A day off work. Unreturned calls to Lasker-Schüler and Veidt. The company puzzled. Wagner attributes it to exhaustion.

Doubts about the whole project. There is an essentially trivial quality at the heart of film’s fascination—a nervous, aggressive vulgarity.

I’m surprised, too, by the intensity of my despondency at Spiess’s departure. As he once wrote me, Hans is your obsession. I’m just the Catamite who assists you in all your ceremonies of regret.

Late for work the next day. Unheard of for Murnau. An inspection of the interiors built by Grau and his assistants at the Jofa studios at Berlin-Johannisthal. More than a few ironies here: the largest film-production studio in Europe has taken shape on the grounds of the old Albatros-Werke. I make movies now where engineers made planes for Allmenröder and me.

It’s a hard place to get used to, a huge dirigible-hangar of exposed steel girders and glass that makes all sound harsh and prone to echo. First check of the set of the castle dining hall. An arrangement like a child’s playhouse in the middle of the vast space.

Grau was enraged by the way his sketches had been realized. He ranted, upbraided, drew new versions in the air, and tore down flats, while I stood by befuddled by his talent and passion. This is more often his production than mine, and in the face of my weakness he’s the glue that holds everything together.

He disagreed about the layout of the great hall. He complained the scenic space gave the impression of being cut off by accident. I told him that the compositions were intended to seem part of a larger, organic effect; he said No, banging a table so that a plate jumped: the artistic decor ought to be the perfect composition at the center of which the action took place.

Wagner mediated, suggesting we weren’t as far apart as we thought. I suggested a compromise: we do it my way. Grau left.

Wagner’s steadiness is invaluable. I work beautifully with him, usually by anticipating him. I show him an inferior composition; he studies it despondently, then gets excited, begins fiddling, and in minutes produces exactly what we need.

When Grau returns, the three of us walk the set. I eliminate the chairs (too light and too modern) and allow the fireplace (which doesn’t work). Wagner shows us where he wants the second camera. We make fun of his precision. Grau gets onto his hands and knees with a slide rule, and I shout “Closer! Farther! Closer!” while he moves it incrementally this way and that. Spiess had watched us do that in Czechoslovakia, and later said that we’d seemed a family he’d never be a part of.