Fjodor Ozep and Erich Engel direct this marvelous piece of early sound moviemaking, accompanied by a superb musical score by Karol Rathaus, all in tune with the mentally unstable characters and situations offered by Fyodor Dostoyevsky in his literary masterpiece, THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV.
From my standpoint, the psychotic atmosphere amounts to the lifeblood of Dostoyevsky's work, and BROTHERS remains possibly his most "normal" book, especially when compared with THE POSSESSED (also known as THE DEVILS) and THE IDIOT.
Dmitri Karamasoff (spelling in the film) is driven by his spirit, his emotions, his mad love for Grushenka (well portrayed by the exceedingly nubile Anna Sten) even as he realizes that Katja (quietly dignified show from Hanna Waag) is probably the woman to bring peace and normality to his existence.
Interesting contribution from Fritz Rasp as Smerdiakov, "merd" short for "merde" in the much spoken French in Russian society at the time, a truly devious and evil character that has epilepsy as extenuating circumstance for his underhand behavior.
Albeit flawed and with acting from Fritz Kortner that must have complied with the requisites of his time but which in our age of the computer and communicative immediacy seems excessive, DER MORDER DMITRI KARAMASOFF posts terrific cinematography (the short sequence with the horse-drawn caleche in the Russian steppes is memorable) and a quasi-chaotic atmosphere.
PS - I can never understand how some reviewers consider a film dated or slow. A film made in the silent period, or even in the 1930s or 1950s, cannot possibly cater for the world of today, which moves at far greater speed, with verbal exchanges in real time across the globe - not to mention all the other differences since 1931.
One has to try to inhabit the movie's time in order to appreciate the high art of a DER MORDER DMITRI KARAMASOFF. 9/10.
