The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - Adaptations and Musical Works Inspired By The Film

Adaptations and Musical Works Inspired By The Film

According to Jean Cocteau, he was approached during the early 1930s by director Robert Wiene about playing "Cesare" in a sound remake, which was never made. In 1936, Bela Lugosi, while filming in England, was offered the part of "Caligari" in a sound remake, but returned to work in the U.S. During the 1940s, writer Hans Janowitz seemed close to selling his rights in a script to be directed by Fritz Lang, but neither that nor his plans for a sequel, Caligari II, came to fruition.

In 1991, the film was loosely remade as The Cabinet of Dr. Ramirez by director and writer Peter Sellars. The production included significant development during filming, leading the primary actors to also receive writing credits (Mikhail Baryshnikov, who played "Cesar"; Joan Cusack, who played "Cathy"; Peter Gallagher, who played "Matt", and Ron Vawter, who played "Dr. Ramirez"). This remake was an experimental film that was screened only at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival and never theatrically released. Like the original film, it was silent with only intertitles and a musical score.

The 1990 film Edward Scissorhands used the aesthetics of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in creating the look for the main character of Edward Scissorhands.

The film was adapted into an opera in 1997 by composer John Moran. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari premiered at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a production by Robert McGrath.

Also, during 1997, playwright Susan Mosakowski adapted it to drama, performed at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club.

A musical theatre adaptation of "The Cabinet of Dr Caligari", with book by Richard Lawton and Douglas Hicton, music and lyrics by Hicton, produced by John Chatterton, and directed by David Leidholdt, debuted Friday 13 July 2001 at the New 42nd Street Theatre in New York, as part of the Midtown International Theatre Festival.

Numerous musicians have composed new musical scores to accompany the film. The Club Foot Orchestra premiered the score penned by ensemble founder and artistic director Richard Marriott in 1987. During 1994, jazz bassist Mark Dresser led pianist Denman Maroney and trumpeter Dave Douglas in his compositions for the film, which they performed live at the Knitting Factory and released on CD in 1994. The British electronica band In the Nursery created an ambient soundtrack for the film, which was released on CD in 1996. In 2000, the Israeli Electronica group TaaPet made several live performances of their soundtrack for the film around Israel. These were recorded, edited, and released as TaaPet's second album for FACT Records. Rainer Viertlböck composed a new score for the restored version that is available from Transit Film. In 2002, British musician and composer Geoff Smith composed a new soundtrack to the film for the hammered dulcimer, which he performed live as an accompaniment to the film. Also in 2002, Belgian musicians Thomas Desmet, Joris van Eeckhoven, Stefan Vanlokeren and Alexander Kerkhof formed the temporary band 'Caligari' and composed a complete score to the original film. Their effort was recorded by producer Pierre Vervloesem and performed during the International Film Festival of Flanders in Ghent and some other occasions. During 2006, Peruvian rock group Kinder composed a soundtrack to the film, performing it live during the screenings at "El Cinematógrafo", a film club in the district of Barranco. Also in 2006 composer/cellist Gideon Freudmann released a CD of his soundtrack, which he had been performing in various repertory theaters in New England. The composer Lynne Plowman wrote a score that was toured by the London Mozart Players in Wales during April and May 2009.

In 1981, Bill Nelson was asked by the Yorkshire Actors Company to create a soundtrack for a stage adaptation of the movie. That music was later recorded for his 1982 album Das Kabinet (The Cabinet Of Doctor Caligari).

A radio version is published by Blackstone Audio featuring John de Lancie as "Franz", Tony Jay as "Caligari", Jane Carr, Robertson Dean, Kaitlin Hopkins, James Otis, and Lorna Raver, written, produced and directed by Yuri Rasovsky.

On October 26, 2008, BBC Radio 3 broadcast a dramatization entitled Caligari, adapted from the film by Amanda Dalton and directed by Susan Roberts. According to the description on the BBC Radio 3 web site, " adaptation builds on the film's themes: the madness of society, the inner workings of the human mind and the paranoia of a country in the aftermath of a war." The cast included Tom Ferguson as "Franzis", Luke Treadaway as "Allan", Sarah McDonald Hughes as "Jane" and Robin Blaze as "Cesare".

In 2005, the Chicago-based Redmoon Theater performed a Bunraku adaptation of the film. The only dialogue throughout the 80 minute production was the thoughts of Cesare as played through a Victor Talking Machine at the base of the stage. The stage was made up of many small stages, each being a drawer or cupboard in a large cabinet.

A film with a very similar title, The Cabinet of Caligari, written by Robert Bloch, was made in 1962, claimed to be inspired by the original film.

In the 1966 Doctor Who serial The Gunfighters, the name Doctor Caligari was used by the First Doctor when he arrived in Tombstone, Arizona, impersonating a magician. It did not take; the locals mistook him for Doc Holliday.

A sound remake, directed by David Lee Fisher, was released in 2005 and won several awards at horror film festivals. It attempted to reproduce the look of the original film as closely as possible, and the backdrops used in the remake were digitally enhanced backdrops from the original film.

The final episode of the children's television series Count Duckula, titled "The Zombie Awakes", is a parody of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. A mad psychologist, named Dr. Quackbrain sends a somnambulist named Morpheus to bring Duckula to Quackbrain's castle, which is designed inside and out with the same extreme lights, shadows, angles and shapes characteristic of Caligari's expressionist style.

There is strong influence of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari on the concept of the 2009 fantasy film The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, by Terry Gilliam as well as on the book Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane on which the eponymous movie by Martin Scorsese is based. Scorsese was surprised that Lehane hadn't seen The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari whose story has many similarities with that of Shutter Island .

On May 5th, 2012 the Astra Dance Company opened a theatrical production of “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” in Hollywood, California at the El Portal Theatre and extended with an encore presentation from September to October 2012. The piece produced by David Wilkinson, directed by Sasha Travis was a tribute to the film and the styles of the original movie. The production featured a large multimedia array of projections, period costumes, and a complete musical score by Regan Remy to recreate the surreal feel of the original movie in front of a live audience.

In 2012 Martyn Jacques, the founder, songwriter and frontman of cult British trio The Tiger Lillies chose "The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari" as the theme for his first ever solo show which premiered at historic Warsaw cinema Kino Luna, followed by a three week run at London's Soho Theatre which was met with great enthusiasm by audience and critics .