Guest Author - Kirsten Olsen-Keyser

Fritz Lang was an Austrian-German-American director often referred to as the father of modern science fiction and film noire. His works includes the critically acclaimed silent films, The Spiders (Die Spinnen) (1919), Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (Doktor Mabuse, Der Spieler) (1922) and the first sc-fi film “Metropolis (1927).

Lang was born in Vienna on December 5, 1890. His father, Anton, was a construction company manager and an architect. His mother, Paula Schlesinger was born Jewish and later converted to Roman Catholicism when Fritz was about ten years old.

After Lang graduated from high school, he attended the Technical University of Vienna to study civil engineering. Eventually he changed his major to art and after completion of his studies; he traveled the globe and eventually found himself painting in Paris. Perhaps at the request of his father, Lang returned home to Vienna only to witness the outbreak of the First World War. In 1914 he was drafted by the Austrian Army and eventually fought in Russia and Romania. He was wounded at least three times in battle and was discharged as a lieutenant. While recuperating in a Vienna hospital, Lang began to pen some of his screenplays.

Maturing during the German Expressionist movement, Lang was no doubt influenced by contemporary films such as The Golem (1915), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Nosferatu (1922), and Phantom (1922). During the economic recovery after WWI, the German film industry grew but could not match the grandeur and spectacle that was Hollywood. Working with a restricted budget, German cinema developed a style using symbolism and mood rather than million dollar sets. Later directors like Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger and Michael Curtiz brought the Expressionist style to crime drama and much of Universal studio’s horror films such as Dracula (1931) were produced in the dark artistic vain of Expressionism.

In 1931, Lang made his first talking picture, “M” based on the life and crimes of serial killer, Peter Kurten, “The Vampire of Düsseldorf”. Starring Peter Lorre, “M” pioneered the use of leitmotif, a recurring musical theme usually associated with a person, place or idea within the film.

Upon his arrival in America, Lang began working for MGM studios and directed twenty one films in 21 years across many genres and some filmed independently of the studio. During this time, critics harangued him for losing his edginess but as with many great works of media, most of these films have been re-evaluated for their importance in American cinema, especially the genre of film noire.

Lang died in 1976. His last production was The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse during which he was beginning to suffer from blindness.



Must See Filmography

Halbblut (The Half-Caste) (1919)
Die Spinnen, 1. Teil: Der Goldene See (Spiders, Part 1: The Golden Lake) (1919)
Die Spinnen, 2. Teil: Das Brillantenschiff (Spiders, Part 2: The Diamond Ship) (1920)
Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler (Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler) (1922)
Metropolis (1927)
Frau im Mond (Woman in the Moon) (1929)
M (1931)
Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (The Testament of Dr Mabuse) (1933)
Fury (1936)
The Woman in the Window (1944)
Cloak and Dagger (1946)
Rancho Notorious (1952)
The Blue Gardenia (1953)
While the City Sleeps (1956)
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1957)
Der Tiger von Eschnapur (The Tiger of Eschnapur, or: The Tiger of Bengal) (1959)
Das indische Grabmal (The Indian Tomb, or: Journey to the Lost City) (1959)
Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse (The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse) (1960)


Trivia: * “Jaws” has an excellent example of leitmotif.
*Lang was baptized at the Schottenkirche in Vienna.
*Rumors have circled that Lang may have murdered his first wife in order to marry his long time friend and co-screenwriter, Thea Von Harbou.
*Lorre’s character in “M” is supposed to be fond of whistling the Edvard Greig tune “In that Hall of Mountain King”, but he could not whistle. It is actually Lang’s whistling heard in the film.