In sixteenth-century Prague, a rabbi creates a monster out of clay to help his people fight against the emperor’s expulsion of the Jews from the ghetto. Considered the most visually striking of the various film versions of the ancient Jewish legend (Wegener, who portrays the monster here, alone made three films on the subject, of which this is the last), The Golem is remarkable for its dramatic sets by Hans Poelzig and for its use of chiaroscuro, which eerily captures the mystery and remoteness of the Middle Ages. Wegener’s lumbering gait was imitated by Boris Karloff years later in James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931). We thank the George Eastman House for the loan of this rare archival print.