In a career that spanned seven decades and embraced seventy films it's hard to dispute that the 1930s was the most fruitful decade for Julien Duvivier but when it is set against such gems as Poil de Carotte, Pepe Le Moko, La Belle Equipe, Un Carnet du Bal, Le Fin du Jour, La Charrette Fantome and L'homme du jour The Golem is very small beer indeed. The story itself is, of course, a classic and is regularly revived especially in Jewish Theatre but it is, perhaps, a little too specialised for Gentile viewers. As ever Duvivier retains his mastery of the striking scene and the film has the advantage of being shot in Prague and the greater advantage of Harry Baur, one of the finest French actors of his generation and ironically the first French-Jewish actor to be killed by the Nazis. If his performance here fails to eclipse those he gave in L'Assinat du Pere Noel or Poil de Carotte it is, nevertheless impressive but overall the film, almost inevitably, disappoints.
Review of The Golem: The Legend of Prague
