Herr Tartüff (1926) - film review

A wealthy old man is about to sign away his entire fortune to his housekeeper when his grandson makes an unexpected return.  Convinced by his housekeeper that his grandson has led a bad and dissolute life, the old man throws him out onto the street.  Seeing through the housekeeper’s game, the grandson, an actor, returns in disguise and offers to show them a film adaptation of Molière’s "Tartuffe".  In the film, a scheming parasite, Tartüff, plays on the gullibility of a nobleman, Orgon,  to extort money and favour.  Shocked by what she sees, Orgon’s wife, Elmire, resolves to unmask the villainous Tartüff.  When her well-laid trap fails, Orgon is more than ever convinced of his friend’s piety…

Admittedly a modest work when set aside Murnau’s grand masterpieces of the time – such as Nosferatu (1922) and Faust (1926) – Herr Tartüff nonetheless stands as a beautifully composed example of German expressionism, and is certainly one of the director’s lighter and more humanist works.  Emil Jannings is perfect as the Nosferatu-like villain Tartuffe, a magnificent portrayal of that leech in human form, deliciously comical, but also rather disturbing.

Although the film runs to just over one hour, Murnau manages to pack a surprisingly large amount into it.  Not content with just retelling Molière’s celebrated tale of greed and hypocrisy in a period setting, he places it within a framing story of contemporary times, emphasising the eternal relevance of the story.

Murnau’s use of expressionist technique is less emphatic, less extravagant, than in his better known works – the one exception  being the haunting Nosferatu-like night-time sequence in which Tartuffe’s wickedness is exposed.  Here, the expressionist style is used more subtly, and arguably to greater effect, to suggest, rather than overstate, a threat before it becomes apparent to its victim.  Murnau does this twice – first in the opening passage which introduces the old man and his housekeeper, and then subsequently when we enter the world of Orgon and his wife.  On each occasion, Murnau creates an element of doubt in the mind of the spectator, hinting at something nasty before making it obvious that there is indeed something nasty.  It is an ingenious device which neatly underscores the film’s moral: beware hypocrites and manipulators, for they, like the poor, are always with us.

© James Travers 2006

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