A visual masterpiece. Absolutely stunning sets and cinematography. The story is much more comprehensible with the lost footage restored. Still heavy handed with outrageous overacting but, since Lang sought to use minimal intertitles, the film is essentially a pantomime and some overacting is necessary and appropriate. This is especially true for Brigitte Helm who must play two identical and identically clothed characters and make them instantly recognizable as different characters without a voice. She accomplishes by imbuing both of her very strong characters with distinct physical vocabularies. Besides the sets and cinematography, the movie is worth a second viewing to appreciate Helm’s performances, intense physicality and the surprising strength and independence of her characters which comes as quite a surprise given what we expect of womens’ rolls in films of the Silent Era.