The Trading Cards of Dr. Caligari

About eleven months ago, I told you about a Kickstarter campaign for what turned out to be one of my favorite trading card sets of all time. NostalgiCards’, Metropolis Picture Gum Trading Cards.  This project was also the subject of my final article for Non Sport Update. When the set arrived, I was totally blown away.  From the period-accurate design and packaging and the cards themselves, this was a note-perfect trading card set.

So of course I’m going to recommend the follow-up set, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Picture Gum Trading Cards.  Not only is Caligari considered the other pillar of German Expressionism, it’s a personal favorite of mine, and the bottom of the post you’ll learn more about my connection to this legendary film.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a very influential 1920 German silent horror film, directed by Robert Wiene and written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. Considered the definitive work of German Expressionist cinema, it tells the story of an insane hypnotist (Werner Krauss) who uses a somnambulist (Conrad Veidt) to commit murders. The film features a dark and twisted visual style, with sharp-pointed forms, oblique and curving lines, structures and landscapes that lean and twist in unusual angles, and shadows and streaks of light painted directly onto the sets. Some folks consider it a zombie movie, but it really isn’t. It is dripping with style and without this movie, we likely would not have had Nosferatu, Dracula, Frankenstein, Freaks, or any of the other major works of cinematic horror. You can see visual cues swiped from this film in everything from Forbidden Zone to Edward Scissorhands.

NostalgiCards’ Todd Riley began work on Metropolis trading cards back in 1996, when it seemed that the film was about to slip into the public domain. In fact, it was to be their first product. While fate, and the Sonny Bono copyright extension act put the kibosh on that plan, NostalgiCards went on to release sets like Morbid Monster Cards and Galaxy Goons from 1999 to 2003, then Riley took a break from creating his own sets.  Metropolis was his comeback set, and back then he told me what the plan was for his next project.

So I’m really excited to tell you about The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Picture Gum Trading Cards, which just launched last week. I’ve already kicked in,  and the funding goals have been met, with stretch goals dropping like flies.

Let me quote the set details from the campaign…

This is our second trading card set in our Silent Film Classic series. This time we are bringing you the quintessential work of early German Expressionist cinema – The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. A faithful tribute to the non-sport sets of the 1920s-1930s, this is the first time a complete card series has been dedicated to this early horror masterpiece.

The colorful 54-card base set features images from the film and accompanying text of the story. Printed on vintage style, thick 24pt stock.

The card size of 2 7/8 by 2 3/8 inches, is being done to be as authentic to the period as possible. This was the size of the earliest gum cards from the era. It wasn’t until nearly 40 years after the film debuted that the modern card size of 3 1/2 by 2 1/2 inches appeared.

When the film was first seen in theaters, it was actually tinted. Daylight scenes were tinted yellow, night scenes were blue, and scenes inside Jane’s house were pink. So, we have made it so all cards can be found in all 3 colors.

Look for three special limited Biography Cards randomly inserted in the packs. Cards depict director Robert Wiene, Werner Krauss as Dr. Caligari, and Conrad Veidt as Cesare. Odds of finding a Biography Card is 1 in 8 packs. Each can also be found in three different colors.

Card series produced during the era came with gum, and wax wrappers were used to help keep the gum fresh. So, we are also using real wax wrappers for the series to give it that nostalgic quality.

Some of the earliest trading card boxes from the era consisted of a 3-part box including a separate box topper that was inserted along an edge between the lid and the base tray to create a striking display. We are continuing the tradition with our own 3-part box.

There are several different ways you can pledge and get your hands on these cards, from buying a single wax pack, to full sets, unopened boxes and Master Sets where you get everything.  You also have the chance to pick up the Metropolis cards, and extra, including a period-accurate collector’s album.

Since the project funded so quickly, many stretch goals have already been met,  NostalgiCards has already added promo cards, more biography cards and a custom gum wrapper to the package, and they’re closing in on adding three movie poster box-topper cards to the collection.

If you’re a fan of German Expressionism, I don’t need to do a hard sell on this set. It’s fully-funded, NostalgiCards has an imeccable track record and this set is just cool as hell.  Follow THiS LINK to kick in. The campaign has less than two weeks to run, so you don’t want to sleep on this!

And now, after a video break, here’s “the rest of the story.”

Above, you see me basically scratching a 40-plus-year itch.

In the early 1980s, when I was a communications major at what was then West Virginia State College, I was taking a film appreciation class called “Horror and Fantasy in Film.” Because it was so long ago, I’m not certain who the professor was. My fuzzy memory says it must have been Bart Weiss, but my heart tells me it was my old and much-missed friend, Danny Boyd. For the full story on how, four years ago, I decided to take a public domain print of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and set it to the music of The Stranglers, visit the original post from 2022.

Needless to say, this film has been a big part of at least two-thirds of my life, and if you want a hint of why it deserves a trading card set, just watch the video above…or better yet, watch it with a more appropriate soundtrack HERE.