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This study of German motion picture films up to 1933 is the first large-scale attempt to describe and interpret films as cultural data. The author relates the content of these mainly to conflicts between impulse and authority in German life. This is illustrated in his interpretation of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a film about a sinister hypnotist who uses a somnambulist as his tool for murder and rape. In the original script the hero pursues the hypnotist and brings about his downfall. The final version appears as the fantasy of a madman. Dr. Caligari becomes the madman's distorted