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Von morgens bis mitternachts (1920) - a Silent Film Review

Georg Kaiser

In 1912, Georg Kaiser wrote the play 'Von morgens bis mitternachts' about a banker who steals a large sum of money for a woman he loves. If the woman rejects his avances, this is the beginning of his demise. The piece was first performed in Munich in 1917.

Karlheinz Martin

In 1920 Karlheinz Martin made a film of the play. All typical German expressionist elements can be found in this film. The painted decors, the graphic titles, the underexposure, the way of acting and the construction of the story.

Robert Wiene

After the First World War, Germany was completely destroyed and had to pay the allies a extremely large sum of money. So you can imagine that the last amount of money was spent on the film industry. A problem for filmmakers of then, but as it often happens with creative people, they thought of a solution. When the young Robert Wiene wanted to make a film, he invented a new concept for film. One set where all the decors were to be found and filming with one light source. In 1920 he created 'Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari’ with this concept.

Ernst Deutsch

'Von morgens bis mitternachts' contains 5 acts. All scenes are loosely tied together, but that is not a problem because the story focuses on one person, the banker. All other characters get a minor role, they are almost part of the decor. The viewer is swept into the world of the banker, his emotions are the most important. He not only makes a literal journey by fleeing, but he also makes a journey through his development. Although his subconscious, from the moment he steals the money, indicates that he has to pay for it sooner or later, he only realizes that at the end of the film. 'Von morgens bis mitternachts' is also considered to be the forerunner of the road movie.

Ernst Deutsch en Erna Morena

Also, expressionistically, is the total absence of plot twists. The story goes in just one direction, the inevitable ruin of the bank clerk. I have to say that the story is fascinating even without plot twists.
Although the exaggerated gestures of the actors since the invention of the close-up were no longer commonly used, they are again used in this film. This time it is not because of the absence of close-ups, but because it was a style used in the expressionist plays of a few years earlier and was taken over by the filmmakers of expressionist films. By applying this style, the film, especially in combination with the alienating decors, is more a piece of art than a typical movie.


The tragedy of this film is that it was overshadowed, and still is, by 'Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari’ , which played in the cinemas a few months earlier and achieved international fame. A modest success in Japan taken aside, 'Von morgens bis mitternachts' would have been totally forgotten if a copy of the film wasn’t recovered in Tokyo in 1959 and was shown again in the German cinema in 1963. In 1920, the film in Germany was shown only a few times in very few cinemas.

Ernst Deutsch

'Von morgens bis mitternachts' certainly is just as good as 'Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari’ and deserves a place in the top 5 of best German Expressionist films.

Von Morgens bis Mitternachts film
Von Morgens bis Mitternachts (1920) clip 
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