"Zur Chronik von Grieshuus" or "Die Chronik von Grieshuus" or "Junker Hinrichs verbotene Liebe" or "The Chronicles of the Gray House" or "At the Grey House" is a German black-and-white silent film from 1925, so this one is already easily over 90 years old and it is one of only two works apparently (according to IMDb) by director Arthur von Gerlach. So the more known names here are obviously the two writers, namely Theodor Storm who wrote the novel this is based on, but died briefly before the invention of movies, and Thea von Harbou, Fritz Lang's longtime collaborator. The cast also includes some people you will recognize if you care about old German films, such as Hartmann and Dagover, maybe even Forster. First cast Kraußneck is not really famous I believe. The version I watched stayed comfortably under the 100-minute mark, but it is a restored version, so it may be true that the original was 110 minutes long as it says on IMDb.
I have not read Storm's original work I must say, so I cannot compare book and film in this case here. But I do believe that, after reading the synopsis, the film did come more than a bit short on several key aspects. Acting, costumes and direction weren't a problem, but the way they depicted romance and tragedy here did not work to the extent I would have wanted it to work. The exception is maybe the very last shot. I also believe that this film could have needed considerably more intertitles as the story was fairly difficult to follow at times. The really high quantity of supporting characters did not make things easy to understand at all. Overall, I do believe that the lack of sound and, to a lesser extent, the lack of color have a lot to do with this film not turning out as convincingly as I would have wanted it to turn out. Like I already wrote in the title of my review: Perhaps the medium was not ready for Storm's material. I give this adaptation a thumbs-down. It's not a failure by any means, but also far from a success. I'd only recommend it to the very biggest silent film fans. Or to those who really adore the novel that I must admit I have never heard of before.
I have not read Storm's original work I must say, so I cannot compare book and film in this case here. But I do believe that, after reading the synopsis, the film did come more than a bit short on several key aspects. Acting, costumes and direction weren't a problem, but the way they depicted romance and tragedy here did not work to the extent I would have wanted it to work. The exception is maybe the very last shot. I also believe that this film could have needed considerably more intertitles as the story was fairly difficult to follow at times. The really high quantity of supporting characters did not make things easy to understand at all. Overall, I do believe that the lack of sound and, to a lesser extent, the lack of color have a lot to do with this film not turning out as convincingly as I would have wanted it to turn out. Like I already wrote in the title of my review: Perhaps the medium was not ready for Storm's material. I give this adaptation a thumbs-down. It's not a failure by any means, but also far from a success. I'd only recommend it to the very biggest silent film fans. Or to those who really adore the novel that I must admit I have never heard of before.