THE DYBBUK (1937)

In a Polish shtetl, old friends Sender and Nisn realize that they only see each other during the holy days when they gather with others for prayers at Rebbe Ezeriel's. So with both their wives pregnant, they make a vow that, if they have a boy and a girl between them, they will make sure the children marry when they come of age. A mysterious bearded figure known just as the Messenger, who has a habit of appearing out of nowhere and then vanishing, tells them it's a bad idea to make such a vow with the unborn, but they ignore him. Misfortune hits both families: Sander's wife delivers Leah, a healthy girl, but dies in the process; Nisn perishes in a river during a storm as he tries to make his way home for the birth of his son Khanan. Years later, Sander has forgotten the vow and is in the process of looking for a suitable husband for Leah when, by chance, Khanan shows up in town, an itinerant yeshiva scholar who has decided to focus on the mysticism of Kabbalah. Sander takes Khanan in, not knowing he is Nisn's son. The boy falls in love with Leah, and she with him, but Sander wants a man with more stable means for his daughter. In frustration, Khanan turns to Satanic rituals for help; they appear to help delay the marriage, but eventually, Sander and the groom's family come to terms, and Khanan takes one last stab at conjuring Satan, this time in the synagogue, but his magic seems to backfire and Khanan is struck dead. Leah engages in a ritual to invite her mother's spirit to come to her wedding; while doing so, she also invites the spirit of Kahnan who does, in fact, return as a dybbuk, a spirit of the dead which possesses living people. At her wedding, Khanan does enter Leah's body. Sender appeals to Rebbe Ezeriel to exorcise the dybbuk, but the old man is uncertain if he has the energy to triumph against a Satanic force.

This Yiddish film, based on a play which was itself based on Jewish folklore, is not so much a horror movie as a tale of fantasy and the supernatural, especially as the first half of the film is more a thwarted romance melodrama. But the second half, when the occult themes take over, has a number of scenes that would not be out of place in the classic Universal horror movies of the 1930s: the Satanic ritual in the synagogue outdoes the scene of Satan worship in the classic THE BLACK CAT; at the (aborted) wedding, a quote is read out saying that "man's life is like a dance of death," followed by a ritual in which a skull-faced figure dances with Leah; there is a gloomy "holy grave" in the middle of the street with the bodies of a martyred bride and groom, on which Leah throws herself just before the dybbuk takes possession of her. The exorcism and excommunication ritual at the end goes on a bit too long; actually, at two hours, the whole movie could use some trimming--the Blu-ray I watched includes a 100-minute version which was released in some countries which I may watch someday. The film may have been a relatively low-budget affair, but it looks good with sparse, almost expressionistic sets giving an eerie atmosphere to many scenes. The downbeat ending gives the story a Romeo & Juliet feel. Some of the performances feel stagy and overblown (Avrom Morewski as the rabbi), some feel a little underdeveloped (Lili Liliana as Leah), some are just right (Leon Liebgold as Khanan). The print on the Blu-Ray disc, part of a set of 10 Yiddish films primarily from the late 30s called The Jewish Soul, is generally very nicely restored. An enjoyable find, and quite appropriate for late October viewing. [Blu-ray]