The great silent-era director Paul Leni made his mark in his native Germany as with movies such as Waxworks (1924), as well as being a fantastic, expressionistic art director. He, like several other German filmmakers, moved to the US to work for Carl Laemmle’s Universal Studios. He made four genuine classics there (one of which is lost), of which The Last Warning was the final film made before his untimely death at age 44.
Several years after a lead actor was killed during a stage production, a big-shot producer decides to bring the original cast back to the long-closed theatre for a revival of the show. However, as rehearsals progress, it’s clear things are not right as the theatre becomes a veritable haunted house of creepy occurrences.
Like Leni’s first US picture, The Cat and the Canary (1927), The Last Warning was based on a stage play. However, unlike many theatrical adaptations of the time, this movie isn’t hampered by stagey direction or production values. Leni keeps the camera moving – something very rare in early films – and dresses the set with plenty of hidden, creepy components. Utilising the grand Phantom of the Opera theatre set, the atmosphere is playfully dark; spiders and cobwebs permeate all corners and Leni amps the shadowplay to glorious extremes. As with The Cat and the Canary, the intertitles have a life of their own, adding a voice to the silent actors (a partial-sound version was released, since this was the dawn of the new cinematic era, but that sadly no longer exists either) and proving what a visionary Leni was.
The print used for Eureka’s Blu-ray release shows signs of damage here and there, but the contrast of the image is perfect and the few scratches that exist are bearable and in no way distract from what is a superb murder-mystery. Of the special features, an audio commentary by Stephen Jones and Kim Newman provides background and plenty of titbits on the film and Leni’s career, and is well worth a listen, as is the video essay by John Soister.
Younger fans of cinema may be reticent to check out older films, but The Last Warning is one than could win them over and act as a gateway into an era that has many delights to behold.
