Absolutely you must see the movie! It's on youtube (I got this by googling, but can't check the reference here at work, so hope it's OK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecowq77Y3C0) I haven't read Morrow's book, but for the movie at least, probably a quick summary (Wikipedia?) on the subject of German Expressionism might make some sense of the very mannered acting and crazy non-realistic sets, and all that wonderful stuff.. Put it in context at the end of World War I, when the whole world seemed to have gone crazy... Thanks for mentioning this - I must track down the Morrow book.