changes into Mr. O'Connor (a parallel of Mr. Hyde). This transformation is brought about, not by experimentation with chemicals as in Stevenson's original, but through the supernatural agency of a bust of Janus (the Roman god of the doorway), which Warren / O'Connor purchases in the opening sequence as a gift for his sweetheart, Jane Lanyon (Margarete Schlegel). When she refuses the gift, horrified, Warren / O'Connor is forced to keep the statuette himself.

The Head of Janus The TwoFaced Man FW Murnau 1920 SciFiMovies

It is at this point Dr. Warren first transforms into the gruesome character Mr. O'Connor, and returns to Jane's house in a rage, kidnapping her and taking her back to his laboratory. Upon recovery, Warren is horrified by what he has done and tries to sell the bust at auction, but the hold it has over him forces him to buy it back again. A second transformation proves to be his ruin, committing random acts of violence in the streets.

The Head of Janus Der Januskopf shadowplay

Ultimately, Dr. Warren as Mr. O'Connor is forced to take poison after locking himself in his laboratory. He dies, clutching the statue to his chest.

Cast

  • Conrad Veidt as Dr. Warren / Mr. O'Connor
  • Magnus Stifter as Dr. Warren's friend
  • Margarete Schlegel as Jane Lanyon / Grace
  • Willy Kaiser-Heyl as Extra
  • Béla Lugosi as Dr. Warren's Butler
  • Margarete Kupfer as Extra
  • Danny Guertler as Extra
  • Gustav Botz as Extra
  • Jaro Fürth as Extra
  • Hans Lanser-Rudolf as Extra
  • Marga Reuter as Extra
  • Lanja Rudolph as Extra

    • Also known as

  • Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (UK)
  • Der Januskopf – Eine Tragödie am Rande der Wirklichkeit ("The Janus-Head – A Tragedy on the Border of Reality") (Germany)
  • Love's Mockery
  • Schrecken (Germany) (trailer title)
  • The Janus-Head
  • The Two-Faced Man (USA) (informal literal English title)
  • Dr. Warren and Mr. O'Connor
  • Terror (Soviet Union)

    • Production

    A note on the script points to an early instance of Murnau's moving camera. When the doctor is climbing the stairs to his laboratory, Janowitz's notes state "Camera follows him up the stairs".

    Reception

    This adaptation of R. L. Stevenson's classic novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was released in 1920, the same year as an American version, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde released by Paramount Pictures and starring John Barrymore. Swedish film critics of the time found the Murnau production to be more 'artistic'.

    Citations

  • Hardy, Phil, ed. (1995), The Overlook Film Encyclopedia, 3, Overlook Press, ISBN 0-87951-624-0 

    • References

    The Head of Janus Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA

    The Head of Janus IMDbThe Head of Janus themoviedb.org