Phantom

Director: F.W. Murnau
Year Released: 1922
Rating: 1.0

A lost film by Murnau that should have probably stayed lost. A wanna-be poet (Alfred Abel) is knocked over by a horse-drawn carriage and becomes hopelessly in love with the woman riding in it, spending the rest of the movie trying to hunt her down and becoming more crazed and obsessed in the process. It doesn't help matters much that the poet is an ineffectual, limp dweeb and that Thea von Harbou's "script" is dreadful. Murnau can only do so much with the material - this same year he made the creaky classic Nosferatu, where his technical prowess aided the grim story and unforgettable performances.