Today -100: April 4, 1921: There is nothing of normalcy about it

Former Austro-Hungarian emperor Charles is STILL in Hungary, claiming to be too ill to leave his bed much less the country. No one believes him.

Sinn Feiners attempt to set fire to hotels and warehouses in Manchester, so the police raid the Erskine Street Club and a gunfight ensues.

The film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is playing at the Capitol Theatre, and the NYT reviewer is... confused. Interested, but confused:

“Doubtless these expressionistic scenes are full of meaning for the specialist in the form of art they represent, but the uninitiated, though they will now and then get a definite suggestion from some touch here or there, and enjoy it, are not asked to understand cubism,” but these backgrounds and settings accompany a “coherent, logical, a genuine and legitimate thriller”. Everything in the film is unreal, “There is nothing of normalcy about it.” And “it is not likely that it will establish a vogue of cubistic films” unless it is financially successful, in which case studios might make “terrible imitations” of it. The Capitol Theatre provides an orchestra accompaniment; I wonder what they played.

Also playing: The Passion Flower, with Norma Talmadge and Harrison Ford. Not that Harrison Ford.

But if your entertainment tastes run more to bullshit:

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