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Fritz Lang (1890-1976)


Every film has its rhythm and you must have this
rhythm from the beginning. And look, first I make
a picture together with the writer; then I sit with the
architect and talk about sets and how they are to be
furnished; when I sit at my desk alone I make it a
third time from the standpoint of the camera, of the
director. And then I always have time with the actors.
When I finally come to what is usually called “the
director's work,” there is nothing left anymore.

~ Fritz Lang
(from interview with Peter Bogdanovich, published
in Who The Devil Made It)


FILMOGRAPHY

Halbblut (Half-Cast) (1919)

Der Herr der Liebe (Master of Love) (1919)

Die Spinnen, 1. Teil: Der Goldene See (The Spiders, Part 1: The Golden Lake) (1919) Image Entertainment (R1) – included in The Spiders

Harakiri (1919)

Die Spinnen, 2. Teil: Das Brillantenschiff (The Spiders, Part 2: The Diamond Ship) (1920) Image Entertainment (R1) – included in The Spiders

Das Wandernde Bild (The Wandering Image) (1920)

Vier um die Frau (Four Around a Woman) (1921)

Der Müde Tod (Destiny) (1921) Image Entertainment (R1)

Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler: Ein Bild der Zeit (Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler) (1922) Kino (R1) / Eureka (R2 UK) – also included in Frtiz Lang Box Set / Universum (R2 DE) / Divisa (R2 ES) / Image Entertainment (R1)

Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (Siegfried) (1924) Kino (R1) – as set with Die Nibelungen: Kriemhilds Revenge and also included in Fritz Lang Epic Collection / Divisa (R2 ES) – included in Los Nibelungos / Masters of Cinema (R0 UK) – to be released

Die Nibelungen: Kriemhilds Rache (Kriemhild's Revenge) (1924) Kino (R1) – as set with Die Nibelungen: Siegfried and also included in Fritz Lang Epic Collection / Divisa (R2 ES) – included in Los Nibelungos / Masters of Cinema – to be released

Metropolis (1927) Masters of Cinema (R0 UK) – also included in Fritz Lang Box Set (Eureka) / Kino (R1) – also included in Fritz Lang Epic Collection / Transit Classics (R2 DE) / Divisa (R2 ES) / Madman (R4 AU)

Spione (Spies) (1928) Masters of Cinema (R0 UK) – also included in Fritz Lang Box Set (Eureka) / Kino (R1) – also included in Fritz Lang Epic Collection

Frau im Mond (Woman in the Moon) (1929) Kino (R1) – also included in Fritz Lang Epic Collection / Divisa (R2 ES) / Masters of Cinema (R0 UK) – to be released

M (1931) Criterion (R1) / Eureka (R2 UK) - also included in Fritz Lang Box Set / Opening Distribution (R2 FR) / Universum (R2 DE) / Divisa (R2 ES)

Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (The Testament of Dr. Mabuse) (1933) Criterion (R1) / Eureka (R2 UK) – also included in Fritz Lang Box Set / Universum (R2 DE)

Liliom (1934) 20th Century Fox (R1) – as extra on Carousel: 50th Anniversary Edition, also included in the Rodgers & Hammerstein Collection / Kino (R1)

Fury (1936) Warner Brothers (R1) – also included in Controversial Classics, Vol. 1

You Only Live Once (1937) Image Entertainment (R1) / Cinema Club (R2 UK)

You and Me (1938)

The Return of Frank James (1940) 20th Century Fox (R1)

Western Union (1941) Optimum (R2 UK) – also included in Western Classics Collection

Man Hunt (1941) Ermitage (R2 IT)

Hangmen Also Die! (1943) Kino (R1) – also included in Film Noir: The Dark Side of Hollywood / E.M.S. (R2 DE) / Oribit Media (R2 UK)

Ministry of Fear (1944) Flamingo Video (R2 IT)

The Woman in the Window (1944) Suevia (R2 ES) / MGM (R1) – tbr July, 2007

Scarlet Street (1945) Kino (R1) / Paramount (R2 FR) / Eureka (R2 UK)

Cloak and Dagger (1946) Artisan (R1)

Secret Beyond the Door… (1948) Wild Side (R2 FR) / Suevia (R2 ES)

House by the River (1950) Kino (R1)

American Guerilla in the Philippines (1950)

Rancho Notorious (1952) Optimum (R2 UK) – also included in Western Classics Collection

Clash by Night (1952) Warner Brothers (R1) – also included in Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 2 / Suevia (R2 ES)

The Blue Gardenia (1953) Image Entertainment (R1)

The Big Heat (1953) Columbia (R1) / Sony (R2 UK)

Human Desire (1954) Suevia (R2 ES) / Sony (R2 JP) – included in Columbia Tristar Film Noir Collection, Vol. 2

Moonfleet (1955) Warner Brothers (R2 FR)

While the City Sleeps (1956)

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956)

Der Tiger von Eschnapur (The Tiger of Eschnapur) (1959) Fantomas (R1) – also as double feature with The Indian Tomb / Wild Side (R2 FR) – included n Coffret Fritz Lang / Universum (R2 DE) – included in Fritz Lang: Indien

Das Indische Grabmal (The Indian Tomb) (1959) Fantomas (R1) – also as double feature with The Tiger of Eschnapur / Wild Side (R2 FR) – included n Coffret Fritz Lang / Universum (R2 DE) – included in Fritz Lang: Indien

Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse (1960) All Day Entertainment (R1) / Polyband (R2 DE) / Universum (R2 DE) – included in Dr. Mabuses Meisterwerk Box


GENERAL DISCUSSION

Fritz Lang on DVD

The Roots of German Expressionism and Beyond

Silent Film Music – a discussion of related interest to Fritz Lang's silent films


RECOMMENDED WEB RESOURCES

AHC Digital Fritz Lang Papers at University of Wyoming

BFI

Classic Film & Television

Dictionary of American Biography

Euroscreenwriters – interview with Lang from 1967

Filmportal.de

leninimports

Senses of Cinema


FILMS

Fritz Lang's Destiny

Metropolis


DVD

All Day Entertainment – includes comments on 1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse

Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler R1 vs. R2

DVD Releases in Spain

Eureka/Masters of Cinema – includes discussion of several of these labels' Lang DVD releases

Kino – a very long thread with scattered comments on the label's Lang releases

M (Criterion)

Metropolis (Masters of Cinema)

Die Nibelungen I & II (Masters of Cinema – to be released)

Secret Beyond the Door

Spione (Masters of Cinema)

The Testament of Dr. Mabuse

Wild Side – includes caps and comments on Secret Beyond the Door

Woman in the Moon (Masters of Cinema – to be released)


BOOKS/ARTICLES

Fritz Lang by Lotte Eisner (Secker & Warburg, Ltd., 1976)

Fritz Lang coordinating editors: Rolf Aurich, Wolfgang Jacobsen and Annette Vogler (Filmmuseum Berlin & Jovis Verlag, 2001)

Who the Devil Made It by Peter Bogdanovich (Ballantine, 1997) – includes 60 page interview with Fritz Lang

A couple of addenda for the books/articles section: Patrick McGilligans Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast (1997 and Tom Gunning's The Films of Fritz Lang: Allegories of Vision and Modernity (2000).

ON French tv january 11th: Das Wandernde Bild.

As announced on Patrick Brion's blog.

Another week, more wonders.

Ah, life.

According to IMDB, there is a restored version of 45 min. length, so this is just a fragment of the film probably. Well, I actually thought it was entirely lost, so surely better than nothing. Knappen, can you tell us more about the film/broadcast once you've seen it? I assume it's not on arte...

I read about this on Patrick Brion's blog. You read French, Tommaso? The blog isn't too up to date, but Brion would probably have let us know if there was a change like it was the case with La Fête à Henriette before Christmas.

So in theory it should be showing in exactly a week from now on France 2. But I am not an authority on French television.

Thanks, Knappen. My French is pretty bad, but I understood what Brion says, i.e. that the film was thought lost until a "sadly incomplete" copy showed up, but as there isn't any other, they show it nevertheless. Which is of course the best thing to do.

Finally got a copy of An American Guerrilla in the Philippines which was quite good considering the unreliable source. Hopefully Fox will get an official release of this and more importantly Man Hunt, which I heard a rumor about an official release some time ago.

Now, here's the Moving Picture:

Mary, Mother of Christ!! Is that image from the broadcast, Knappen? It looks utterly fantastic. I wonder, if anyone has taped the broadcast, and is going to put it on youtube?! O:)

Yes, youtube just announced that it will be part of next month's HD selection.

I was under the impression that Nickelodeon was showing it.

Or was that ABC Saturday Morning Kids?

HerrSchreck wrote: Or was that ABC Saturday Morning Kids?

Why not? Here's another cap:

I just watched Rancho Notorious and thought was pretty interesting. I hadn't seen any of Lang's westerns before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I suppose it wasn't as off-beat as I had read, but nonetheless there were some surprising elements.

Most notably I really liked Arthur Kennedy's characterization of Vern Haskell, as it was unlike any western hero I've seen. Haskell's transformation from ranch hand to outlaw was compelling if odd, as if Haskell were simply aping what he though an outlaw should be. What struck me as odd, was that the movie unfolds so abruptly, with his fiancee being raped and murdered, and then him going out to find her killer. Yet we aren't really told anything about Haskell, and thus the initial confrontation in the barbershop comes as a shock. Firstly the ingenuity he show in throwing a towel in the face of the outlaw with his gun drawn, and then the fact that Haskell annihilates him in the brawl. Who is this Haskell fella, and where did he learn these things?

Then there is the sequence where Haskell meets and befriends notorious outlaw Frenchy Fairmont, by getting arrested and sharing a jail cell with him. Here we see a different dynamic to Haskell, as he effortlessly befriends Fairmont with some smooth talk, and then further earning his trust by engineering a jailbreak. Again, it comes as a shock because Haskell is able to pull it off so effortlessly, who is this guy?

Haskell's remarkable skills are further revealed during the sequence at Altar Keane's hideout, Chuck-A-Luck. There's a great sequence where Haskell stays impossibly long upon a bucking horse, eventually managing to break and tame it, much to everyone's awe. Being a ranch hand, this is one skill where it fits with the viewer expectation, a ranch hand should be good on a horse. Another sequence occurs where Fairmont, the reputed "fastest gun in the west" has a shoot off with Haskell, and Haskell matches him for accuracy, eventually even shooting a flipped coin out of mid-air. Haskell does note that he's been practicing, but his skill is remarkable for such a short time handling a gun.

Finally there is Haskell's seduction of Altar Keane, as he outmaneuvers Keane's long-time lover, Fairmont, and ends up incredibly close to stealing her away. What makes it so impressive is that he turns Marlene Dietrich's Keane to jelly, after it's been firmly established that she is very much the dominant woman in all of her relationships. It's only the sight of his dead fiance's broach on Keane's dress that causes Haskell to pull back and remember why he went on this journey in the first place.

The character of Vern Haskell is such a strange because he seems to have every skill imaginable, but it's never revealed where it all came from, was it simply his desire for vengeance that made him capable of doing all these things? He's a simple ranch hand, yet he can fight, ride, and shoot with the best of them, as well as having the ability to talk his way in and out of anything. This is never resolved as we learn almost nothing of his past, simply that he's trying to find the guy that killed his girl. I'm not sure what to make of it, but I think that's to the film's strength.

Fox Spain is releasing American Guerrilla in the Philippines on DVD next month

domino harvey wrote:Fox Spain is releasing American Guerrilla in the Philippines on DVD next month

Are there elements that may be localised in that release like The Blue Gardenia was in Germany?

No idea. Here's some screencaps though!

http://www.dvduell.de/artikel/the-blue- ... ritz-lang/

Much better picture. It's just the version made for the German release I guess, so it has the letter in German. I'm going to pick it up when I next make a order from Germany or when I visit there.

Anybody know if this release is worth anything?

Der Spieler wrote:Anybody know if this release is worth anything?

I haven't seen it but as it's from Cornerstone Media I'd be extremely wary (see discussion of their Knock on any Door in the Nicholas Ray thread).

Der Spieler wrote:Anybody know if this release is worth anything?

It's an acceptable transfer from Cornerstone, but not brilliant. There are no extras and no menu, it just starts when you put the disc in. I think £12.99 is steep, but I'd pay a fiver for it.(Or rather, I did pay a fiver for it.)

Has anyone ever seen You and Me? Is there even a copy circulating anywhere? It sounds interesting and I've literally never heard anyone talk about it

domino harvey wrote:Has anyone ever seen You and Me? Is there even a copy circulating anywhere? It sounds interesting and I've literally never heard anyone talk about it

I saw it several years ago, when the Goethe Institut bunged it into a bizarrely random travelling Lang programme (this, Nibelungen, Ministry of Fear, a Mabuse, don't remember the rest). It's deeply odd but quite compelling, simultaneously way outside Lang's comfort zone (it's a musical, for heaven's sake) and utterly Langian in so many respects. If you can sort of imagine M - The Musical, but with the powers that be deciding halfway through production that maybe it shouldn't be a musical after all, and that they should play up the social commentary angle, then some other bunch of investors demanding that what it really ought to be is a sweet romantic comedy. But even with the entire production seeming like it's been pulled every which way, somehow it all seems of a piece, and the schizophrenia just seems to reinforce the Brechtianism of the enterprise (which must have been conscious: Lang's collaborating with Kurt Weill, after all).

david hare wrote:I had quite forgotten - it DOES have music!

But even that glimmer of identity is subverted / perverted: I think there are only three or four musical numbers in the film, and I seem to recall that it was conceived as much more of a musical than it turned out to be. A real strange fish.

Ooh You & Me is an odd one indeed. It's worth watching for the scene Sylvia Sidney lectures a bunch of cons on how crime truly doesn't pay. She's so frickin' adorable.

The film is on VHS, and is pretty findable if you know where to look.

Lang and Weill didn't see eye to eye on a lot things during the filming, and that combined with Lang's tenuous situation as an "enfant terrible" in Hollywood who needed to be closely watched, really made the film a bizarre mishmash of genres and tones. Like most of his American work, Lang wasn't in the position of being the sole visionary so in this case the film had multiple writers, Adolph Zukor's influence, and Weill all pulling the film in different directions.