The Mysterious Mirror

Lore & Background

The film's plot centers on a mirror in a creepy old Bavarian castle that magically reveals the future of anyone who looks into it while the full moon shines brightly. A series of characters gaze into the glass to learn their fate, and most are unhappy with what they see. In the end, the hero smashes the mirror and then commits suicide; after his death, the mirror magically reassembles itself into a whole as before.

Reader's Guide

The Mysterious Mirror is a 1928 German silent fantasy film that stands as a curious entry in the late silent era, directed by Carl Hoffmann, a cinematographer who worked with Fritz Lang and F.W. Murnau, and Richard Teschner. Hoffmann, being more comfortable with technical effects, allowed Teschner to work with the actors. The film's theme of a magic mirror revealing the future was later echoed in the 1945 British horror film Dead of Night. The magazine Film und Volk, invariably hostile to UFA releases, criticized the film harshly. The cast includes Fee Malten, Fritz Rasp (who played villains in Metropolis and later German Edgar Wallace crime thrillers), and Rina De Liguoro. The film's legacy is limited, but it remains a notable example of German silent fantasy cinema, preserved in references such as Kreimeier's The Ufa Story.

Did You Know?

• The film is often incorrectly listed as a 1928 release co-directed by Carl Hoffmann and Richard Teschner; Hoffmann was a cinematographer, not a director of this film, and no such co-directed feature is documented.
• Actor Fritz Rasp played villains in Metropolis and later in several German Edgar Wallace crime thrillers.
• The magazine Film und Volk supposedly described the film as 'about the limit of what an audience could be expected to tolerate,' but this review cannot be verified for this title.