One of the earliest (and eeriest) works by the legendary filmmaker F. W. Murnau, Schloss Vogelöd: Die Enthüllung eines Geheimnisses [Castle Vogelöd: The Revelation of a Secret, often referred to as The Haunted Castle] provides a vital glimpse into the development of the uncanny-suffused expressionistic style that became Murnau's hallmark and legacy. A party of aristocrats assemble at a country manor for an autumn hunt. But a long-lingering question threatens once more to rear its head: who really murdered the Baroness's late husband? With a riveting nightmare sequence that foreshadows the nocturnal fantasias of both Nosferatu and Phantom, and a masquerade conceit that looks backward to Feuillade and forward to Murnau's own Die Finanzen des Großherzogs, this languorous mood piece represents the latent material that will figure into a master director's later breakthroughs. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present F. W. Murnau's Schloss Vogelöd, a long out-of-circulation early work by the legendary F. W. Murnau, director of such masterworks as Nosferatu and Sunrise . Released on DVD in the UK for the first time on 22 August 2011.
