Review of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

I am fully prepared to acknowledge that 'Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari' is a masterpiece of expressionist cinema. The sets are true works of art and the lighting is great. However, does the film deliver as entertainment? I am afraid it does not. Let's face it: Watching 'Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari' may occasionally be visually satisfying, but on the whole it is boring. Plain boring. The plot takes a while to set up the problem (murders in the town of Holstenwall), but once it has done so it is immediately obvious who the murderer is and how the crimes have been committed. Neither does the way the murder mystery is being solved offer any interest or suspense. For that, you would need to be able to see things from the point of view of one of the characters, but neither Jane (Lil Dagover) nor Franzis (Friedrich Feher) or Alan (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski) are ever properly introduced as individuals. Mind you, I am not comparing the film with modern thrillers. I am comparing it with other films made at roughly the same time. 'Nosferatu' (1922) is a good example: it is visually stunning, well-acted, suspenseful and scary. 'Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari' is none of this. I for one was disappointed.