The Head of Janus

The Head of Janus
Directed by	F. W. Murnau
Produced by	Erich Pommer
Written by	Robert Louis Stevenson (novel); Hans Janowitz
Starring	Conrad Veidt; Magnus Stifter; Margarete Schlegel; Willy Kaiser-Heyl; Béla Lugosi
Cinematography	Karl Freund; Carl Hoffmann; Carl Weiss
Production; company	Lipow Film Company
Distributed by	Decla-Bioscop
Release date	26 August 1920;
Country	Weimar Republic
Language	Silent film; German intertitles

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 1886 novella 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.^[1]

Released on 17 September 1920 by the Lipow Co., this is one of Murnau's lost films.^[2] The screenplay was written by Hans Janowitz, who collaborated with Carl Mayer on the script for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). While the film itself does not survive, the scripts and related production notes do. Because the film is lost, its full length is unknown.

Plot

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.

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.

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".^[3]

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".

References

^ Hardy 1995, p. 27.
^ "Der Januskopf". silentera.com. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
^ Lotte Eisner (1973). Murnau. University of California Press. p. 31. Retrieved 6 March 2013. Janowitz notes Januskopf.

Citations

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

External links

[FOOTNOTEHardy199527-1] Hardy 1995, p. 27.

[2] "Der Januskopf". silentera.com. Retrieved 4 March 2013.

[3] Lotte Eisner (1973). Murnau. University of California Press. p. 31. Retrieved 6 March 2013. Janowitz notes Januskopf.

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