DbcultAccessing Vault...
5.8/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 5.8/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Dantes mysterier remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you love dusty, weird old magic shows from the early days of sound, Dantes mysterier is a fun little time machine. But if you need an actual plot or, you know, character development, you’ll probably want to claw your eyes out within ten minutes. 🎩
It is basically just a filmed stage show with a tiny bit of plot holding the seams together. Dante the Magician—that’s Harry Jansen in real life—performs his act at this fancy place called Café Grans.
The audience there looks so incredibly stiff. It is like they are all wearing collars made of thick cardboard.
Honestly, some of these reaction shots are the best part. One guy in the back looks like he is trying to remember if he left his stove on back home. 😂
Dante does his classic tricks, like the card manipulations and the classic sawing a woman in half routine. The camera just stares at him, which gives it a weirdly hypnotic vibe.
No fancy edits here, just pure theater captured on old-school film. It does not have the serialized energy of a silent thriller like The Blue Fox, but it has its own slow charm.
His card tricks is actually pretty cool though, even with the fuzzy 1931 footage. You can tell the guy had insanely fast hands.
Also, a very young Zarah Leander pops up here! That was a neat surprise, even if she does not have much to do but look glamorous.
The sound quality is pretty rough, but that kind of adds to the whole vibe. It feels like listening to a ghost. 👻
At one point, a trick goes on about 30 seconds too long and the silence starts to feel awkward. You can almost feel the movie trying to convince you this is the greatest thing ever made.
Still, I kind of love how unpolished this whole thing feels. They really do not make weird little variety movies like this anymore.