Spoiler-Free Review: The Student of Prague (OVID)

Joseph Perry November 5, 2026

2–3 minutes

Directed by Henrik Galeen

With Conrad Veidt

Deaf Crocodile, Horror, 1926, 133 mins

German

Official synopsis

Loosely based on “William Wilson,” a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, Conrad Veidt (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Casablanca) stars as a hellraising student who sells his soul to the Devil, but Veidt hasn’t bargained on meeting his own evil doppelgänger who steps out of a mirror, Cocteau-like, and starts to take over his life. Score by Stephen Horne.

Review

Director Henrik Galeen’s The Student of Prague (Der Student von Prague; Germany, 1926) is a masterpiece of German Expressionist cinema, and quite a creepy one, at that. Combining the tale of Faust with Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “William Wilson,” the feature boasts plenty of silent fear-fare credentials. Galeen is renowned for writing and directing the 1915 version of The Golem starring Paul Wegener, for writing the screenplays of Nosferatu (1922) and Waxworks (1924), and for directing and cowriting with Hanns Heinz Ewers the mind-boggling Alraune (reviewed here). Conrad Veidt, starring here as the titular master fencer Balduin, is perhaps best known for portraying Cesare the Somnambulist in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), although he has more than 100 other films to his credit. Werner Krauss, who here portrays the diabolical Scapinelli, also costarred with Veidt in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

The plot is archetypal, as poor student Balduin makes a deal with the evil Scapinelli to become wildly wealthy and to win the heart of Comtesse Margit (Ágnes Eszterházy), who is already engaged. This breaks the heart of flower girl Luduschka (Elizza La Porta). Plenty of other double-dealing and intrigue occurs, especially once Scapinelli reveals to Balduin the price he must pay for his newfound wealth: an evil doppelgänger of the student that emerges from a mirror, causing Balduin to lose his own reflection — and much more.

Galeen crafted a highly admirable feature with The Student of Prague. The acting is top-notch, the expressionist sets are absolutely remarkable, and the eeriness involving the doppelgänger and the havoc that it wreaks are chilling. Strongly recommended for devotees of early horror cinema, this restored version from Deaf Crocodile looks beautiful and boasts a superb score.