Murnau is one of early cinema's true masters and his expressionist version of Geothe's cautionary tale is a masterpiece. The director was so obsessed with capturing the horrors of Mephistopholes that his cast regularly fainted from fumes or collapsed from exhaustion on set. Though the mid-section contains a romantic diversion from the original text the true power of the film lies in it's atmospheric build up and it's devastating climax.